Photo by Jenny Kirk Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, left, sits next to Jesus Hernandez, president of the Broadmoor Valley Residents Association, as several of the mobile home residents, along with community members and advocates, shared their stories and frustrations regarding the living conditions at the park in addition to how they are being treated by its out-of-state owner.

MARSHALL — Imagine coming together for a community clean-up drive and cook-out and then getting a lot rental bill for more than $1,600 a month later. Broadmoor Valley mobile home park residents brought that complaint — along with several other grievances regarding dilapidated roads, confidentiality issues, intimidation tactics, unsafe living conditions and children’s safety concerns — to the attention of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s attention on Saturday in the United Community Action Partnership meeting room in Marshall.

“We worked from eight in the morning until noon, and we dragged six loads of trash out to the dump,” community advocate Shawn Butler said. “Everybody chipped in and helped pay for the cost. And we had verbal permission — worst mistake I made was not getting it in writing or recording it like we’re doing now.”

Butler said he was even encouraged by management at the time to “get these people to clean up this place.”

“It was a three and a half hour potluck with like 50 residents of the park and allies from the community,” he said. “Then 27 days later, (Christina Izquierdo) gets a bill for $1,680, saying, ‘Well, you rented these (lots) and we only rent by the month, so give us money.'”

Izquierdo said the managers were notified prior to the event and that there was never any mention of fees. She sent a complaint to then-attorney general Lori Swanson, as did the Broadmoor Valley Resident Association, which was founded in May.

“We formed the association last year to address all these issues,” association president Jesus Hernandez said. “That’s the purpose of why we’re here. We brought (Ellison) here to see our situation and we want to hear from him what he thinks.”

Local advocate Misty Butler said the tenants lived in roughly 75 different houses throughout the park and that it was a group effort to get Ellison to Marshall.

“It started with Christina and then as the Association, we sent a complaint to Lori Swanson,” Butler said. “Darwin Dyce and Al Kruse have been instrumental in approaching him at various events that they’re involved with. And we also went up to the Capitol to visit with John Keller, the assistant attorney general and we left a letter of invitation there with some information.”

Izquierdo, the association secretary, also shared her concerns about a document — one which included private rental histories of other tenants — that was emailed to residents in the park.

“Those emails included the fraudulent bill he sent me for $1,600, so now all my neighbors think I’m $1,600 behind in my rent, which I’m not,” she said.

The blunder was controversial in other ways as well.

“Every single person in the park with email got a PDF that showed what they currently owe, what their lot rent is and what they pay,” Shawn Butler said. “That month’s statement that was supposed to be yours, included everybody’s information. And there was absolutely no contact information on it. It didn’t say Broadmoor Valley or anything. It just said tenant information at the top and they were requesting Social Security numbers. And if you don’t give them your Social Security number, they’re going to fine you until you’re in compliance.”

About 60 people attended the meeting. Prior to that, Ellison took a tour of Marshall’s lone mobile home park.

“What I like to do at this point is just sort of gather facts,” Ellison said at the meeting. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions. I have seen some things that I find very concerning — very concerning — so what I will do is take all the documents and the pictures and the notes, go back to my staff and I will look at what we can do to make things better for the people who live in the park.”

Ellison pointed out that he had been attorney general for the past 90 days. For 12 years before that, he was a U.S. Congressman from Minneapolis. Prior to being a state legislator for about four years, Ellison said he had spent 16 years as a lawyer “trying to make a living in the community” until he decided that he needed to “get involved and not just complain about things.”

“Now as attorney general, I’m here to try to do two things: help people afford their lives and make sure everybody lives with dignity and respect,” Ellison said. “My authority as attorney general does involve consumer protection and tenants are consumers. And people who live in manufactured housing areas, I think that isa good, reasonably cost-effective alternatives for people to live in if it’s maintained properly. I’ve seen some that are great and I’ve seen some that need a lot of work.”

Anais Rodriguez had complaints about roads and busing in the mobile home community. She has lived in the park for seven years on her own, but also grew up there since third grade.

“The bus used to pick me up right in front of my mom’s house, but now I have to drive my kids to the front,” she said. “The buses don’t come in at all — only the Head Start bus comes in, but they were making a big deal about that, too. They say the buses damage the roads. That’s their excuse. At the beginning of the year, they were trying to say they didn’t want the garbage trucks to come in now either — and they’re not going to pay for a dumpster. They’re going to make us pay for them.”

Rodriguez said her house is near a shabby storm shelter and two empty lots where former managers Kate and Dave Alvarez piled fallen tree branches and sticks as well as old appliances such as refrigerators and stoves.

“They tell us to clean our lots and we try to clean our lots, but they don’t do their part,” Rodriguez said. “They want our money, but they don’t want to fix things up. Just fix our roads.”

Ben Ramirez, a Minneapolis-based Assembly for Civil Rights advocate, said the biggest concern is for the children who live there.

“There are so many cars that try to avoid all the potholes and they end up going up on the sidewalk near where the children are playing in their yards,” he said.

Ellison pointed out that his visit should not be met with surprise to anyone because it appeared as though issues had been going on for many years, adding that his office is in touch with people from Southern Minnesota Legal Services.

“I was delivered this document — a selective list of issues at Broadmoor Valley — and it’s quite extensive,” he said. “There are quite a number of complaints — 26 on the first page, with plenty of details. And I’ve been hearing about some unsafe conditions regarding children, which is concerning to me. Because the school bus can’t go into the park anymore, that means the kids have to go up to what looks like a pretty busy road and wait there.”

Several residents and advocates reported complaints regarding the business practices of park owner Paul Schierholz, of Colorado Spring, Colorado. A tenant in attendance said the owner had sued him three times and that the owner had lost all three times, but yet he continues charging the tenant for court fees. On top of that, the tenant said, the owner charges him late fees for not paying the court fees on his bill.

Shawn Butler said Schierholz seems to have a pattern of hiring unqualified people to manage his properties, adding that there’s a lot of turnover.

“He rides people till they break, then he fires them or they just run off because they can’t handle it anymore,” he said. “There’s this limbo period until they get somebody else.”

In response to hearing that some people feel like they might have a target on their back because they’ve reported complaints, Ellison said the law is on their side.

“I can assure you that it is a violation to retaliate against somebody for making a complaint,” he said. “Even if the owner didn’t do anything wrong, if they come at your because you complained, that’s a violation. You have to let people raise their issues. You can’t punish them because they spoke up.”

Knowing there are two sides to every story, Ellison said it was his responsibility to reach out to the owner.

“If you run into the owner, feel free to tell him, ‘Ellison’s not out to get you and he’s open to talk,'” Ellison said. “But there’s going to have to be some changes on some things. If we get into an enforcement situation, I’m just going to tell my lawyers to address these issues to the full extent of the law. I’d rather talk it out than litigate.”

Ellison praised the tenants especially for coming forward.

“I think you’re showing a lot of courage to be here because this guy has a lot of power and clearly doesn’t mind pushing back on people,” he said. “So it takes some guts to be here and say something about it. We’re going to do the best we can for you.”