Rent Control : Westminster Mobile Home Owners Fight to Keep It

Dozens of picketers, most of them elderly, marched in front of Westminster City Hall Monday, protesting a move by the City Council to repeal a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks.

The demonstrators predicted that their numbers will increase to at least 1,000 for tonight’s council meeting, when final action is scheduled on the proposal to end the only existing mobile home rent control ordinance in Orange County. Three new council members who campaigned on an anti-rent control platform were elected last November.

About 8,000 of the city’s 73,000 residents live in mobile home parks.

The council action to end rent control would also reward park owners by releasing an estimated $1.5 million in rent increases paid into a trust account pending the outcome of court cases. In addition, park tenants fear that they would be required to pay another $1 million retroactively in rent hikes blocked by the pending litigation.

“We’re really being held captive,” said Frances Kennedy, one of several silver-haired picketers. “We can’t sell our (mobile) homes because the space rents are so high people won’t buy, and we can’t move because that would cost at least $5,000 just to move across the street.”

When she moved into Los Alisos Mobile Home Estates 11 years ago, Kennedy said, rent for her double-width mobile home was $95. Today her rent is $385.

“The council is trying to put us in the same category as apartment renters, but we just can’t pick up and move,” she said.

Kennedy’s concerns about skyrocketing rents were repeated by most of her fellow demonstrators, with many saying that they had never before participated in a demonstration.

“We’re willing to pay fair rent,” said Louis Sherman, another Los Alisos resident, “but that’s nigh onto impossible without the guidelines of the fair rent ordinance.”

Says He Took a Survey

Park owner Lee Miller said his past rent increases were justified by costs, and he claimed that a survey he took last year showed that the current rent is below the Orange County average.

Two weeks ago, without advance notice and without placing the issue on its published agenda, the council unanimously voted to repeal a 1981 ordinance and three subsequent amendments regulating rent in the mobile home parks. Tonight, the new ordinance will come up for final approval. If passed, it will take effect in 30 days.

Westminster’s rent control ordinances have been the subject of litigation since they were passed in 1981 and have survived 18 separate court tests of constitutionality. Westminster, at present, is the only city in Orange County with a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks. (The Stanton City Council recently repealed an ordinance that had been in limbo for several years because the council said it could not afford to contest it through litigation.)

The Westminster ordinance calls for annual arbitration in the event an equitable rent increase cannot be agreed upon by the park owners and a committee of tenants.

Favored the Tenants

As an example, on the four occasions an arbiter has been used for Los Alisos Mobile Home Estates, the decision has favored the tenants. The arbitration process was criticized by owner Lee Miller Monday, who said the decisions were not based on all the evidence he tried to present.

Because of the litigation now pending in the state Court of Appeal, rent increases demanded by park owners--but above those ordered by arbitration--have been placed into the trust account that now stands at $1.5 million, pending settlement.

Vice Mayor Charles V. Smith said he originally would have preferred to wait until the litigation is settled, “but it looks like it’s going to be months now before it’s decided.” The court will only decide on legality, “not whether the law is right,” he pointed out.

The repeal will not force tenants to pay retroactive rent increases beyond what is already in the trust account, Smith said, adding: “They’re misinterpreting or misunderstanding what we’re doing.”

However, Section 2 of the repeal ordinance reads in part: “Any (suspended) rent increases . . . may be enforced as though any ordinance repealed by this ordinance had not occurred.”

John Barry, president of the Los Alisos Mobile Home Protection Assn., said besides the “$1.5 million in the escrow trust account which has been given to us by the courts, another $1 million would have to be paid.”

Sees No Problems

While many of the demonstrators questioned the legality of the retroactive application of the new ordinance, Mayor Joy Neugebauer, who introduced the ordinance, said she sees no legal problems.

“Our city attorney (Paul Morgan) prepared the ordinance. He’s the expert, not I, (but) I’m certain he wouldn’t prepare an ordinance that couldn’t withstand any challenge,” she said.

Neugebauer said the repeal of the ordinance has been a topic of discussion among the council members since November, when she and two new councilmen were elected. The council directed Morgan to prepare the ordinance, she said.

Existing rent control ordinances have “caused open warfare between tenants and owners” since 1981, Neugebauer said. But since last year’s election, “a number of new suits (have been) filed against the city (that) motivated the action,” she added.

“We want to remove ourselves from litigation concerning this ordinance,” Neugebauer said. “I think there’s a better way (than arbitration). The city government shouldn’t be in the middle,” she said, pointing out that the city has allocated $11,000 to cover the cost of arbitration in this year’s budget.

Like Neugebauer, Smith defended the method used by the council to introduce the repeal. The vice mayor, who also campaigned on an anti-rent control platform, said there was nothing “underhanded” about the way the repeal was introduced. “It’s just something that needs to be done,” he said.

“Quite often we bring up ordinances and put them on the agenda,” he said, observing that the two-week interim period between introduction and final passage gives interested persons a chance to speak out.

‘Tried to Sneak It In’

But John Branigan, a 69-year-old park resident who took part in the first demonstration of his life Monday, disagreed:

“I guess they tried to sneak (the repeal) in,” he said. “All we’re asking is that the city abide by the law it adopted.” Branigan, a seven-year resident of Bolsa Verde Mobile Home Park who said he pays $311.50 a month in rent, is a former member of the panel that chose the independent arbiters. He said the arbitration process was the fairest to both tenants and park owners.

“The law works as it’s written,” he said, noting that Bolsa Verde residents and owners reached an agreement last year without the need for arbitration.

“Without the benefit of the law, there’s no way we could’ve done that,” he said.