Councilwoman Presses to Oust 2 From Carson Planning Panel

Carson City Councilwoman Sylvia Muise, who pushed for the ouster of two planning commissioners from a key city panel, said she questions whether Frank Gutierrez and Charles Peters, who left the subcommittee this week, should stay on the Planning Commission.

“If you educate them and they choose not to abide by the law (which gives the public the right to address the panel), then I wonder why they should be on the Planning Commission,” Muise said.

Gutierrez, who is chairman of the commission, and Peters have been the focus of attacks by North Carson residents and mobile home owners. The North Carson residents allege Gutierrez did not permit residents to speak at meetings on a proposed development near their neighborhood. Mobile home park residents accuse both men of bias toward park owners.

“I am not biased. I am not rude,” Peters said Wednesday. He said he resigned for the sake of “peace and harmony” from the seven-member city panel, which is to make recommendations on relocation benefits that mobile home park owners must pay tenants before shutting a mobile home park.

Peters said he has no intention of resigning from the Planning Commission. Gutierrez could not be reached for comment.

With four mobile home parks announcing plans to close, the issue of relocation benefits has regularly drawn hundreds of park residents to council chambers. Park owners cite escalating real estate prices as an opportunity for them to develop mobile home park sites and the city’s mobile home rent control program as a drag on profits.

Must Define ‘Reasonable’

The relocation benefits panel was set up after City Atty. Glenn Watson informed the City Council that state law limits park closure benefits imposed by municipalities to “reasonable” costs of relocation. Watson said the city must define what is “reasonable.”

The panel, which consists of three planning commissioners, two mobile home residents and two representatives of park owners, is to make recommendations to the Planning Commission, which in turn is to report to the council.

Mobile home park residents, a potent political force in the city, have been pushing for an expansive definition, while park owners are seeking to limit benefits.

Citing the pending closures, the council voted last week to impose a 45-day moratorium on park closures so that the panel can complete its work.

At the same meeting, complaints about Gutierrez and Peters came before the council. Muise introduced a motion, seconded by Councilman Michael Mitoma, to remove the two. It failed.

Mayor Kay Calas said she got in touch with Gutierrez and Peters on her own after the meeting and asked them to view council meeting tapes, on which the two were denounced. If she had been the target of such an intense dispute, Calas said, she would resign.

Muise said Tuesday the resignations of Gutierrez and Peters from the relocation benefits panel may be insufficient.

At her prodding, city planning staffers are preparing a report for the council on the conduct of the two “because we have received an inordinate amount of requests for their removal” from the commission.

Planning commissioners Margaret Hudson and Joseph Harlow have replaced Gutierrez and Peters on the relocation benefits panel.