ELECTIONS / VENTURA COUNCIL : Residents of Mobile Home Parks Question Candidates Over Rent

More than 100 mobile home park residents questioned 10 candidates for City Council on Friday afternoon with one issue in mind: Do they support stabilizing rents for the city’s mobile home owners?

It is a pressing topic for the city’s 3,000 mobile home park residents, who have complained of unfair rent increases in the city’s 11 parks for more than a decade.

Last month, the City Council approved a new law regulating the amount of rent that owners of Ventura’s mobile home parks can charge residents. But the council reversed its decision the next week, when it decided to extend the existing ordinance until the potential impact of the new law could be evaluated fully.

Dozens of mobile home residents turned out for public testimony on the proposed law in July. Judging by Friday’s forum, they have not backed down from the subject.

“The top priority for most of us today was the mobile home ordinance,” said Vicki Olsen, a resident of the Ventura Marina Mobile Home Park, where the forum was held.

Of the 10 questions posed to candidates during the two-hour session, all but one centered on such issues as spiraling rents and maintenance fees charged by park owners.

Residents also asked if candidates had accepted campaign contributions from mobile home park owners. None said they had.

All the candidates agreed that frequent rent increases hurt mobile-home residents and that they would support steps to balance the scales. Most stopped short, however, of outlining rent-control plans or elaborating on specific solutions.

Donna De Paola-Peterson suggested creating a cap on rents. Carroll Dean Williams said the city should do away with what he called an ineffective middle-man city committee set up to offer solutions to the issue.

James Friedman, John Jones and Craig Huntingston also spoke in favor of some kind of rent stabilization.

Incumbent City Councilman Jack Tingstrom declined to address some questions on rent control, citing a conflict of interest. Tingstrom owns a mobile home.

Keith Burns and Ray Di Guilio urged the audience not to fixate on one issue, asking those in attendance to evaluate the candidates for their overall character instead.

Indeed, some of the lesser-known candidates used time allotted during Friday’s forum to tell the audience of mostly senior citizens about themselves. Charles (Buster) Davis, Brian Lee Rencher and Williams all stressed their longtime roots in the community.

Burns even offered the crowd his mother’s meatloaf recipe on the back of a campaign flyer, saying the audience should walk away with something of value from the forum.

Although some in the audience said they walked away with a better idea of whom they will vote for in the Nov. 7 election, others said they were unimpressed with the field of candidates.

“In the past, we’ve had a few [candidates] who tell us one thing and after a year or two they’ll go in the complete opposite direction of what they said in the beginning,” mobile home park resident John Gilbert said.

Candidates Stephen Hartmann and Christopher Staubach did not attend Friday’s forum.