OXNARD : City to Levy Fees on Mobile Homes
The Oxnard City Council has agreed to transfer the cost of the city’s mobile-home rent control program from the city to coach owners.
The city’s 2,725 mobile-home owners will pick up most of the $64,500 annual cost by paying $1.91 a month each, city officials decided Tuesday at a study session aimed at finding ways to trim the 1991-92 budget.
The program pays for a rent control officer who mediates disputes between mobile-home park owners and residents and enforces the rent control ordinance.
City Manager Vernon Hazen said the city needs to make program and personnel cuts to avoid a $860,900 deficit in the 1991-92 budget.
Oscar Karrin, a mobile-home resident and city activist, said he will fight the city in court if it attempts to charge rent control fees.
“Putting the community services on our backs is unfair,” Karrin said. “If they want to tax us, they should tax everybody. This mobile-home fee is a tax and it should be placed on the ballot.”
But Assistant City Manager John Tooker said the rent control fee is not a tax. “It’s a fee for services to recover the costs associated with a specific program, and I believe it is perfectly legal,” he said.
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