The following 12/4/12 article is from The San Gabriel Valley Tribune. El Monte is listening to its mobile home park residents and will now be able to look into the rent gouging that takes place in Tatum-Kaplan owned parks. This is a victory for all residents of Tatum Kaplan owned parks thanks to Brookside Mobile Country Club residents and City Councilwoman Norma Macias. Yes, those bullies did take one on the chin today but the fight is just beginning.
Supporters of El Monte's mobilehome park measure prove successful in final ballot count
EL MONTE - A ballot initiative that had seemingly gone down in defeat after election night Nov. 6 has been redeemed, with the final tally showing that it has passed by just 71 votes, representing 50.2 percent of voter support.
After counting all of the provisional and mail-in ballots, the county on Tuesday was scheduled to certify the election with the California Secretary of State, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office.
Supporters regard Measure F, the El Monte Fairness For Mobilehome Owners Ordinance, as a saving grace for residents of the Brookside Mobile Country Club, a local community where residents continue to pay skyrocketing rents that in some cases are triple the prices charged at other local mobile home parks.
The measure overturns the 1990 voter-approved ordinance that prohibited the city from expending any resources to look into the rents or pass rent control at its 33 mobile home parks. That ordinance also provided a 10 percent rental subsidy for qualifying tenants, a discount that will end due to the passage of Measure F.
"We still have a lot of work left to do," said City Councilwoman Norma Macias, who spearheaded the effort to pass Measure F. "There are a lot of residents out there suffering and I'm just happy that we can now finally do something to help them."
The City Council and administrators discussed the next steps at a special meeting last week. They will likely hire
an economist who will make a determination as to what may be driving rents upwards of $1,500 a month, according to city officials.
"It will be helpful for an economist to help sort out if there's some biased perspective that some of us have or if objectively there really is a problem here," Deputy City Attorney Dave Gondek said last week.
Steve Rowe of Mobile Community Management, the management company for Brookside, did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday.
According to a fact sheet provided by the company in August, 90 percent of residents "have voluntarily elected over the years to sign long-term leases, which clearly specify rent levels and the method of calculating future annual rent increases for the term of the lease."
Monthly rent includes water and trash pick up, according to the response.
When Measure F was originally introduced, Brookside's management company responded by threatening to raise rents unless councilmembers rescinded their decision.
For one resident, monthly payments in November increased 17 percent, from $1,256 to $1,482, according to a letter to that resident.
Brookside Investments LTD., which owns El Monte's Brookside Mobile Country Club, also filed a $100,000 claim in September, alleging that El Monte had already violated the 1990 ordinance - the provision on making inquiries on rent - by passing resolutions to place Measure F on the ballot. Brookside was seeking to recover $2 million in damages upon passage of the measure.
An attorney from Brookside Investments LTD. did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday.
The park owners have approximately a year and a half to initiate a lawsuit, Gondek said.
"From a general standpoint, we're disappointed that (Measure F) passed and we hope it doesn't lead to rent control, which would affect every park in town and we don't think that's fair," said David Evans, senior regional representative of the Western Manufactured Housing, which represents park owners across the state.
Evans has said that the measure would likely lead to rent control, an extremely costly program to administer.
Residents have said that they are desperate for a reprieve from what they call price-gouging at the park, located at 12700 Elliot Ave.
Many of them say they're being held hostage there, because although they own their coaches, they rent the dirt beneath them. It can cost $10,000 and up to move those coaches to another park, they said.
"I don't know what the city is going to do yet, but I know it unties their hands with a lot of issues they haven't been able to dig into," resident Barbara Lawhorn said. "We're so thankful that they helped us with this measure."
maritza.velazquez@sgvn.com
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