Douglas sticks with a bad idea. Would her husband — as mayor?

Last week’s 6-1 vote by the City Council against costly new regulations on rental housing seemed like an easy enough call. But it left one council member out on a limb as the sole supporter of the measure. 

It was a lonely place to be for at-large City Councilwoman Kristi Douglas. She went down with the ship at the Oct. 9 council meeting as a diehard for the unsuccessful proposal. Opponents said it would have backfired on the city’s apartment tenants and other renters. Instead of making rental housing safer, as Douglas claimed, the policy would raise the rent.

Most of the council got it.

“If this was to pass, rents would go up, and you would force a lot of people out onto the streets,” fellow council member Sean Ford admonished.

“We’re not ready to take this on…but it also doesn’t feel like the solution to the problem we were presented,” said council member Craig Hurst.

Councilman Oscar Madera urged the council and city staff to go back to drawing board and draft a more specific ordinance, “So we’re not punishing everyone and driving up the costs for everyone for a few bad actors.”

As we pointed out a few weeks ago, the defeated proposal is like one on the books next door in Denver. Former Commerce City council member Rene’ Bullock — now chief exec at the Commerce City Chamber of Commerce and a candidate for Commerce City mayor on the fall ballot — brought the issue to the public’s attention in an opinion piece he wrote for a local newspaper. He wrote that the measure, while intended to hold landlords accountable, in reality would, “lead to costs that will be passed on to tenants … forced to pay higher rent.” That was especially true of the proposal’s requirement for the costly inspection of all rental housing.

So, now that the proposal has been shelved, all’s well that ends well, right? Maybe not.

Don’t forget the measure had to pass its first vote, held in August, to get this far. It passed narrowly, 4-3, with one abstention and one member excused. It took a full-court press by landlords and others who understand rental housing to get a council majority to see reason.

Now, imagine if Douglas’ husband, mayoral candidate Steve Douglas, joins council. Though his feelings about the ill-fated rental registration initiative are unknown, he served before on the Commerce City council and picked up a reputation as a supporter of heavy-handed regulation.

If elected mayor, would he help his wife resurrect the rental registration measure that was rejected last week — and attempt to lock down the votes to force it on Commerce City? The vote on the measure in August was a close call. With Steve Douglas in the mix as mayor, it could be too close for comfort.