Tracy Condon has been at the Rent Control Board a long time.
Her tenure predates the Simpsons, extends through both Bush presidencies and outlived the Soviet Union but her time working for Santa Monica renters will soon come to an end with her impending retirement.
Condon has been working for the Rent Control Agency since 1987, taking on various roles throughout her career. She began as an information coordinator, became a database coordinator and decrease petition mediator and then was promoted to the position of Public Information Manager, which she held for 13 years. In 2007, she was selected as the Executive Director of the Agency, responsible for managing its day-to-day operations, including budget development, personnel management, contract oversight, and research for the Rent Control Board.
Her career was lauded and her retirement lamented by local landlord and attorney Michael Millman who said she has been an unbelievable, amazing, irreplaceable feature in the landscape of Santa Monica rental housing for a very long time.
He said she was a compassionate but stalwart defender of tenants who always treated everyone with respect.
"If you have a big issue that’s very important to owners and tenants, she’ll arrange a meeting, you may not have gotten any success at that meeting, but she always had the courage to sit in and staff that meeting," he said.
He compared her to a fine diamond and said she will succeed wherever she goes next.
"I’m going to miss the fact that you are genuinely dropped dead, absolutely a nice, charming, decent person to everybody, to everybody, including people that provide housing," he said.
According to the Board, Condon’s career has spanned several significant efforts. She processed increase petitions to assist owners of more than 1,000 earthquake-damaged buildings in repairing units and providing housing for tenants. She also played a role in implementing state-mandated changes that allowed owners of over 20,000 units to increase rents to market rates upon vacancy. She has worked to improve the Board’s technology implementation and coordinated with other cities on compensation for tenants impacted by construction.
She has also worked with the elected representatives on several political campaigns including voter approved measures requiring owners to provide eviction notices to the Rent Control Agency, extending eviction protections to renters in non-controlled units, establishing a fair determination of annual rent increases, and enabling owners to pass on a portion of their annual registration fee to tenants.
Condon confirmed she plans to retire by the end of the year and hopes a successor can be hired in time for the two to overlap for several weeks.
"I don’t have any major plans but I’ll be spending more time in Michigan with my soon-to-be 91 year old mother," she said.
The Rent Control Board discussed her impending retirement at their June 8 meeting and will establish a subcommittee to work with her on the recruitment process. The subcommittee would be responsible for selecting an executive recruiter, preparing a brochure with job requirements, and providing periodic reports to the board as they evaluate candidates.
