Stop Merced’s Latest Attack on Property Rights: Speak Out Against Item K.1
- Beverly Bomersbach
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 26 minutes ago
Joint Statement of the Merced County Republican Assembly and the Merced County Republican Party Central Committee
Merced City Council member Fue Xiong is once again moving to expand government control over private rental housing. Property owners, managers, and the real estate community cannot afford to stay silent.
On Monday, August 17, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chamber at Merced Civic Center (678 W. 18th Street), Council will take up Item K.1 a request from Council Member Fue Xiong to discuss a sweeping package of “tenant protections.” No ordinance is scheduled for adoption that night. The item asks Council to give direction to staff on next steps. That direction can set the scope for future ordinances that will burden every rental property owner in the city.
The presentation puts the following on the table:
A rental registry
Proactive (not complaint-based) inspections
Local rent stabilization rules
City-funded or mandated tenant legal representation
Temporary and permanent relocation payments
Rights of first refusal and return
Buyout agreement restrictions
School-year no-fault eviction limits
These measures go well beyond existing state law (AB 1482 and related statutes) and existing Merced Municipal Code provisions. The packet contains no draft ordinance, no local data demonstrating a crisis that justifies new mandates, no proposed coverage or exemptions, no cost or staffing analysis, no funding source, no enforcement plan, and no housing supply impact analysis.
Council should not direct staff to draft policy from a presentation that lacks basic evidence and has not yet involved the people who actually provide housing in Merced. Rental owners, property managers, REALTORS, and housing providers must be brought into a balanced public process not treated as afterthoughts once the framework is already set.
This is the same pattern we have seen for years: more bureaucracy, more costs passed on to responsible owners, and policies that shrink the supply of rental housing while California’s housing crisis continues. The state has already layered regulation after regulation on rental property. Merced does not need to pile on additional local mandates without proof they solve a documented local problem or improve outcomes for tenants without driving owners out of the market.
What You Must Do Right Now
1. Submit written comments by 1:00 p.m. Monday, August 17. Email: cityclerk@cityofmerced.gov Clearly identify the item as Item K.1.
2. Attend the meeting in person if you can. Public comment and visible numbers matter. The real estate and rental housing community must be present.
3. Vote to replace the source of this proposal. Council Member Fue Xiong, who brought this item forward, is up for re-election in District 6 this November. John Bliss is a lifelong Mercedian, retired educator, and candidate running to unseat him. Supporting common-sense leadership that respects property rights and free-market housing is the long-term solution to stopping these repeated attempts at overreach.
K.1 presentation: https://cityofmerced.legistar1.com/cityofmerced/attachments/d4c2b8b2-9087-4d2c-aa5b-2e18d986eb47.pdf
Property rights are not optional. Housing providers are not the enemy. A city that drives private investment out of the rental market will not solve housing problems it will make them worse.
Show up, Speak up Monday. And prepare to vote in November for leadership that will protect Merced’s rental housing providers instead of targeting them. The direction given this week will shape what comes next and so will the voters of District 6.
The Merced County Republican Assembly and the Merced County Republican Party Central Committee stand together with property owners and free-market housing providers. We will not accept another layer of government overreach dressed up as compassion.
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