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File Number: 23-048 ·Ordinance No. 2020-003, Declaration of a Local Emergency due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Environmental Review The proposed Resolution is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) under Section 15061(b)(3) State CEQA Guidelines because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the resolution may have a significant effect on the environment. Legal Analysis While no Council legislative action can be completely immune from legal challenge, based on the Northern District’s recent decision in Williams v. Alameda County (N.D. Cal., Nov. 22, 2022) 2022 WL 17169833 (Williams), where plaintiffs contested Alameda County’s and the City of Oakland’s eviction moratoria, both of which extend past the expiration of the Governor’s state of emergency, as drafted the City has strong arguments that the extension of its moratorium would withstand a facial challenge. The plaintiffs in Williams brought a facial challenge against the County and Oakland’s moratoria arguing that the moratoria constitute: 1.A taking under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and an inverse condemnation under the California Constitution; 2.A violation of their due-process and equal-protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; 3. A substantial impairment of their lease agreements, in violation of the Contracts Clause of Article I of the U.S. Constitution; and 4.Preempted under Article XI, § 7, of the California Constitution to the extent that they prohibit permissible Ellis Act evictions under Cal. Gov't Code § 7600. The District Court denied plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment and found that the moratoria: 1.Are not physical or per se takings because they are temporary on their face, do not relieve tenants of their contractual obligation to pay back rent and include exceptions allowing a landlord to leave the rental business; 2.Do not violate the Contracts Clause because elimination of the eviction remedy does not extinguish the landlords’ contractual rights and plaintiffs did not meet the burden to show the moratoria was an unreasonable response to legitimate public problems; Page 5 City of San Leandro Printed on 2/10/2023