Judge upholds Sky-Vue closure

Sito Negron

Friday, April 30, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

By 5 p.m. this evening, Sky-Vue Mobile Park should be empty.

After an agonizing month for residents, a judge Thursday declined to stop a city order that effectively shuts the place down as of this evening, bringing to a bitter end a nearly three-month battle for the future of the park that left virtually everybody unhappy.

"It brings me no pleasure at all to see people moved ... but it's the right thing to do," said Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic on the courthouse steps.

The tension was captured in a courtroom exchange between Jerbic and Sky-Vue co-owner Sandi DiMarco Thursday morning. District Judge Kathy Hardcastle had just ruled that the city could proceed with the park evacuation, and several anxious residents clustered around DiMarco.

She turned to Jerbic, and, in reference to the park closure, hissed, "How could you do that?"

Jerbic, usually reserved in his public appearances, angrily replied, "You did this!"

DiMarco has sought to portray the problems at the Sky-Vue -- deemed life-threatening by health and safety officials who have found leaking sewer pipes, unsanitary water supply, faulty wiring and lack of a fire hydrant toward the back of the park -- as exaggerated by overzealous inspectors who were trying to cover up their previous lack of action. She has said that many of the repairs were taking place, and that inspectors were cooperating with her until the middle of last week, when she says they began documenting problems solely for the purpose of building a case against her and her husband, David DiMarco.

However, testimony before Las Vegas City Council Wednesday and in court Thursday morning dissected the claim that repairs were proceeding on schedule.

Besides assertions by health and safety inspectors that the work performed was generally substandard or cosmetic, contractor Wendell Gentry told council Wednesday that he worked for three days, "barely scratched the surface," and received three checks, two of which bounced.

Hardcastle continually refuted the argument by Garry Hayes, the DiMarcos' lawyer, that they were taking responsibility for the problems at the park and the city was making the situation worse with the rash action of closing Sky-Vue.

"This is your clients putting these residents in this situation," Hardcastle said to Hayes.

And Jerbic, in arguing before the court that immediate action was necessary, compared the situation to a car accident. "You wouldn't put them (the injured person) in your kid's wagon and walk them down the street one block at a time," he said. "... For two years people's lives have been at risk. Today is the day to end it."

The city and the Clark County Health District have taken the lead in carefully scrutinizing the work the park owners have done since the first orders to fix Sky-Vue began almost 90 days ago.

The residents have been caught in the middle, uncertain of what would happen to them. Some own their mobile homes, while others rent. Some blamed the owners and left early, others held on, hoping the troubles would pass.

Mary Etcher, who owns her home and spoke before Las Vegas City Council Wednesday, decided Thursday it was time to leave the park.

"I'm so tired of this," she said during a break in the court hearing Thursday. "I'm willing to move as long as I stay a homeowner."

Jim Vilt, a lawyer with Nevada Legal Aid, has been trying to help the residents. He said that the park owners allowed the situation to get out of control, but it's the residents who are suffering.

"In a sense the mobile home park's attorney was correct. It looked like all these code enforcement folks focused on building a case. But they had the facts and the facts speak for themselves," Vilt said. "I don't know what to believe, and that gives you a sense of what the residents are going through the past month. Unfortunately now there's no confusion."

However, he said, there still is the question of how residents can protect their property rights -- for both owners of mobile homes and renters who may not immediately be able to pack up and leave.

Les Gaskell, a longtime resident of the park who said the city helped create the problem by pushing services for the homeless to the stretch of Owens near Main where the Sky-Vue sits, angrily claimed Thursday that thieves would strip the homes bare the moment they were left unattended.

Some residents who left the park April 9, when the city first offered people a chance to leave, have complained of ransacked homes and missing belongings.

David Riggleman, city of Las Vegas spokesman, said that the city will ensure that the park is secured. Orlando Sanchez, director of Las Vegas Neighborhood Services, said Thursday morning that the city will fence Sky-Vue and hire security. The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved a motion to permit the city attorney to take the DiMarcos to court, and the city's options include suing to recover the cost of dealing with Sky-Vue. For example, the city has spent almost $40,000 to pay for residents to move from the park. Vilt said that tenants may have cause to sue the DiMarcos to recover the expense of moving.

"The conditions that forced the closure are in the hands of the owners," Vilt said. "You do have the city actually kicking the people out, but the owner could have prevented this from happening."

Vilt said the situation was mishandled, and that residents should have been informed by city officials of what was happening every step of the way.

"Wouldn't you think when this was going on they (the city) would have told the residents don't drink the water, or get out of the house, it's a fire trap?" he said. "Those seem like things you tell the human occupants first, and not the park. You've got to keep these people in the loop.

"I hope when they (the city) look at this in future this will be part of the concern, helping people involved, giving them knowledge to help themselves from the get-go."

Riggleman said that 38 households have gone through the "triage center," set up by the city in the Salvation Army, next door to the Sky-Vue. He said 33 have been placed in new housing, 24 units were vacant, and officials were unable to contact people in 20 other units.

However, those numbers add up to 119 units accounted for, and the Sky-Vue has only 100 spaces, with about 20 homes that were vacant.

Riggleman said it was possible that when people were moved out April 9, the DiMarcos moved people in to replace them.

Sandi DiMarco said she might have rented one trailer since April 9.

She said Thursday that "the city says they were giving (residents) vouchers but I've had people coming up to me crying all day today, saying they can't get a voucher because they have no ID, or they can't place their pets."

Riggleman said part of the problem in trying to help residents was that many stopped looking for a place to live after a judge granted a brief stay on the city's action ordering the park evacuated 72 hours from Monday.

"I think we got a bit of mixed signals," he said. "I saw Miss DiMarco on TV telling people 'Good news, the judge will allow you to stay."'

He said that "my observation is that people who gave the team a chance to address their needs were helped. We feel if we can get them through the center we can help."

Sky-Vue resident Jim Lockerbie, who has a 12-year-old son and two dogs, was skeptical of the city's promise to help.

"They tried to put me in apartments, and I got two dogs, and I'm a single parent. Some of these people with nothing but clothes on their back can move, but I been here for seven years. I got a tool shed, and all kinds of (stuff)," he said.

Lockerbie said when he went to the assistance center, he was offered $497 to help him move. That wouldn't get him into an apartment, he said.

"They (the city) talk a good line about helping us out but they're so backlogged," he said Thursday, as he prepared to look for a place to live.

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