Carson Rent Petitions Delivered to County

A week after 6,355 signatures supporting a ballot initiative to eliminate much of Carson’s mobile home rent control were filed at City Hall, City Clerk Helen Kawagoe on Wednesday took the petitions to county officials, who must verify the signatures.

A Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder representative said it was uncertain when the signature-checking process would be complete.

Although officials have 30 days from July 5, when the petitions were filed, to complete the checking, proponents of the measure are hoping it will be finished earlier.

Aug. 2 is the last date that the City Council can consider the measure at a regular meeting to put it on the November ballot. The petition check would have to be complete by July 28 to get on the Aug. 2 council agenda.

Proponents need 15% of the registered voters in Carson, or 5,838, to force a vote on the measure in November. If 10% are found valid, the measure would go on the next regular municipal election ballot in April, 1990, unless the council decided to put it on the November ballot.

Ann Stewart Brown, spokeswoman for the group of mobile home park owners backing the measure, had accused Kawagoe, who is a mobile home tenant, of attempting to sabotage the petition process. Brown expressed only relief Wednesday.

“Now that it is out of Helen’s hands, I am willing just to let it plod along,” she said.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of anger if it comes out of the county registrar’s office one or two or three days late because of the way they handled it.”

Kawagoe, who has denied any wrongdoing, said it took a week to number and copy the 1,400-page petition because of demands on her staff. In addition, Kawagoe was out several days last week because her sister died of a heart attack.

She said the checking process will be complete within the 30 days.

“The clerk is doing her job,” she said, referring to herself.

Under the initiative, only tenants whose income is less than federal poverty guidelines would remain under rent control. For a four-person family, the limit on annual income would be $19,150; for an individual, it would be $13,400.

9% Annual Increases

Two years after the measure takes effect, rents for people not meeting the poverty guidelines would be decontrolled. During the first two years, annual increases would be no more than 9%.

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

Park owners say they need higher rents or some parks will close. Three of the city’s 28 parks have announced intentions to close.

Mobile home owners, who rent space at the parks, say that many of them will be unable to pay the higher rents if the measure is adopted.