McKay Florence, one of the owners of Fairgrounds Village Senior Mobile Homepark in Lakeport, has written a letter attacking me personally. Then, not content with accusing me of being the villain of the piece regarding rent control, he goes on to imply that he is an altruist, come to rescue the “widows.”

Let me start by explaining to McKay that an “ad hominem” argument is when you attack the person, rather than his ideas.

McKay claims that, a few years ago, evidently in the grip of some megalomaniacal urge, and apropos of nothing in particular, I began a quixotic journey to fill a need for rent control that did not exist.

McKay left out the part about the 10-percent rent increase I received. (My God, how he loves the elderly!).

I responded with a petition, signed by more than 40 residents of my park (an odd way to show contentment).

McKay implies that I have worked alone, with no support. It is true that I began alone, but that was not for long: I was joined by a handful of dedicated seniors, including a few in their 80s who worked with me collecting signatures for months on end. That group became Save Our Seniors. And by the way, over 1,700 voters in Lakeport signed the petition.

McKay points out that few tenants came to the city council meeting. (Here is another word for him to learn: chutzpah. The definition of chutzpah is when a guy kills his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court on the basis of the fact that he is an orphan).

The reason that elderly folks did not come to the council meeting is because they are elderly. He has a lot of chutzpah to claim that they did not come because they had no interest in rent control.

McKay did not come up with this cockamamie lease because he suddenly got compassion for his tenants. Rather, the lease is a strategy to head off rent control efforts: Once you sign a lease in California longer than 12 months, you are not covered by rent control laws.

McKay is coercing people to sign his 10-year lease. I state again, as I did the last time I wrote in, his letter to the tenants threatened “large rent increases” to those who don’t sign his lease.

I have talked to several of the tenants. They are scared and confused. This abuse of the elderly by the owners is unconscionable.

McKay Florence is the most eloquent argument for rent control that I could imagine: A man who uses coercive tactics to intimidate the elderly.

There is more: Rent control has proven costly, asserts McKay.

I invite you to call the city of Santa Rosa and the city of Ukiah, as I did. They both have rent control laws. While the laws in both cities provide for a rent control board and arbitration, they are never utilized. The city of Santa Rosa has not had an issue since 2007, and it never got to arbitration, but rather was settled by “meet and confer.” Rent control is working happily in both these communities.

Let’s talk about his lease terms: a minimum of 3 percent per year. In the last several years there were two years with no CPI increase, which means no increase in Social Security. Who would knowingly sign his lease and condemn themselves to becoming poorer?

Moreover, McKay criticizes me for defending our initiative in court myself. He leaves out the part that the city and county attorneys (which was their right) declined to defend the initiative. Sadly, I was the best we could afford.

So, what really is happening?

The owners, who were making a reasonable profit, decided they could get a lot more. They went for too much, too soon, and there was “push-back.” (Who thought these old folks had so much fight in them?)

Now we have begun the process of getting a rent control law, similar to the one in Santa Rosa, through the Lakeport City Council, and the owners are panicked and committing acts of desperation.

I tabled for hundreds of hours and I can say that the people of Lakeport, like the people of over a hundred communities in California, overwhelmingly support rent control for mobile home parks. And, in the end, the will of the people shall prevail.

Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.

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Written by: Nelson Strasser

Published: 13 May 2014