An initiative that would establish rent control and offer ownership of condo conversions at El Dorado Mobile Estates will go before Fillmore voters in a special election Nov. 3.
At an emotional City Council meeting earlier this month in which several members of the public denounced the Fair Rent and Homeownership Initiative, the council again rejected a request by the measure’s proponents to adopt it as a city ordinance. Instead, the council voted unanimously to place the measure on the ballot.
The initiative was certified last month after county elections officials determined that the approximately 1,500 signatures its backers collected were valid, even though opponents alleged some of the signatures were obtained fraudulently.
The measure is sponsored by Nancy Watkins, principal owner of the 302-unit mobile home park for seniors.
The Nov. 3 special election will be conducted by the county, which is charging Fillmore about $20,000 to do so, said City Attorney Ted Schneider.
“It’s a special election that the county is holding just in Fillmore just for this measure,” Schneider said.
Proponents and opponents of the initiative have until Wednesday to submit to City Clerk Clay Westling written factual arguments — one per side — for and against the measure that will be included in the ballot pamphlets, Schneider said.
Two council-ordered studies, meanwhile, have concluded that if approved by voters, the measure will have “significant” impacts on the city, fiscally and otherwise.
“The initial (one-time) costs to the city for the rent control portion of the initiative could range from $30,000 to over $104,000 depending upon the number of tenant applications that are disputed and the type of program the city implements to administer the rent control process,” Management Partners Inc., a San Jose-based consulting firm, concluded in its fiscal impact study. “Thereafter, the annual costs are estimated to be $5,000 (for a Rent Review Board) or $13,000 (for a Rent Administrator).”
Furthermore, the study found, “the subdivision/condominium conversion process has a one-time cost of $2,750 and over $1,600 in costs for each application/hearing process.”
In his report, Fillmore Community Development Director Kevin McSweeney also concluded that if it passes, the measure it will place a “significant burden upon the city to provide a Rent Review Board or Administrator. The initiative also effectively removes the mobile home park from Zoning Ordinance Condominium Conversion standards.”
Separate from her initiative, Watkins has submitted a parallel application to the city to convert the mobile home park into condominiums, Schneider said. Santa Ana-based attorney Robert Coldren, who represents the park’s owners, said the application merely seeks to subdivide the park into individual lots.
Last month, a rival El Dorado rent control initiative proposed by a longtime resident of the park was declared invalid by Schneider.
Schneider said the state Elections Code requires that the initiative title and summary appear at the top of each page of the petition that registered voters sign to qualify it for the ballot. But the initiative’s proponent, David Roegner, 59, only included the title on the signature pages, not the summary, Schneider said.
Roegner has asked the California Secretary of State’s Office to investigate allegations that signature gatherers for Watkins’ initiative misled registered voters into signing it over Memorial Day weekend. The measure’s proponents deny the allegations.
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