El Monte : Meetings on Rent Disputes

The City Council, concerned that three successive rent disputes have remained unsettled despite the city’s mobile-home rent arbitration ordinance, has directed landlords and residents of Brookside Mobile Country Club to meet to work out their differences.

Park management and residents have accused one another of not following the provisions of the law, forestalling negotiations. The ordinance, adopted last December, survived a Brookside-sponsored referendum in June.

The ordinance is supposed to provide a two-step system of binding arbitration over rent and other disputes. Under the ordinance, management and tenants first meet in a park committee to discuss a settlement. If the committee cannot reach agreement, the matter will go before the city’s 5-member rent commission. The commission is made up of two park owners, two tenants and a tie-breaking mediator appointed by the city.