Charges Filed in Beverly Hills Rent Law Spat

The debate between landlord and tenant factions over limiting rent increases in Beverly Hills may have turned into a fight--literally--this week.

Landlord Edward Burgess on Monday filed assault charges against Jack Vizzard, a member of the seven-member Rent Stabilization Citizens Advisory Committee, alleging that Vizzard struck him while the two were in the lobby of City Hall.

Minutes before, the two had clashed verbally at an afternoon committee meeting in which members approved a series of recommendations, including a 10% cap on yearly rent increases.

Vizzard said later in a telephone interview that he would not comment on the incident. “I’ve nothing to say about it,” he said.

Vizzard, a writer, was nominated to the committee by the Concern for Tenants’ Rights group when the City Council established the landlord-tenant board in June to discuss amendments to the city’s rent control law.

During the meeting, Burgess read a statement accusing the committee’s tenant faction of trying to put through a rent control law “as strict as those in Santa Monica and West Hollywood.” He said the pro-tenant members appeared to be liberals influenced by Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a supporter of Santa Monica’s rent control measures.

That remark drew a loud denial from Vizzard. Committee chairman Michael Fasman, a nonaligned committee member appointed by the council, then asked Burgess how much more time he needed for his statement.

Burgess agreed to stop, and the meeting was adjourned about 4:30 p.m.

Burgess, who owns a six-unit apartment building on Olympic Boulevard, claimed that Vizzard came up to him in the lobby afterward and “said that I had no right to infer that he was a left-wing liberal.”

Burgess said he replied, “ ‘Look, Jack, what I am saying to you is that you are killing the rental business in Beverly Hills.’

“Then he hit me and knocked my glasses off and knocked me into a wall. I grabbed him by the shirt collar, then he kicked me in the knee.”

Burgess filed a complaint with the Police Department. He said he is not sure whether there were any witnesses.

Police are investigating, according to Lt. Bill Hunt.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee recommended that landlords give tenants a 60-day notice of rent increases. It rejected a proposal by the tenant group to require landlords to register rental increases with the city.

Votes on all the recommendations were split along faction lines with Chairman Fasman casting the deciding vote in each case.

The committee was formed by the council after it approved a moratorium on rent increases on units not covered by the city’s rent control law. The moratorium runs from June 3 to Sept. 15. The committee is studying possible amendments to the city’s rent control law.

The council allowed tenants and landlords to recommend three members each to the seven-member board, and the council chose its chairman. The landlord members of the committee were chosen by the Beverly Hills Property Owners Assn.