A resident from Cimarron Park Estates speaks during a Nolanville City Council Workshop on Thursday. Residents speaking on Thursday testified to the City Council that they have been abused or taken advantage of by park staff.  Jack Dowling | Herald

“Half these trailers that people are living in aren’t habitable,” resident Dave Kegley said. “Everyone here is at wits end, all the lawyers don’t even want to talk to us.”

Among the complaints leveraged Thursday night were accusations of harassment, targeted fines, habitability concerns and retaliation.

Fines were another hot issue, as Hope Ibarra, who said she owns her trailer, told the City Council that despite being released from the city for fines related to code enforcement, the park has continued to charge her.

“I can say that, as an owner, I am getting fined for no reason,” she said.

Nolanville Police Chief Michael Hatton stated Thursday that the resident has been released from fines by the city, but is still being charged by the property.

“She came in, talked to us, we removed the fine; the problem is, we removed (the fine), but management has not,” he said.

Other residents told the City Council that multiple homes and pieces of property have been damaged due to falling branches, which they said can only be taken care of by the park, per their rental contract.

One resident, who asked not to be identified for several reasons including fear of retaliation, told the City Council that the condition of their trailer has led to exorbitant repair expenses, as well as a medical incident, due to a scalding summer.

Air conditioning, a critical component in fighting the triple-digit Texas heat, is something that many residents have learned to do without — some for more than five months. The problem, residents said, is that many units are in a state of disrepair — some residents stated that they have had to purchase their own units, a temporary and often unsuccessful solution, while others have paid through the nose to get their current one fixed, only to have it break again. AC units, even small ones, have a significant power draw, and many residents told the City Council that they are unable to even use the units they have purchased because they trip the electrical breakers, shutting off all power in the house.

The response was to complete an online form and wait. For most of the residents who spoke Thursday, however, they never stopped waiting.

“So you’ll be out there, fixing that invoice, and getting it halfway right, and they say ‘oh that’s good enough?’” Councilman Butch Reiss asked former Cimarron Park Estates employee Jesse Anders.

“Yes, sometimes,” he said.

Another resident claimed that she was forced to sign a blank piece of paper as part of her rental contract and that the park refuses to allow them to take copies of those rental contracts out of the office.

“I was like, isn’t this illegal, and she said ‘no it’s not,’” she said. “But I had already paid the deposit to my house, so I didn’t have a choice, and (the manager) said she wasn’t going to refund it.”

One resident even made the bold claim that a new family had been moved in less than 24 hours after a decomposing body had been removed from that same trailer.

Stalemate

“We’ve called from the time they open to the time they close, and they don’t answer,” Ibarra said.

Residents on Thursday told the City Council that park management can only be seen doing rounds in the early morning finding things to fine, and cannot be reached at the park’s office. What’s more, residents have accused park management of trying to cover their tracks.

“The day after the article came out, they started pulling boxes and trash bags out of the office,” Kegley told the Herald in a voice recorded interview while the City Council met in executive session.

Vandara Spencer, a resident whose trailer burned than a month ago, told the City Council that she was asked to remove her belongings and spray the mobile home for pests.

“My trailer was burned down, and I’ve been forced to relocate,” she said. “The fire department told me that trailer is uninhabitable. So why am I being fined cleaning fees?”

Spencer also accused the park of accepting her rental check, as well as another check from public rental assistance for the same month.

“If that’s true, that’s defrauding the state,” Councilman David Williams said.

For the majority of residents, however, they have no choice but to pay the fines.

“We have nowhere else to go,” said resident Jessica Bourgess. “We don’t have the money to find another place.”

Judy Garrett told the City Council, “I stood up to them, I’ve been standing up to them. But I’m on fixed income.”

“What are you going to do?”

After nearly an hour and a half of testimonial and over a dozen speakers, there was just one burning question: What will the City Council do?

The issue is problematic. During the City Council Meeting that preceded the workshop, the city approved two ordinances indirectly aimed at preventing residents from being taken advantage of. The first ordinance requires businesses to obtain a license prior to operating commercially, while the second requires mobile home parks to obtain a certificate of occupancy prior to leasing the unit.

“We received numerous complaints of health and safety concerns from the residents of Cimmeron Park,” City Manager Kara Escajeda said in an official statement Saturday. “The residents claimed to have been forced into rent to own contracts or they would have to move out. These arrangements make residents responsible for repairs. The purpose of the ordinances passed is to prevent mobile home parks from taking advantage of low income families by requiring inspections prior to moving in new tenants. It also requires health, safety and fire inspection annually with their business license renewal.”

Escajeda explained Thursday that the city cannot target businesses through ordinances or take specific city action, and told residents that it cannot pass ordinances that would retroactively make something illegal.

“Everyone here on the council, the staff, we wouldn’t be here at 9:43 (p.m.) if we didn’t care,” Mayor Andy Williams told the assembled residents. When it’s something that oversteps into an area that we can handle, that’s where we’re going to target.”

Bilberry, clearly worn down from the hour and a half of testimony, told the residents that he was “sick” of what they were going through.

“We heard you and we’re going to work as hard as we can to find something that we can do. Thank you for bravely coming out here and talking to us,” he said.