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Coldren, tanks.
“When I went to use the restroom during that last break,” attorney Robert Coldren hissed at the overflow courtroom audience, “one of you people called me a ‘dirty greedy son of a bitch!'”
“Did he say ‘you people’?” whispered one of the elderly mobile home owners comprising 95% of the crowd.
Coldren continued: “And then that gentleman told me, ‘I hope your client’ – my client who, I might add, is a Korean War veteran [that’s park owner Richard Worley who’s just suddenly raised his tenants’ space rents over 100%] – ‘I hope your client burns in Hell.‘ And then he finished up by telling me to ‘GO FUCK MYSELF.‘ And I got this man’s photograph.”
“I realize tempers are high,” added the tenants’ lawyer Bruce Stanton (left), “but IF THIS REALLY HAPPENED, guys, please don’t do that, it’s making my job harder. If you have anything to say, just say it to me please.”
Maybe that happened, maybe it didn’t, maybe Coldren just made it up (we didn’t see the photo) but high tempers were understandable – residents of the El Nido Mobile Estates, all of them seniors, many there for decades, were just handed a sudden $641 rent increase – over 100%. And this in a town with a rent control ordinance on mobile home parks since 1979 – keeping the yearly increases tied to the Consumer Price Index – 1 to 3%.
But Coldren, whom we’ve already met in our Huntington Beach story from last year, has been on a crusade against mobile home rent control for years, up and down the Golden Coast – against attempts to institute it, as well as trying to defang already existing rent control ordinances. A victory in San Juan Capistrano, the only south county city with such an ordinance, making that ordinance out to be a toothless hippie vestige of the last century, would go a long way in his crusade.
88-year-old Worley is not saying where he suddenly got the idea to more-than-double his old tenants’ rent; was he approached by Coldren, or does he have kids or grandkids who are impatient with the modest profit he’s been making off El Nido? It would be nice to know but we don’t.
I was able to catch the first few hours of the hearings, where each opposing lawyer brought up their “expert witness” to testify that the rent increase was fair and reasonable or not. Coldren’s witness was CPA and former Laguna Niguel councilman/mayor, Gary Capata (right), a man who firmly believes that it is wrong, “confiscatory,” for a landlord not to make as much off his property as he possibly can. Mr. Capata, who has testified in over a dozen such cases, always on the landlord’s side, repeatedly compared the lower rents heretofore charged at El Nido with higher rents in southern OC that don’t have rent control; opined that not only was the $641 hike “fair and reasonable” but that anything up to $830 also would be, and any hike LESS than $300 would be “confiscatory;” and also made an interesting point that got me thinking:
As Capata puts it, rent control in a mobile home park confers “value” from the park owner to the home owner. Check it out: several tenants have been able to sell their homes along with their rent-controlled spaces for big bucks – like, $400K – because the buyer really values getting a rent-controlled space. Big profit there that the park owner isn’t seeing. Maybe that’s not fair. Although, as he says, “vacancy de-control” would ameliorate that situation – meaning, rent-control would no longer be in effect when a home is sold.
I unfortunately had to leave soon after the tenants’ “expert,” the ineffable Kenneth K. Barr, took the stand. But a few facts seem unavoidable:
- Worley’s increase is disallowed by SJC’s 1979 rent-control ordinance, unless laws are just jokes;
- Worley knew about that ordinance when he purchased the property, and should have been content with the modest profits he’s made ever since;
- And each tenant/homeowner who moved in knowing of the ordinance took that into consideration moving in there; to pull the rug out from them now would be not only inhumane but a major swindle.
And Worley seemed pretty resigned that same morning when he talked to FOX 11’s Vikki Vargas: “I guess we’ll take whatever they give us,” he mumbled, just like someone who’s been buttonholed for a crusade he wanted no part of. Here’s how it works: Michael Roush, the “hearing officer” who led last week’s hearing as a sort of judge, will report his recommendation to SJC’s Housing Advisory Committee, which will in turn report their recommendation to City Council, all hopefully before the outrageous rent increase goes into effect Sept. 6. Keep coming back to the Orange Juice for more updates. This Mobile Home War, a subsidiary of America’s Class War, is heating up ALL OVER the county, and we have a lot to tell you!
El Nido fighters
*Sad……the days of the Dinosaurs and Mobile Parks has seen its history and their very future come alive in front them. Hopefully, they have the best possible representation that money can buy and that guy doesn’t take half of what they finally get. Since he will be probably paid by both sides anyway. Wish there was something we could do to help those tolks….really too bad. “Time to move on…..” – not the best possible answer is it?
*They all use the same rhetoric: “You can’t stop the wheels of progress!” – Which means: “Ripping off the public and old folks in particular is a wonderful way to send our kids to college and stuff some cash into our retirement account!” Don’t forget Developers are not the worst – the cash they pay the politicians and the results they get from that – now that is God awful.
A FULL KNOCK-OUT OF COLDREN AND WORLEY IN THE FIRST ROUND!
