ANAHEIM : Rent-Control Group Gets 23,000 Signers

Advocates of rent control at mobile home parks submitted petitions bearing 23,000 signatures Monday in an effort to qualify the measure for a citywide vote.

Members of the Anaheim Political Action Committee gave the city clerk petitions with the 23,000 names. The group needs about 15,000 valid signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot.

The initiative calls for a rent ceiling at the 1988 rent level with an annual increase of 8%, or 75% of the consumer price index, whichever is less.

A spokeswoman for some of the city’s 29 mobile home parks called rent control “the worst form of fraud.”

“This initiative doesn’t belong on the ballot, and it certainly should never become law in Anaheim,” said Vickie Talley, executive director of Orange County Manufactured Housing Educational Trust.

Renters in the city’s mobile home parks said they expected the park owners’ quick response and felt confident that the initiative would withstand any legal challenge.

“What we would like is a special election,” said Clarice Jackson, president of the committee. “Put it on the ballot and leave it up to the people of Anaheim. That’s all we’ve ever asked.”

In 1987, the renters group collected more than the required number of signatures for a vote. But because of a technicality in the wording of the initiative, it failed a legal challenge and was never brought before the voters.

The city has 30 days to verify the new signatures. The petition then goes before the City Council, which must approve a mobile home park rent control ordinance or hold a special election on the issue.

The issue is likely to become a political football in the hotly contested mayoral race on Nov. 6.

Incumbent Mayor Fred Hunter has been a longtime supporter of the renters since the issue first arose in 1984. His challenger for the mayor’s seat, Councilman Irv Pickler, has consistently opposed rent control.

Renters in mobile home parks represent about 8,000 potential voters in the city.