By Adam Pagnucco.
In a 5-2 vote last night, the Rockville City Council decided not to pursue rent control. Mayor Monique Ashton and Council Members Kate Fulton, Barry Jackson, Marissa Valeri and Adam Van Grack voted against rent control while Council Members David Myles and Izola Shaw voted in favor. While the county passed a rent control law in 2023, it does not automatically cover municipalities, which may opt in or pass their own ordinances. (Takoma Park has had a rent control law for decades.) This vote follows an identical vote in 2024, marking the second time that the city’s leaders have declined to adopt rent control.
A rent control campaign sign in Rockville.
In recent months, a coalition of groups has waged an active grassroots campaign to persuade the city council to approve rent control. Two of the groups – CASA and the Montgomery County Renters Alliance – are nonprofits that receive non-competitive service contracts from Montgomery County government. Those groups were major players in the passage of the county’s law two years ago. Additionally, Montgomery County Council Member Will Jawando, who is running for county executive and is arguably the primary champion for rent control in the county, publicly pressured Rockville to adopt it. The roles of taxpayer-funded groups and a sitting county council member in the rent control campaign received notice by city leaders, who are accustomed to hearing from the public but have not seen activities of this kind in the past.
Concerns about those roles were aired publicly last night. Following are remarks made by Council Member Barry Jackson, who voted against rent control at the meeting. Take note not only of the policy dimensions of the rent control debate but also Jackson’s opinion about the nature of the campaign in Rockville.
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This Council is pursuing multiple polices to help out renters and home owners and to build additional housing. We are serious about housing and stabilizing rents while building more affordable housing. The difference is in how we get there. I note we have had multiple sessions on housing – and that includes Rockville Emergency Assistance Program or REAP, transparency, Town Center master plans and associated tweaks to regulations, discussions of MPDUs, assistance with first time homebuyers, considering seniors who want to age in place and homeowners who are struggling to keep up with the costs of maintaining their homes.
A majority has said we don’t want rent control due in part to its impact on the building of new housing. A minority disagrees but we had the debate over a year ago. I don’t see a need to revisit it and allocate more staff resources to a policy we are not interested in pursuing.
I understand organizations advocating and speaking out. What I don’t understand is pretending this Mayor and Council are not doing anything – essentially claiming we do not care about Rockville’s residents. This is coming from elected officials and organizations who frankly should know better – but instead say rent control is their one and only issue.
The lack of civility and reasoned discourse is becoming troubling. I am not talking about disagreements – for instance a tenant association invited me to meet and then asked me to leave when they did not like my answers – I don’t mind – that is what it means to me to be an elected official sometimes.
What I do mind is not showing respect to others in this Chamber, making outlandish accusations, trying to bully others or putting red X’s through the faces of members of the City Council on social media because of disagreements on policy. I don’t believe either of my colleagues on the other side want to see that either, but they need to take ownership when they see the conversation becoming uncivil – that is not the Rockville residents want to see.
I also am concerned about erroneous information residents have received about rent control. We received an email from the Reed apartments – about receiving a 5% rental increase. Even the County allowed that rate of increase. In addition, under the County’s own policy – the building would be too new to even qualify for rent control.
It also seems there are two discussions on rent control – one in the Chamber and one at the doors of Rockville residents. Here advocates are talking about multi-family units being under rent control but at doors across the city – residents seem to be hearing that all properties will be subject to rent control and that will be no rental increases. No one is even advocating for that but somehow that impression is out there.
Here are the facts on Rockville rent – we have had a 2023 effective rent increase of 3.8%, in 2024 it was 2.2%, and so far in 2025, it has been around 1.2%.
Now a new report in Montgomery County says permits for new multi-family developments have dried up since rent control passed – “vaporized” according to one observer. Amazingly, some County elected officials and their allies want stricter rent control measures – leading to an even more troubled business climate.
Even advocates can’t agree on rent control. One of my colleagues has been telling folks the buildings within Town Center would be exempt from rent control. Other organizers are adamant in their Community Forum testimony that rent control needs to apply to all buildings including Town Center.
Rent control does not seem like a stable coherent policy choice.
However, there are those who seek to use rent control for their political gain. Not only County and other elected officials but organizations who receive taxpayer money who turn around and fund campaigns aimed at localities like Rockville.
I get it. If Rockville and others don’t bend the knee there will be a real comparison between those with rent control and those like Rockville who made a different choice.
We had a “No Kings” rally recently. Rockville residents clearly don’t want outside forces to tell us what to do. Just as Montgomery County does not want to be dictated to by the national administration, Rockville doesn’t want to be dictated to by outside elected officials or outside organizations. Honestly taking County funds to spend on lobbying and trying to force the County’s will onto Rockville – makes me wonder if the voters of Montgomery County know about their taxpayer dollars going to influence Rockville policy?
Related to this question – I do want to explore ways to know who is funding lobbying campaigns in Rockville – whether through direct lobbying or indirect grassroots lobbying. Residents of Rockville deserve transparency in knowing who is trying to influence City policies and how much they are spending and on what.
We can do great things for Rockville and I am willing to work with anyone for a better tomorrow for all of Rockville – as long as we recognize we won’t agree on everything and that we should compromise when we can and find other common ground when we can’t. As long as we stay civil and have a discussion not demonization.
Now to the topic at hand – a 5-2 majority of this body voted over a year ago to take rent control off the table. Regardless of the City Attorney’s opinion on this matter I still believe it is wrong to come back before us. I anticipate we will have a clarifying motion to make sure we move on from rent control. I intend to support the motion. It is time to move on to other things.