Last week, Vicki Martinelli planned to evict roughly 35 tenants from trailers on her Point Reyes Station ranch, blaming health and safety standards she considers unfair and too costly. She has backed off her threat—for now.
But if Ms. Martinelli can’t reach an agreement with county officials on how to address septic and permitting issues, she might have to reconsider, she told the Light, repeating a threat she conveyed in a phone call with Supervisor Dennis Rodoni last Wednesday.
“I may have to execute my rights as a landlord and do a just cause eviction,” she said.
Ms. Martinelli estimates that the permits and repairs outlined by the county could cost her at least a half a million dollars.
Her hardball approach is challenging officials, who hope to reach an agreement with her that will not put her tenants, nearly all of them Latino, out on the street. The twists and turns of the negotiations have been stressful for the residents, some of whom have lived in West Marin for decades. They work in local businesses and send their children to local schools.
The episode has underlined the urgency of developing more affordable housing in West Marin, where real estate prices are sky high and long-term rentals are scarce. Many local workers are forced to commute long distances, and employers are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit.
The county posted warning signs on the 12 trailers on May 15 after inspecting their exterior and finding improper septic connections and sewage surfacing at multiple locations. Code enforcement officers had gone to the ranch after receiving a report of an unauthorized contracting business on the 1,000-acre property.
Last week, they sent Ms. Martinelli a letter informing her that they intended to inspect the inside of the trailers, which they had deemed unfit for human habitation. That’s when she decided to evict everyone.
“There is no need for an inspection at this time,” Ms. Martinelli responded in an Oct. 2 email to Natalie Medina Nava, a county code enforcement officer. “Please allow me to finish the task of evicting this community.”
The decision did not come easily, she said. “There is no housing in West Marin,” she wrote. “These families will be homeless, and that makes every molecule in my body ill. County of Marin doesn’t care!”
She shared those thoughts with Mr. Rodoni in a phone call that evening, saying she had no choice but to give her tenants a 30-day notice. But two days later, Mr. Rodoni called to tell her the inspection was off, at least for now.
The concession was enough for Ms. Martinelli to ease off the eviction threat.
Before their Friday phone call, Ms. Martinelli had summoned the residents to a meeting in a dusty parking area outside a corrugated tin workshop at the ranch. On Sunday morning, they gathered in the sun, fully expecting a dreaded outcome.
But when they arrived, Ms. Martinelli told them she had changed her mind after speaking with Mr. Rodoni. “From Wednesday to Friday, I was sick to my stomach, and I was in tears,” she said.
Since receiving her first correspondence on June 5, Ms. Martinelli has been frustrated with the communications from the county. That letter listed a series of violations permitting and health violations that needed to be addressed.
When they returned for another visit on Aug. 16, health inspectors found the violations had not been corrected. They sent Ms. Martinelli another letter on Sept. 16, giving her seven days to hire septic consultant, a timeline she considered unreasonable.
She was further upset by last week’s letter from code enforcement, which said officers would be arriving at 1 p.m. on Oct. 15 to inspect the inside of the trailers.
“That was kind of the end for her, is what I gathered,” Mr. Rodoni said. “It was just more than she could handle.”
The next day, he said, he conferred with the county executive and county counsel about how to proceed.
“I impressed upon them that we needed to do a better job of communication with Vicki and be helpful to her as her process moves forward so we don’t potentially look at an eviction now or in the future,” he said.
The county has since drafted a new letter clarifying its expectations. It can offer a more flexible timeline, but Ms. Martinelli must hire a septic contractor and install temporary septic tanks as soon as possible. She must arrange to have them pumped at least once a week. The county also recommended that she install portable toilets.
“We told her that we realized that she might need more time, and that’s something we would work on with her and her attorney, but we first also needed to see some steps and improvements being made, especially around the septic conditions,” Mr. Rodoni said.
County officials and local housing advocates have had longstanding concerns about conditions on the ranch, which Ms. Martinelli inherited last winter after the death of her father, Leroy Martinelli. She says she has since removed several substandard trailers and made improvements to all those that remain.
Speaking to 16 of her tenants on Sunday morning, Ms. Martinelli insisted that the remaining trailers are in good shape. Striking a defiant tone, she vowed to fight on their behalf.
“Code enforcement wanted to inspect each home,” she said. “I told them, ‘No way! You wouldn’t do this in a white community, and you’re not going to do it here!’”
She said she was channeling the spirit of her late father, who was known for his gruff demeanor and no-nonsense attitude.
“We are not substandard!” she proclaimed. “I don’t want to hear that word ‘substandard’ ever again!”
Tenants at the meeting said they were happy at the ranch and wanted to remain. When one woman raised issues about her propane tank, Ms. Martinelli said she would have it looked at the next day.
But at a meeting with community organizers and nonprofits last month, some tenants raised concerns. One woman said her trailer was infested with rodents, and another said hers had a mold problem and a hole in the roof. She recently moved out.
Ms. Martinelli said her attorney advised her to proceed with a 30-day eviction, arguing that she couldn’t afford to make the improvements.
But Lucie Hollingsworth, an attorney with Legal Aid of Marin, said that the county’s just-cause eviction notice requires 120 days’ notice if a landlord intends to destroy a unit or withdraw it from the rental market. In addition, when evicting a tenant from a red-tagged property, an owner must make relocation payments to tenants that equal at least two months of fair-market rent.
Ms. Martinelli’s decision to back off for now came as a great relief to Salvador Barajas, who has lived on the ranch for 28 years.
“If we have to leave, I have no idea where I would go,” said Mr. Barajas, who came to Point Reyes Station from Michoacán in 1978, when he took a job milking cows at a dairy. He now works at a horse stable within walking distance of his home.
Asked about the conditions in his trailer, he replied: “Let’s just say, it’s good enough for me.”
Shortly after inspectors tagged the property, the county informed residents that they did not have to pay rent because the trailers had been declared unfit for habitation. But many continued paying rent, which ranges from $1,000 to $1,500 a month, fearing their landlord would be forced to shut the place down if they didn’t.
Because rental payments are not required, residents now sign vouchers describing them as donations to Ms. Martinelli, who covers all utility costs. On Sunday, she said her monthly tab was $5,500 for electricity, $1,500 for water and $830 for trash collection.
“You don’t have to pay rent, but if you pay rent, it’s a donation to me, because I am land rich—and I am poor,” she said.
She told the tenants she has spent nearly $100,000 of her own money to clean up the ranch since February. That money came from profits from her Petaluma insurance business and some stocks she inherited from her father, whose will is being contested by two of her sisters.
Before he died, Leroy had put the ranch up for sale at an asking price of $10.5 million. It is no longer on the market, and Ms. Martinelli said she intends to keep it for at least five years.
She told the tenants she would be willing to lease 10 acres of her property to the county for a few years and allow them to install trailers that are up to code. As she envisions it, the tenants could then move into the Coast Guard housing project, which is expected to be completed within three years.
Yet those affordable units will be subject to federal funding guidelines that prohibit reserving spaces for locals, allowing people from outside the region to apply as well. There is no guarantee that the Martinelli residents would get a unit.
Though the Martinelli ranch is bound by agricultural zoning that prohibits leasing rental housing to anyone but farmworkers, the county can suspend those restrictions on property it owns or leases, Mr. Rodoni said.
Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, said the county might consider doing so in this case. “We’re open to exploring any and all solutions,” she said.
Such an agreement with the county would require lengthy negotiations and some concessions from Ms. Martinelli, who says she is unwilling to yield on certain issues, including the installation of portable toilets.
“We are not getting porta-potties,” she told her tenants.