Lancaster Votes 3-1 to Keep Arbitration : Mobile-Home Rent Ordinance Upheld

Voters in Lancaster’s special election Tuesday upheld the city’s controls on increases in mobile-home rents and rejected a heavily funded campaign by mobile-home park owners to abolish all controls on property sales or rents.

Proposition B, backed by the City Council and tenants, which keeps the current ordinance providing for arbitration of mobile-home rent disputes, had a clear winning margin of 3,472, or 75.3% of the vote, to 1,135, or 24.7%, with all votes counted.

A rival measure sponsored by mobile-home park owners, Proposition A, would have prohibited city restrictions on sale or rental of property unless the restrictions were approved by a vote of the citizens. That proposition went down to defeat by a vote of 3,551, or 78.4% of the vote, to 974, or 21.6%.

The two propositions were the only items on the ballot for the special election, which drew a turnout of about 4,698, only 12.3% of the city’s 38,349 registered voters, officials said.

George Root, president of the Lancaster Alliance of Mobile Home Park Residents, said: “I am extremely pleased. The folks in Lancaster didn’t buy all the park owners’ bull. Their biggest problem was they tried to fool the voters.”

Lopsided Results

Peter Wanserske, president of the Friends of Lancaster owners group, blamed the low voter turnout for the lopsided results. “If there was misinformation, it was on both sides,” he said.

The election culminated a yearlong battle pitting mobile-home owners against mobile-home tenants and the City Council in Lancaster, which has about 4,500 mobile-home residents in 28 parks and a total population of 82,000.

The present city ordinance permits tenants to challenge proposed rent increases and seek the services of an arbitrator through the city if negotiations fail. The arbitrator’s decisions are binding.

If both ballot initiatives had failed, that ordinance would have stood. If both had won, Proposition A would have banned all future caps on rent while Proposition B would have permitted continuing arbitration of mobile-home rent disputes.

Mobile-home park owners spent more than $86,000, a city record, on campaigns attacking Proposition B and promoting Proposition A. They said the arbitration ordinance could be expanded to other types of property and serve as the first step toward citywide rent control, which they said would drain the municipal treasury and cause deterioration of neighborhoods and public services.

Tenants Spent $800

By contrast, tenants spent only $800 on their campaign. They argued that the present ordinance provided a fair method of mediating rent disputes and was not the beginning of generalized rent control. They had the support of city officials, who accused the mobile-home park owners of deceitful campaigning and scare tactics.

On Monday, City Atty. David McEwen filed a complaint with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office that accused the two owner groups--Friends of Lancaster/Yes on A and Lancaster Citizens Committee/No on Proposition B--of violating city law by failing to submit copies of their mass-mailing campaign literature to the city.