While alleging that a third-party mediator abused his authority, a local mobile home park owner appealed to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors to overturn the ruling in an arbitration case.
Following an eight-hour, in-person hearing in early 2026 and opportunities for written rebuttal, arbitrator John Derrick deemed $24 as an appropriate rent increase per space at Del Cielo Mobile Estates in Orcutt.
The park’s owner, Del Cielo Manufactured Housing Community LLC, originally proposed a $39 increase, which faced backlash from tenants of the 180-unit mobile home park. Those tenants then initiated the arbitration.
Derrick gave his verdict in late March. The Board of Supervisors reviewed ownership’s appeal during its final meeting of June, and unanimously upheld Derrick’s ruling.
“The board’s role is not to reweigh the evidence or substitute its judgement on the appropriate amount of the rent increase,” County Counsel Rachel Van Mullem explained at the June 23 hearing.
She described the board’s objective as determining whether Derrick abused his discretion as an arbitrator in this case.
“An abuse of discretion is established when the board finds that the arbitrator either failed to proceed in a manner required by law, made a decision not supported by the findings, or made a finding not supported by substantial evidence,” she said.
Staff’s recommendation was to reject two separate appeal claims from Del Cielo’s owner.
The first appeal alleged that Derrick abused his authority while misinterpreting Santa Barbara County’s mobile home rent control ordinance, while the latter argued that Derrick mislabeled a key line item in Del Cielo’s summary of operating expenses.
Staff’s stance was that Derrick simply administered the county ordinance when he calculated the $24 increase and argued that the appeal on abuse of discretion was ultimately challenging the county ordinance.
“The issue … goes to the legality of the county’s ordinance itself,” county General Services Assistant Director Ted Teyber said, “and the arbitrator correctly notes in his decision that a constitutional challenge of the ordinance is outside of his role in administering the ordinance.”
As for the line item disagreement, staff agreed with Derrick’s labeling of a $20,000 broker’s commission as “a core expense,” rather than an incidental expense, which ownership argued should be allowed to be passed on to tenants as part of a rent increase.
“That one item is worth about $9 per space,” Del Cielo ownership’s attorney, Jason Dilday, said at the appeal hearing. He asked the board to recompute that expense into the allowed increase, which he said would bring the $24 total per unit to $33.
Before seconding 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino’s motion to deny the appeal, 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann said it was clearly stated in both Derrick’s report and the county ordinance itself that incidental expenses are defined as necessary to the operations, maintenance, and/or repair of the mobile home park.
Since the $20,000 broker’s commission preceded the Del Cielo owner’s purchase of the park in 2024, county staff agreed that it shouldn’t be considered an incidental expense caused by operating or maintaining the park.
“Broker’s commissions are typically captured as part of the purchase costs and are not included as an operating expense,” the staff report stated.
Lavagnino’s motion to side with staff and reject the appeal passed 5-0.
“[Derrick] did not abuse his discretion,” 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson said. “I don’t see anything here that dissuades me.”
This article appears in July 2 – July 9, 2026.
