Representing the face of mobile home park residents on Grandview Boulevard, longtime resident Frank Campagna delivered an eloquent and low-key off-the-cuff speech before the City Council last night, pleading in defense of his potentially endangered fellow coach owners.
So comprehensively, softly and persuasively did he present the straight-forward case for the vulnerability of the small knot of residents that the audience broke into spontaneous applause at the end, and Mayor Scott Malsin repeatedly commended Mr. Campagna for his dispassionate, adjective-free advocacy.
In the event the grounds at 4071 Grandview and at 4025 Grandview change owners — and that is key to a prospective ordinance under discussion — Mr. Campagna said that aging, low-income and handicapped occupants of the two parks have two concerns they would like the Council to address:
• The lead-time for tenants, once notified they have to move, and
• The amount of compensation they can count on when forced to relocate.
A Year and a Half’s Notice?
While state law appeared to the Council and others to be vague about lead time, whether it is six or 12 months, Mr. Campagna said members of the Grandview Mobile Home Owners Assn. would like 18 months .
If Culver City joins a statewide list of more than 30 cities with so-called conversion ordinances, he asked the Council to concentrate on two considerations :
• The right of first-refusal if the mobile homes are replaced with a different form of housing on the property by a new owner, and
• Sufficient fiscal/housing protection if residents are forced to relocate temporarily or permanently.
The last time mobile home park residents came to City Hall, three years ago last month, petitioning to be included in a neighborhood redevelopment project that barely has moved since then, the Council was sharply, angrily divided in rejecting them.
This time, with four new members seated, the five-man Council was in full and enthusiastic accord with all of Mr. Campagna’s requests and suggestions. Essentially, they xeroxed Mr. Campagna’s list and ordered staff to develop an ordinance.
“We are lucky that nothing happened before we had a chance to pull an ordinance together,” Mr. Malsin said afterward.
It was he who brought the matter before the Council.
When the mayor went to vote early this morning, a mobile home park resident spotted him and went over to lavishly express her appreciation.
“We work on a lot of different subjects, but this one really feels good,” Mr. Malsin said. “What we are doing is fair and reasonable.”
COUNCIL NOTES — Mainly after prodding from Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger, the community at-large will have two roles in the city manager selection process. They are invited to the Monday, Dec. 1, City Council meeting, at 7 o’clock, to describe the desired qualities they think a city manager should possess. Months later, when the group of applicants has been whittled to about six, three panels will separately interview the semi-finalists. One panel will include five community members, each an appointee of a different Councilman…When Councilman Andy Weissman went to his polling station, the ice rink on Sepulveda boulevard, at 6:45 this morning, he only was the 20th person in line. “At least a hundred were behind me,” he said. On a related subject, when the activist Chip Netzel voted at mid-morning at the American Legion hall, his arrival doubled the size of the line…