BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                       



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                   SB 951|
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                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  SB 951
          Author:   Correa (D)
          Amended:  As introduced
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE  :  7-1, 3/23/10
          AYES:  Lowenthal, Huff, DeSaulnier, Kehoe, Oropeza, Pavley,  
            Simitian
          NOES:  Ashburn
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Harman

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE  :  8-1, 4/26/10
          AYES:  Kehoe, Alquist, Corbett, Denham, Leno, Price, Wolk,  
            Yee
          NOES:  Cox
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Walters, Wyland


           SUBJECT  :    Mobilehomes:  park inspections and fees

           SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This bill extends the Department of Housing and  
          Community Developments Mobilehome Park Maintenance  
          Inspection Program until January 1, 2017.

           ANALYSIS  :    The Mobilehome Parks Act requires the  
          Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to  
          regulate the construction, installation, use, maintenance,  
          and occupancy of mobilehomes and mobilehome parks.  

                                                           CONTINUED





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          Under the Mobilehome Park Maintenance (MPM) Inspection  
          Program, existing law requires HCD or a local enforcement  
          agency, until January 1, 2012, to inspect mobilehome parks  
          proactively with a goal of inspecting at least five percent  
          of the parks per year and a focus on those parks for which  
          the enforcement agency has received complaints about  
          serious health and safety violations.  

          Existing law provides for HCD or a local enforcement  
          agency, until 
          January 1, 2012, to collect annually a per space fee of $4  
          to fund the MPM inspection program, $2 of which the  
          mobilehome park owner may charge to individual homeowners.

          Existing law requires HCD to convene a task force every six  
          months to provide input to HCD on the conduct and operation  
          of the MPM inspection program.  The task force includes  
          mobilehome park owners, mobilehome owners, local  
          enforcement agencies, and legislative representatives.  HCD  
          must report to the task force information on the number of  
          parks and spaces that were inspected, the fees collected,  
          the most common violations discovered, and the number of  
          violations identified plus progress on correcting those  
          violations.

          This bill:

          1. Extends the sunset date on the MPM inspection program  
             and related fees until 2017.

          2. Requires that HCD report in writing to the MPM Task  
             Force and that HCD include additional information in its  
             report on:

             A.    The number of violations issued to mobilehome  
                owners, including the number that have been  
                corrected, the number that are uncorrected, and  
                progress in correcting the uncorrected violations.

             B.    The number of violations issued to mobilehome park  
                owners, including the number that have been  
                corrected, the number that are uncorrected, and  
                progress in correcting the uncorrected violations.








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             C.    Recommendations for statutory or administrative  
                changes to the MPM program.

           Background
           
          AB 925 (O'Connell), Chapter 1125, Statutes of 1990, first  
          created the MPM Inspection Program, and it required HCD or  
          a local enforcement agency to inspect every mobilehome and  
          every mobilehome park in the state once every five years.
           
          Because of delays created by the Northridge Earthquake and  
          other factors, HCD was not able to complete the inspection  
          of all mobilehome parks in the first five years.   
          Therefore, the Legislature twice extended the program to  
          require that all inspections be completed in eight-years,  
          or by 1999.  By 1999, HCD and local agencies had completed  
          the inspection of all mobilehome parks.

          In 1999, SB 700 (O'Connell), Chapter 520, extended the MPM  
          inspection program until January 1, 2007, and made some  
          changes to the inspection program.  In particular, SB 700  
          limited the inspection program to mobilehome parks that  
          have a history of serious health and safety code violations  
          and required inspections at least once every seven years.   
          SB 700 limited the inspections in part because of the  
          limited funding provided by the $4-fee that supports the  
          MPM program.

          SB 106 (Dunn), 2005-06 Session, would have deleted the 2007  
          sunset date on the MPM inspection program and increased the  
          existing $4-fee to $6 that pays for the inspections.  The  
          Governor vetoed SB 106 because of the fee increase, so in  
          2006, SB 1231 (Dunn), Chapter 644, and a companion bill, AB  
          2250 (Coto), Chapter 858, extended the sunset date from  
          2007 to 2012 but did not increase the inspection fee.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  Yes    
          Local:  No

          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

                         Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions       2009-10     2010-11    2011-12     Fund 







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          MPM inspection program                  $500       
          $1,000Special*
                                     (Program costs funded by fees)

          HCD report           minor, absorbable costs       
          Special*

           * Mobilehome Park Revolving Fund (funding level based on  
            revenue 
             from fees)

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  4/27/10)

          California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
          Golden State Mobilehome Owners League
          Western Center on Law and Poverty
          Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association


           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    The author, who chairs the Senate  
          Select Committee on Manufactured Homes and Communities,  
          believes it is important to extend the MPM inspection  
          program for another five years.  He notes that California's  
          nearly 4,000 mobilehome parks house approximately 550,000  
          residents and that the MPM program provides a complete  
          scheduled inspection of those mobilehome parks, as  
          contrasted with the complaint-driven inspections that  
          otherwise occur.  The author asserts that the MPM  
          inspection program came about in 1990 because of concerns  
          that the complaint inspection process by itself did not  
          adequately address deteriorating health and safety  
          conditions in some parks.  As a result of the MPM program,  
          HCD and local enforcement agencies, since 1991, have cited  
          both park owners and homeowners for tens of thousands of  
          health and safety violations, which as a result have been  
          remedied.  The author argues that some of these would not  
          otherwise have been addressed.  With the impending January  
          1, 2012 sunset date, the author reports interest from  
          homeowners, HCD, and the park industry in extending the  
          program another five years.


          JJA:mw  4/27/10   Senate Floor Analyses 







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                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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