Carson Drive to Repeal Rent Control Fails

After a signature campaign marked by accusations of violence and harassment, a proposal to eliminate much of Carson’s mobile-home rent control failed to gain enough support to make the November ballot.

“We didn’t make it. . . . Yeah, they beat us,” said Ann Stewart Brown, the Sacramento political consultant who served as spokeswoman for a group of Carson mobile-home park owners.

She did not say how many signatures were gathered in the three-week campaign. The group needed to file 5,838 signatures, representing 15% of the registered voters in Carson, by Tuesday to qualify for the November ballot.

Brown attributed the shortfall to the activities of “15 to 20 people harassing and intimidating both the circulators (of the petition) and anyone who attempted to sign.”

“There was too much razzing going on.”

Substance Cited

But Mayor Kay Calas, who endorsed a flyer opposing the measure that was mailed to every registered voter last week, said the substance of the initiative hurt it.

“I didn’t think people would sign the initiative the way it was written to hurt the mobile-home owners,” she said.

Councilwoman Sylvia Muise, who also endorsed the mailer, said she was “delighted” that the proposal did not make the November ballot. But she cautioned that proponents of the measure still have until December to gather signatures for a later election.

If the petition drive turns in signatures of 15% of Carson’s registered voters by then, a special election would be held next February. If signatures of 10% of the voters are turned in, the measure would go on the April, 1990, municipal election ballot.

Brown said the group of mobile-home park owners, which calls itself Concerned Citizens of Carson, has not decided whether to continue the petition drive.

Generated Allegations

The three-week effort, conducted at supermarkets and shopping centers, generated allegations of a stun-gun attack, a robbery, beatings, harassment and frequent verbal confrontations.

Christopher Alan, director of a San Diego firm hired to coordinate the petition drive, has been charged with battery and disturbing the peace in connection with a struggle over a camera that petition opponents were using to take pictures of the signature gatherers.

In turn, Alan obtained a temporary restraining order in Compton Superior Court against Gordy Selby and Paula Duke, two leading opponents, that forbade them from interfering in petition gathering and required them to stay 25 feet away.

Brown said, however, that opponents of the measure found a way around the court order. “Only two individuals (were) named, and they quit and they sent 15 to 20 people in their places,” she said.

Under the initiative, people meeting federal poverty guidelines would have remained under rent control. For a four-person family, the limit on annual income would have been $19,150; for an individual, it would have been $13,400.

Rent increases for people not meeting the poverty guidelines would have been limited to 9% annually for two years after the measure took effect. After that, all controls would have been lifted.

Under Carson’s current rent control ordinance, rent increases are pegged to rises in the cost of operating a park and to any capital expenditures made by a park owner.

Two of the city’s 28 parks have announced intentions to close. The park owners group has said higher rents are needed to keep others from closing.

Mobile-home owners say that many of them would be unable to pay the higher rents that would come if the measure were adopted.