Bernson’s Proposal Targets Wrong Tahitian Mobile Home Park

When he described it last month, Councilman Hal Bernson said his proposal for a citywide ordinance to monitor mobile home park rental rates stemmed from a rent-hike case in this community.

Not so.

Bernson originally identified the culprit as the Tahitian Mobile Home Park on Cobalt Street.

But on Wednesday, Bernson’s office said that at least two mobile home parks in the Los Angeles area use “Tahitian” in their names, and the similar titles confused the councilman and his staff.

Somehow communication wires got crossed, Bernson spokesman Ali Sar said. “The mobile home park in question was not in Sylmar, but on the Westside.”

That mistaken identity has caused a big headache for Warren Davey of Solvang, owner of the Sylmar park.

Davey said he was glad Bernson and his staff members discovered their error.

“I’ve been real conscientious about treating the people right,” Davey said. “I was going through my list wondering what attorneys to call.”

Davey’s predicament began Aug. 11. That’s when the Los Angeles City Council asked the city attorney’s office to draft a measure requiring mobile home park owners to return rental rates to original levels after they had temporarily raised them to cover park repairs.

The goal of the law is to prevent landlords from permanently benefiting from their ability to raise rents to fix park grounds shared by tenants.

“It’s only fair that the tenants don’t have to keep paying,” Bernson said at the time.

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But Bernson also said his proposal stemmed from an investigation of the Tahitian Park on Cobalt Street, which he erroneously said continued to collect raised rents long after workers had fixed an earthquake-damaged wall.

An upset Davey responded with a Sept. 1 letter to Bernson and The Times.

“The Tahitian did not ever raise rents to cover repair costs,” Davey wrote. “The Tahitian spent over $300,000 to repair the ’94 earthquake and fire damage, but did not levy any rent increase based on repair costs. A rent raise based on repair costs would have been huge.”

The location of the park at fault, whose name is also inspired by the South Pacific island, is unclear.

Sar said he was reasonably certain this time around that the true culprit is a park somewhere near Mullholland Drive, north of Santa Monica and Brentwood, and closer to the mountains that divide those areas from the Valley. He was unable to provide a name.

Calls by a reporter to area codes 213 and 310 directory assistance did not turn up mobile home parks with “Tahiti” or “Tahitian” in their titles.

Davey, who said he named his business in 1960 after a favorite Tahitian restaurant on Ventura Boulevard, did not know of other similarly named mobile home parks in the Valley.

The Tahitian theme appears to have been in vogue over the years.

“There was a Tahitian Motel or Hotel on Sepulveda at one time, but I don’t think it’s there anymore,” Sar said.

But it is still there. And open. It’s the Tahiti Motel on Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills.