Ron Mugar says he’s always been a collector, and just can’t find it in himself to throw anything away, subscribing to the philosophy that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
“I see things that are good that are going to a landfill and I have a hard time with that,” said Mugar, 78, standing in the front yard of his Kips Corner Road home in Norco, where he cleared stockpiled heavy machinery and debris by order of the city.
One of the things that remains in Mugar’s front yard is a piece of playground equipment — a space shuttle model with springs that has seats inside for children to sit and bounce. He acquired it from a nearby school that was removing all its old playground equipment.
“I’ve had people come by and offer me up to $400 for it,” Mugar said. Even a police officer stopped once and offered him $200, but he declined all offers.
For the past 14 years, Mugar has been engaged in a prolonged battle with Norco code enforcement over his cluttered property, and now the city is seeking more than $100,000 from him to cover the cost of its legal fees. Mugar, a retired graphic designer, said he can’t pay the fees paid to a private law firm to represent the city and is worried he will lose his home.
He hopes a plea to the City Council at its June 3 meeting will help dissuade the city from taking it.
“It’s really stressful. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “I’m in the hands of the City Council at this point.”
Legal battle
For Mugar, his battle with the city over code enforcement has been one of few peaks, but many valleys.
Court records show neighbors first began complaining about Mugar’s property in 2007. The city filed criminal charges when he failed to bring it into compliance. After his home was declared a public nuisance and fire hazard, he pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors in December 2008. He was sentenced in December 2011 to 36 months of unsupervised probation, court records show.
Things settled down for several years, but then neighbors complained again in 2012 about the situation at Mugar’s home, and once again the city ordered him to bring his property into compliance.
But heaps of debris and equipment continued to pile up inside and outside Mugar’s house, and in 2017 the city red-tagged the property, declaring it a “substandard building.” Mugar was issued a notice citing 19 municipal and health and safety code violations, according to a Fourth District Court of Appeals opinion from last December.
The city and its contracted attorneys from the law firm of Dapeer, Rosenblit & Litvak began receivership proceedings on Mugar’s property in 2017, while he worked to negotiate an agreement and make the necessary fixes to get his home up to code. After another prolonged legal squabble over needed repairs to his laundry room, Mugar finally capitulated and made the necessary improvements.
His home was deemed compliant, and the city subsequently asked the court to vacate the receivership.
“It is true that Mr. Mugar has a history with Norco asking him to clean up, but he cleaned up every time,” said Mugar’s attorney, Joshua House, in an email. “The point is that — although he struggled to keep the yard looking picture-perfect — he did clean up, and Norco admitted that he cleaned it up. Why are they still pursuing someone who cleaned up?”
Power of government
Mugar rails at the power of government to coerce its citizens.
“If you buy a piece of property, you really don’t own it,” Mugar said. “If you don’t pay taxes on it, the government can take it. Code enforcement can come and tell you they don’t like the way you’re keeping your lawn, and if you don’t comply, they will violate you.”
House said Mugar’s case raises free speech issues, and that situations like Mugar’s can have a chilling effect on others wanting to challenge deep-pocketed public agencies, but are fearful of the potential financial repercussions if they do not prevail.
“You shouldn’t have to pay law firm rates to defend yourself in court when the government prosecutes you,” House said. “If free speech and the right to petition mean anything, they mean being able to talk to your government without incurring tens of thousands of dollars in fees. This constitutional violation should concern all Californians.”
Mugar caused his own problems
Eric Markus, an attorney with Dapeer, Rosenblit & Litvak, argues that Mugar has no one to blame but himself. He consistently failed to maintain his property for more than two decades, and the city has fielded more than 100 complaints regarding unhealthful and dangerous conditions at his home.
When the city began receivership proceedings in 2017, he said, Mugar was made aware that the city’s costs, if ordered by the court, would be his responsibility.
“In lieu of voluntarily abating what were clearly ultra-hazardous hoarding conditions and repairing a dilapidated structure with a collapsed roof, Mr. Mugar’s attorneys advanced seemingly endless arguments about why Mr. Mugar should not be required to bring his property into conformity with modern building standards,” Markus said, adding that Mugar’s attorneys lost on every argument.
“Mr. Mugar’s attorneys made these arguments with full knowledge that their frivolous positions would increase Mr. Mugar’s potential exposure to attorneys’ fees,” Markus said.
Fearing the worst
Legal arguments aside, Mugar, his attorneys and his children — four daughters and a son he raised by himself — are just hoping the city doesn’t take his home of 35 years because of the $100,000 legal tab.
At 78 years old, he has had quadruple heart bypass surgery, and, in January, spent two weeks in the hospital after contracting a serious case of COVID-19. He said he’s not sure he can make it through this battle alive.
Mugar’s daughter, Nikki Renze, said her mother abandoned the family shortly after it moved into the Norco home in the 1980s. She said Mugar was a good father and did the best he could for his children, even though they had little money. He taught them self-reliance and to work hard if they wanted to get anywhere in life, she said.
“He does have a collecting issue, but that’s an illness. It’s just like an addiction, and you can’t take someone’s house for that, especially after raising five kids on his own,” said Renze, 43 who owns Nikki’s Pet Spa in Norco.
House said Mugar acknowledges he has a problem with hoarding, but has always cleaned up his property, which is in compliance now.
“Ron has a condition; he needs the support of his community. He doesn’t need to be made homeless, much less by a private law firm acting as a government prosecutor,” House said.
There appears to be a ray of hope.
“The city has never taken the position — and has never communicated to anyone — that it will force a sale of Mr. Mugar’s home to satisfy its attorneys’ fee award,” Markus said. “Any claim to the contrary is unfounded speculation and simply being made for public relations advantage after losing every step of the court process. A judgment lien is not the equivalent of taking someone’s property, and the city does not intend to cause a sale of Mr. Mugar’s property to satisfy its lien.”
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Elderly Norco man could lose home after 14-year legal battle over code violations - Press-Enterprise
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