El Nido attorney, Bruce Stanton is the warrior who slew the Greedy, Rich, Corporate Giant! Michael Roush, the Hearing Officer, gave El Nido residents a clean-sweep victory on all counts today, the most important being that the $641 rent increase is NOT necessary for Worley to get a fair and reasonable return on his investment in El Nido. Until our victory is final, the residents will have to pay the rent increase of $641 in addition to their normal rent, with the expectation that it will either be refunded or credited to the following month’s rent. Coldren and Worley suffered a big loss today!
I am confident that we will win Round 2 and Round 3: the Housing Authority and City Council decisions. The recommendation of Hearing Officer, Michael Roush will weigh heavily in our favor as they make their decision.
I am trusting the City Council will respect the citizens of our city who elected them to uphold the laws of San Juan Capistrano and will accept Mr. Roush’s recommendation, which will uphold the rent control ordinance in this city!
I want to celebrate now, but will wait until the City Council accepts Mr. Roush’s recommendation, hopefully before the end of September. Until then, no champagne, but I will finally sleep well at night.
Sleeping well in El Nido!
P.S. By the way, many, many kudos to BRUCE STANTON. He stated after the decision, that he has seldom seen such a “clean sweep” in one party’s favor (ours). Mr. Stanton specializes in representing residents of mobile homes, and was unwaveringly focused on the narrow issues he needed to argue to prevail and he avoided the diversionary antics of Coldren. And his fee was VERY reasonable – because he was recommended to us by GSMOL, Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of the mobile/manufactured-home lifestyle. GSMOL is THE advocate for mobile home residents ($25 year annual membership but worth much more). I recommend them. You might consider recommending GSMOL and STANTON to those residency parks who are in a battle with owners. And I have no axe to grind – except I saw results!
Impressive! Nice to hear a happy ending (even if it’s only the ending of a chapter) at least once in a while!
*Much Gusto Compadre! Amazing really. It is not often that the residents prevail on any count. Sounds like you had a good one representing you. We suggest that if the hearing resolution prevails…..tht you may want to offer him
a bonus.
Carol Brinkman writes in, regarding the highly anticipated and final “Round 3”:
“The date for the SJC City Council to render a final verdict on the proposed $641 rent increase in El Nido Mobile home park has been postponed (from October 5th). The new date is MONDAY, OCTOER 26 at 10 am in Council Chambers at 2400 Paseo Adelanto, San Juan Capistrano, 92675. The “apparent: reason is that one of Mr. Worley’s attorneys had a conflict in his schedule. As you can imagine this has created serious financial and emotional trauma for everyone in the park as we are faced with paying the rent increase yet another month . . . or NOT and then face an eviction 3/60 notice. As of this date, October 1st, none of us have received our rent invoice which is supposedly due today?? No one is quite sure what is happening and why, and what to do next. Anger and anxiety are high.”
Also the Weekly’s Courtney Hamilton did a big story covering these abuses in parks across the OC – the ones in Huntington and SJC I’ve written about as well as others in Newport and Costa Mesa – which includes something I didn’t know about the wily, haughty Coldren – he’s not only the go-to lawyer for increasing space rents, he’s also an investor in a lot of parks himself. http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2015/09/costa_mesa_rolling_homes_mobile_park_senior-citizen_developers.php
I am looking for a home in the El NIdo Estates and am waiting until the rent control issue is settled. Does anyone know that if, in fact, the rent control is kept, will those presently living there be grandfathered in but new owners might be subject to higher rents? Any feedback would be appreciated!
Thank you.
If that change happened, it would be called “vacancy de-control” (see the article) and I imagine it would take a new ordinance by council or the people. Or maybe we’ll find out on Oct 26 whether or not the council works that into some kind of compromise.
A rental hike over $841 is not reasonable though for retired seniors . Landlords are taking advantage of others to arbitrarily raise the rent to whatever price they want . They still also have to make sure the units are habitable for the seniors before they can raise the rent . And how does this lawyer know that the older tenants arent also Veterans . Also such disrespect of the older residents on the part of the lawyer is just unreal . But I do appreciate that the lawyer appreciates Korean War Veterans though .
He’ll appreciate whatever seems useful to his case at the moment.
Hilarious though, the way he spins this now as a great victory. I really should have written a whole story about THAT.
Oh, maybe you haven’t seen the update. http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2015/10/coldren-fail-el-nido-mobile-home-tenants-clink-their-glasses-to-a-victory/
DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN? EVERY YEAR? MOBILE HOME COMMUNITY ARISE AND PUT COLDREN AND CRONIES AWAY FOR GOOD!
I will be responding to the Bat Signal within the week, hold tight and nobody sign anything!
California Property Owner & Farmland Protection Act would phase out rent control
In some ways, it’s as much a tradition in San Juan Capistrano as the Swallows Day Parade, Summer Nites Concerts or the Historical Society’s Old-Timer’s Picnic: If you live in one of the city’s seven mobile-home parks, you’re protected by a rent-control ordinance.
The ordinance was put into place in 1978, generally limiting any rent increase to an annual amount based on the consumer price index. In 1978, the issue was before residents again, seeking to strengthen the ordinance and keep rents low even when a new owner buys into the park. That was the fiercely fought Measure A. Park owners banded together against a group of residents who called themselves Help Our People Exist.