On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors held an update on how its recently accepted rent stability agreement was being accepted by park owners. Last month members had voiced the desire to see all of the county's parks voluntarily comply or else seek a regulatory option.
So far, the county has received 21 responses out of 85 parks and resorts that were approached. Of those, 16 agreed to offer the agreement in order to keep rents from growing too quickly, while five turned it down.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington, who has sat on the mobile home task force and worked on the agreement over the last few years, called the response “dismal.”
“I was optimistic we would have greater responses,” he said.
Supervisor Rob Brown, who also sat on the task force, said he had received numerous calls from park owners, and said many of those approached were resorts, not permanent residential parks. “I think we need to fine-tune the list a little more.”
Brown added, “It wasn't my goal to have 100-percent compliance and then punish everybody if we don't get it.”
Mary Ann McQueen, who owns Northport Trailer Resort with husband Jerry, has worked with the county on outreach to other park owners, and said it hadn't been easy going. “We have a lot of people who weren't involved in this process.”
She said getting 100-percent compliance may not be a reasonable goal, and asked for more time to continue contacting park owners.
Board Chair Ed Robey asked McQueen how much time she needed. She said a couple of weeks, adding that they didn't have correct phone numbers for some parks, and for others ownership had changed.
Attorney Andy Rossoff was skeptical that the county would see all park owners voluntarily comply with the agreement.
“It's going to be a constant enforcement issue,” he said.
The good park managers and owners who are doing right by their residents aren't going to have problems with it, while the trouble makers won't do it, Rossoff suggested. “Laws are passed to put the bad folks in line.”
Supervisor Denise Rushing said she received an e-mail from a constituent living in a park who reported that they had just received a copy of the supplemental rent stability agreement as an option, but at the same time were told that the owner wasn't going to continue paying the water bill.
“Some of this is about a relationship between the landlord and the tenants,” she said.
Mobile home task force member Gregory Cavness said Rushing's constituent was seeing a reduction in services, and they needed to seek a remedy.
He also offered a sad bit of news – Anita Soames, who had advocated on behalf of park residents around the county, died on Monday night.
Bob Wall, who owns BJ Walls park in Nice, said he's discussed the rent stability agreement with some of his tenants, who he said don't want to obligate themselves to it and don't want to put him out of business.
A bigger problem, he said, is electrical problems in older mobiles, and Wall said he would like to see a mandatory inspection of mobile homes 20 years old or older.
Ralph Cowden, who operates Lucerne's Lorraine Village, said he has talked to about 35 other park owners. “We've got an educational process to go through with some of these people.”
He said of the estimated 85 parks it the county, only about 60 are real.
Cowden said more time is needed to get everyone on the same page, adding he's not sure how a mandatory ordinance would work.
Rushing said she wanted to see the nonregulatory option work, and understood that more time was needed.
She added that if residents don't want to participate in the rent stability agreements, it's their choice.
The board will continue its discussion of the rent stability agreement at 11:14 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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