Opinion

Over the past five years, my experience as Taylor Observatory coordinator was challenging but exceptionally fulfilling.

Thank you high school volunteers Eduardo Alatorre, Cord and Nate Falkenberg, Paige Lavrar, Kai Jones, Roxi and Juan Huerta, Zack Bailey and Jared Wagner. Your passion for learning, your eagerness to support and your upbeat personalities made work a joy.

Thank you to the Taylor staff Edward Giannelli, Janis Traub, Stephen Kane and John Zimmerman. Your support was and is the backbone of Taylor.

Thank you volunteers Paul Kobetz, David Rogers, Juan Huerta, Dr. Gerald deBane and Bill Bordisso. Your tutelage and hours of support help our projects reach completion.

Thank you Friends of Taylor, Wine Alliance, Kelseyville Rotary, Lakeport Lions Club and so many community groups. The Taylor Observatory would not exist without your financial and volunteer support.

Thank you to all the private donors whose funds purchased technology, telescopes, transportation and more.

Thank you Lake County Office of Education and the Board of Education for your support and having faith in me.

Our goal was to make the Taylor Observatory into a science center for all children of Lake County.

I believe, with your continued support, your science center will continue to flourish.

Barbara McIntyre is the retiring coordinator for the Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium in Kelseyville, Calif.

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Written by: Barbara McIntyre

Published: 03 March 2014

In his letter about the senior mobile home rent control initiative (“McQueen: Seniors' rent control concerns being addressed without an ordinance,” Feb. 26, http://bit.ly/1mEVMIq ), Jerry McQueen said that the issues were being resolved.

Really? The issue is that last year my rent went up 7.5 percent and my social security benefits went up 1.7 percent. My landlord can raise the rent any amount, four times per year. The problem has not been resolved, in fact, it has not been addressed.

Here is how the system that Mr. McQueen alluded to, worked: When I got that raise, I wrote a petition, got it signed by almost everyone in my park, over 40 people, and took it to the Lakeport City Council.

I made a presentation, and asked for help. The council said, “Thank you, Mr. Strasser,” and, I never heard from them again in that regard.

Mr. McQueen is wrong: I did not get frustrated. I got to work. I found that, historically, in the United States, when local governments have not been responsive to the needs of the people, the people have successfully turned to the initiative process.

Mr. McQueen continues to repeat the same falsehood that our initiative will increase expenses to local government, as if, if he repeats it enough, it will become true.

The truth is that our initiative will not cost local government a penny. This is why: there are over a hundred rent control laws for mobile home parks in California. Some of them grant, for example, up to 60 percent of the Consumer Price Index Increase, without going to the rent control board.

Our initiative says that we give the park owners 100 percent of CPI, automatically, thus making the rent control board unnecessary.

The assertion that the economy of Lake County will decline with rent control is precisely the opposite of the truth: The company that owns my park, for example, is in Orange, the wealthiest county in California. The excessive and unreasonable rent increases that they impose will send dollars to Orange County to be spent, not keep them here in Lake County.

Evidently, Mr. McQueen has not read our initiative. It absolutely does account for the “pass through” of certain kinds of expenses that the owners accrue.

The irony is, as I will prove in court on March 14, that the only way to control rents in a way that is fair to both owner and tenant, is to relate rents to CPI. And, in fact, I will prove that it works very well in many municipalities in California and both owners and tenants have, for all intents and purposes, accepted such a compromise.

A rent control law for mobile home parks is not a radical idea. As I said, over a hundred communities have such measures in place. And, I will give Mr. McQueen the benefit of the doubt. He may be very fair. But, there are owners who are not fair, and that is precisely why things have come to this current state of affairs. Fairness is not a universal quality in men, and that is precisely why we need laws.

Ironically, what Mr. McQueen does not yet understand, is that this is the best deal he is going to get. Eventually, and, it will be sooner, rather than later, rent control for mobile homes will come to Lake County.

Looking at a survey of rent control measures for mobile home parks, as I said, some only grant 60 percent of CPI without appeal to a rent control board. If the owner wants more than 60 percent, he has to bring his books, open those books to the public, and prove that he deserves more. (A Google search shows that no rent control board in California has ever granted more than 100 percent of CPI.)

Is that what Mr. McQueen wants? I don’t think that scenario would be fair to him. Clearly, the only fair way to resolve the issue is to grant 100 percent of CPI automatically. This will ensure the owners get a reasonable return, and the seniors don’t get poorer. Empirically, this system has worked well in Northern California.

I understand that you want to make money, and, under our initiative, you will make a “fair and reasonable” return, as the law demands. However, you can’t assure me that the owner of my park, and several of the other owners in Lake County, are not going to take advantage of the absence of rent control and gouge the elderly.

Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif., and authored a senior mobile home park rent control initiative set to appear on the Lakeport municipal ballot in November 2014.

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Written by: Nelson Strasser

Published: 02 March 2014

To consumers of business services: If you are someone or know someone who has had a bad experience with a business, I strongly encourage you to file complaints with the appropriate agencies, so that they can be aware of businesses with patterns of problems and warn others.

Some general agencies to contact include: Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org or 866-411-2221, the California Attorney General at http://oag.ca.gov/consumers .

Additionally, depending on the type of business, be sure to report your complaint to the agencies within their industry (e.g.: for the auto industry, the Bureau of Automotive Repair at 866-799-3811).

If they do not hear your stories, they cannot identify businesses with patterns of problems, so as to warn others.

Leslie Sheridan lives in Clearlake, Calif.

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Written by: Leslie Sheridan

Published: 01 March 2014