|
|
|
Shall the City of Watsonville adopt an ordinance amending Chapter 3
(Mobile Home Park Rent Stabilization) of Title 11 (Mobile Homes and Parks) of
the Watsonville Municipal Code establishing a procedure for Recovery of Expenses in Fair Rate Return Hearing and adding a Supplemental Administrative Fee of $0.50 per unit with an automatic cost of living adjustment? |
The statement to the left
is an impartial analysis of Measure V. If you desire a copy of
the ordinance, please call the City
Clerk’s Office at and a copy will be |
|
City Attorney’s
Impartial Analysis of Measure
V WMC Section 11-3.220 now imposes an
“Administrative Fee” of fifty cents ($.50) per space on the privilege of
occupying space within a “Mobile home park.”
The fee is paid to the City monthly, collected by the park owner with
the monthly rent. The purpose of the
fee is to reimburse the City administrative staff for the expenses associated
with enforcing the provisions of the City Mobile Home Rent Stabilization
ordinance. This ordinance would impose an additional fee of
$0.50 to be used to provide additional reimbursement for the City to be used
to pay for the administrative costs of enforcing the City Mobile Home Rent
Stabilization ordinance. Presently,
the City Mobile Home Rent Stabilization ordinance, in administrative hearings
to consider rent increases (fair rate of return hearings), the park tenants
(as a group) and the park owner each bear their own expenses to hire
accountants, appraisers, bookkeepers, consultants, property managers, engineers,
economists, attorneys and other persons necessary to present evidence in such
hearings. This
ordinance would instead require certain procedures to be followed to
encourage early settlement of disputes in administrative hearings about
mobile home rent increases. Upon
filing a request for a rent increase, the tenant representative may file a
written offer with the park owner and a sealed copy with the City. The park owner would be able to recover
expenses related to the application, payable over a five-year period, if the
tenants accept the offer within seven days or if the offer is rejected but
the City unreasonably demands information from the park owner in violation of
existing law which causes the administrative proceedings to be unreasonably
and unduly expensive. On the other
hand, if the tenant representative offer is higher than the park owner
achieves at the end of the administrative hearing process, or if the park
owner fails to be awarded at least forty percent (40%) of the original
demand, then the tenants shall be reimbursed their expenses within thirty
days. The
ordinance also sets forth a detailed list of factors to be considered in
determining the reasonableness of claimed expenses. In
order to be adopted, the Measure must be approved by a majority of the voters
voting on it. s/
Alan Smith City Attorney |
|
44-522
VOTER
INFORMATION PAMPHLET
MEASURES, ANALYSES AND
ARGUMENTS (whichever is applicable to
your ballot) Arguments in support of, or in opposition to, the proposed laws are the opinions of the authors. |
|
|
ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF MEASURE V A
"Yes" vote will help preserve mobile homes as one of the last truly
affordable housing sources in the City of Watsonville. A
"Yes" vote will also save the City money to use for other important
projects. Please vote "Yes." Watsonville's
Rent Control Ordinance, passed in 1989, protects mobilehome owners against
excessive rent increases while allowing mobilehome park owners to realize a
fair profit. In practice, park owners have sometimes made excessively
high demands for rent increases. This forced the homeowners, many of
whom are seniors living on fixed incomes or low and moderate-income
homeowner, to spend large amounts for their own attorneys to keep from being
priced out of their homes. This
ordinance will allow the mobilehome owners to recover their legal fees when
park owner’s actions and filings are unreasonable. This proposal will
encourage both parties to resolve their rent disputes in a fair,
cost-effective manner. Park owners will no longer be able to drive up
the residents' legal fees without any risk. Similarly, park residents
will no longer be able to ignore reasonable rent increase requests.
This proposal will: ·
Encourage park owners to request reasonable rent
increases. ·
Encourage homeowners to make reasonable
settlement offers to the park owner. ·
Discourage homeowners from opposing reasonable
rent increase requests. · Avoid
drawn-out administrative proceedings, which impose excessive costs on the
City of Watsonville. This measure also raises the fees paid by the
nearly 900-mobilehome owners from fifty cents per month to $1.00. This
ensures that the persons protected by the Ordinance, the mobilehome
residents, will pay a fair portion of the cost of the City’s administration
of the rent stabilization program. This is a win-win proposition for mobilehome park
owners, mobilehome owners and the entire City of Watsonville. s/ Ana Ventura Phares, Councilmember – Watsonville s/
Ramon Gomez, Watsonville City Council Member, District 5 s/ Terry Hancock s/ Ann M. Soldo, Former Mayor, City of Watsonville s/ Ray Belgard |
NO ARGUMENT AGAINST MEASURE
V WAS FILED. |
44-523