THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL McGREGOR

Another former action member passed away in june. His name was Michael McGregor. A working man from Ireland he was, and a quiet man who spoke few words. He let his wife, Dorothy “Jo” McGregor do most of the talking for both of them. But when he spoke, people listened.

It must have been back around 1987 when Michael and Jo got into some problems with the Rent Board over the issue of whether stoves and refrigerators were included in the regulated apartment or whether they could be rented separately. Jo McGregor was renting them separately for about 10 years when one tenant protested and turned her into the Commissars at the Rent Board. At that point the information contained on the Rent Control Registration Form that was filed back in 1979 became an issue.

When the Rent Control Law was first adopted, apartment owners were required to register the “apartment amenities” that were included in the apartment rent such, as carpets, drapes, garage, parking and “cooking facilities.” The meaning of that last term was not clear. The Rent Board was willing to assume that it meant stove and refrigerator and made that fact an “irrebutable assumption” for any landlord who wanted to prove otherwise. (See Rent Board Story Part 12: “Landlord Mick Versus the Irrebuttable Assumptions”).

Unfortunately, Jo McGregor did not understand the term “cooking facilities” to mean “stove” and “refrigerator.” She thought that it meant “kitchen” because many “single” or “bachelor” units do not have kitchens. Therefore, when one of the tenants filed a rent decrease petition claiming that a stove and refrigerator was included in his rent, we filed a “Base Rent/Amenities” petition to prove that they were not included in the rent.

More unfortunately, the cases were first assigned to the hearing examiner known as The Dragon. That was bad news because when that hearing examiner saw the term “cooking facilities” she was willing to assume that the term meant kitchen, self cleaning stove (with a timer), frost-free refrigerator, dishwasher, electric can opener, microwave oven and any other cooking appliance device that could be found in the Sears catalog.

But the Luck of the Irish favored the McGregors because the case was assigned to Sally Malloy, and she was pretty fair for a hearing examiner (which is why the Rent Board got rid of her long ago). And so at the hearing before Sally Malloy, Jo McGregor explained that she thought that “cooking facilities” meant the same as “kitchen.”

The hearing examiner did not seem too impressed with that explanation, so I decided to call Michael McGregor as a witness. I asked him if the rental units in question had stoves or refrigerators in April 10, 1978. And he said, “No.”

So I asked him if he had anything else to say about that matter. And again he said, “No.”

Then Hearing Examiner Sally Malloy asked Michael McGregor how he knew that there were no stoves or refrigerators in the units on April 10, 1978. And Michael McGregor said in his thick Irish brogue, “Because I’d be the man who’d be lugging those things about.”

And with those few words, Michael McGregor was able to defeat the “Irrebuttable Assumption” that the words “cooking facilities” meant anything other than kitchen because a favorable decision was rendered by the honorable Sally Malloy a few weeks later.

Sometimes Santa Monica is like Chicago on St. Patrick’s Day. And if you don’t believe it, you can go to the Rent Board office and read Rent Board Story B-0225.