LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday ordered a report from city departments about the possible impacts of a voter initiative to establish rent control in senior mobile home parks.
Lakeport resident Nelson Strasser of the group “Save Our Seniors” circulated petitions and collected enough signatures to put the rent control measure on the November 2014 ballot, as Lake County news has reported.
The measure, as written, defines senior parks as where there is one inhabitant age 65 or older in 80 percent of the homes.
It would roll back all rental rates within such parks in the city to Jan. 1, 2012, and would tie future rent increases to the percent increase for Social Security benefits.
The Support Our Seniors group also is circulating petitions to put a similar measure on a countywide ballot.
Administrative Services Director Kelly Buendia went over the options the council had, including adopting the measure as a city ordinance within 10 days, putting it on the ballot or asking for a report within 30 days from city departments to measure the initiative's potential impacts.
Staff, Buendia said, recommended the third option because she said early in the process the city attorney had identified potential legal issues with the initiative.
Current city attorney David Ruderman said that when the ballot and title were prepared for the initiative, the city attorney – referring to former city attorney Steve Brookes – prepared a letter outlining concerns about legality.
“Those are issues that likely would warrant some additional research to flesh out,” Ruderman said.
Although the election code provides two options once the report by city staff is submitted – adopting it as an ordinance and putting on the ballot – Ruderman said case law also has identified some other alternatives when confronted with an initiative that likely is invalid.
Those alternatives, Ruderman said, include seeking declaratory relief by asking a court to adjudicate the validity of the measure to determine if it is constitutional or if it's preempted by state law. That would free the city from having to place it on the ballot.
The other option is simply not to call an election, Ruderman said, which likely would result in the city being sued in an effort to get it on the ballot.
“Those are things that would be options for you if that report were ordered,” Ruderman said.
Mayor Tom Engstrom asked what the drop dead date was for placing the measure on the November 2014 ballot. Ruderman replied that it was 88 days before the election.
Park owners, senior residents weigh in
The council chambers for the meeting were nearly filled with people who'd come to hear the discussion. A number of them spoke about their concerns, while others offered their support.
Bill Cline, a recent resident of Lake County who owns Castlewood Estates in Nice, said the efforts to implement the measures in both the city and county would result in an expensive bureaucracy. “It's not necessary.”
Strasser, speaking in defense of his measure, said he had come to the council last year with a signed petition from residents of his Park, Fairgrounds Village in Lakeport, and asked the council to take action, which it didn't do.
He later came across the initiative process and decided to pursue it. “That's how this whole thing got started,” he said.
Strasser said he did a lot of copying and pasting from other rent control ordinances around the state. As such, he was skeptical that there would be legal problems, as most of the language already is in place elsewhere. The only new part, he said, is tying rent increases to Social Security.
He urged the council to adopt the measure as a city ordinance. He said seniors who live in such parks are in a very vulnerable position and often can't afford to move – or physically can't do so – when their rent is increased too much.
Council member Stacey Mattina asked Strasser if he had attempted to fix his measure when he received a letter from the city attorney.
Strasser said he actually received two letters from Brookes alluding to various conflicts in case law.” I fixed all the ones I could,” he said.
The main issue, linking rent increases to Social Security, has no case law. “It's never been done before,” said Strasser.
Bill Eaton, the chair of the Save Our Seniors Committee, furnished a handout to audience members and council members explaining the rent increases in the Sterling Shores Estates mobile home park in north Lakeport.
The chart showed that the rates in the park increased from a little over $400 a month six years ago to now nearly $700 per month after the park was purchased by an outside investment firm.
“Rents have rocketed up far beyond the cost of living,” said Eaton.
He added, “There is no protection for seniors. The owners can up the rent at any time if there's no contract.”
Eaton asked the council to put the initiative on the November 2014 ballot.
McKay Florence of Loomis, part owner of Strasser's park Fairgrounds Village – as well as about 15 other parks according to his firm's Web site – said he and his partners purchased the park in May 2012.
“We're proud of the property,” he said, adding they like being part of Lakeport community.
He said the previous property owner might have been considered neglectful and he encouraged council members to visit the 56-space park, where they have invested $75,000 since purchasing it.
Florence agreed that there is the potential to take advantage of tenants but added that it's a free market system. He said they increased rents $25 per month last year after purchasing the park. They also offer rental assistance to those who need it.
Council warned of potential dangers
Mary Ann McQueen, who owns Northport Trailer Resort along with husband Jerry, said the county went through the process of creating a long-term lease agreement that owners could adopt. That 2008 agreement limited rent increases to between 3 and 7 percent at a time.
“All the time and effort we've spent, we don't need to go through this again,” McQueen said, adding that the idea that park owners raise rents so people can't rent from them is “ludicrous.”
Mattina asked if the committee that created the county lease was still active. McQueen said no, explaining that a number of parks signed on to offer the leases. The parks that accepted it were to be exempt from future rent control.
Doug Johnson, a representative of the Western Manufactured Home Community Association, told the council he worked on the lease program McQueen described.
“It was one of the hardest projects I've ever worked on in my 20 years in the association,” Johnson said.
Despite the fact that the process was acrimonious and painful at first, Johnson said 82 percent of all the park owners in the unincorporated county offered the lease.
Holding up Strasser's two paragraph initiative, Johnson said most rent control initiatives are 20 to 40 pages long and that the proposed initiative was too short. He suggested it would be the most draconian rental ordinance in the state of California, asserting it was unconstitutional.
Johnson said if the initiative is adopted it will put the city at financial risk. “That's not a scare tactic. That's the truth.”
He urged the council to request the 30 day report and said the park owners are looking at their legal options. “This is dangerous, this is really dangerous.”
Save Our Seniors Committee member Heather Powers, another Sterling Shores resident, said the committee has done a lot of research in the past year and found only one single park in the county using the lease agreement McQueen described.
She said when the committee showed that lease to an attorney, the attorney said the lease was more about protecting park owners.
“Somebody needs to be thinking about the old people and not just the Main Street businesses,” said Powers.
After about an hour's worth of public comment, the council briefly discussed its options, with Councilman Kenny Parlet moving to order the report from city staff.
The council approved Parlet's motion 5-0.
Buendia said at the meeting that the report must be returned to the council within 30 days of the Tuesday meeting.
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