Rancho residents threaten lawsuit

A new lawsuit might be on the horizon at Rancho de Sonoma mobile home park. This time it will not be the owner suing the city, as Preston Cook did last August, but if plans go forward as Mike Warner, president of the Rancho de Sonoma Residents’ Association, expects, it will be the residents – or a portion of them – suing the owner.
Warner said Tuesday that a group of residents has decided to sue owner Preston Cook and Argonaut Investments (alleging he hasn’t properly maintained the property).  The lawsuit will focus on the general upkeep problems but particularly on the ongoing problem of the high arsenic levels in the mobile home park’s well water.
“The law firm is taking this on strictly a contingency basis,” said Warner. “They have never lost a suit against park owners. They won’t take a lawsuit unless they know they have a slam dunk.” To Warner, the dunk begins in the toilet. “If you look in my toilet bowls,” he said, “you’ll see an inch of mud just coming in from the water system.” He said Cook had done nothing to rectify the arsenic levels, which are twice the level allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and he had done no maintenance.
“They’re now trying to do maintenance on each individual home. He’s had contractors coming in from door to door trying to fix things,” Warner said.  “But it’s a little too little and it’s a little too late.”
The Rancho de Sonoma Homeowners Association (a different organization, distinct from the Residents’ Association) is opposed to the lawsuit.
In a recent letter, Earl Ahern, identifying himself as president of the board of directors of the Rancho de Sonoma Homeowners’ Association, said his group, which he feels has the responsibility of representing the views of all residents at the park, does not support the lawsuit. “Any legal action taken by these residents regarding ‘failure to maintain’ issues may lead to our appearance in court to repudiate these unwarranted allegations,” he wrote.
Warner is not cowed by that threat. “They’re just five dissidents,” he said of the other organization. According to resident Diane Shepard, the Residents’ Association comprises about 80 percent of the residents in the park and is “definitely” the predominant association. While she seemed confident the lawsuit would go forward, she said there is nothing further to say about the lawsuit at this time.