Senate hears batch of mobile home bills

Kiley Russell

Tuesday, April 27, 1999 | 5:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A measure to boost security in Nevada mobile home parks got a mixed reaction during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday.

AB195 would require local governments to authorize police patrols even if the parks are on private land.

"We don't really have regular patrols in mobile home parks. It seems to be that the police feel that because it is on private property they don't have the right to patrol," said Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, the bill's primary sponsor.

But Lt. Stan Olsen of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the bill won't increase police presence in mobile home parks because the demand for police services is so high.

"In southern Nevada, in one month we had 300 calls for service ... We average 1.7 officers per 1,000 people in Las Vegas. The national average is 2.6 per 1,000," Olsen told the Commerce and Labor Committee.

He added that police currently have the authority to cruise through trailer parks, but because the parks are often low-crime areas, they aren't a high priority for regular patrols.

Police presence in mobile home parks is also often thwarted by locked gates, Olsen said.

But Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, said that the people who live in trailer parks pay taxes and expect some kind of regular police presence in their neighborhood just like anyone else.

"I think you've made a valiant effort to address a problem, but what I'm hearing from law enforcement is that there won't be more patrols unless you give them more people," said Commerce and Labor Chairman Randolph Townsend, R-Reno.

AB195 would also take food stamps and Medicare payments out of the equation when determining who's eligible for state rental subsidies.

However, Renee Diamond, chief of the state Manufactured Housing Division, said the new rules would've only applied to three people in 1998.

Another bill heard by the Commerce and Labor Committee Tuesday would keep mobile home park managers and owners from prohibiting tenants from posting political signs.

"We've had some reports of people not allowed to put up signs but their neighbors were allowed. We want some uniformity," said Manendo, the bill's author.

AB39 puts a time limit on how long these signs could be hung on mobile homes and therefore may be unconstitutional, said Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas.

Landlords could force the signs to come down seven days after an election.

Manendo said he'd be willing to amend the bill to make sure it passes constitutional muster.

"We just want to make sure that people have the right to display their signs," he said.

A final mobile home bill heard by the committee would require landlords to trim trees in their parks and remove snow from the park's streets.

AB477, by Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, would also allow landlords to give tenants breaks on their rent if they pay with checks or money orders.