Landlord fights back against ‘slum lord’ comments from aldermen

“I resent being called a slum lord,” said Brookhaven resident and property owner Gail Onesi at the most recent Brookhaven Board of Aldermen meeting.

Onesi said she had given suggestions at a Planning Commission meeting in May regarding a proposed Mobile Home Park Ordinance. At the next Board meeting, Alderman-at-large Don Underwood responded to City Inspector David Fearn’s report on the Planning Commission meeting by saying, “The only people who had questions or objections were d— slum lords.”

Fearn responded that the assessment was inaccurate, saying, “I was at the meeting.”

In June, Spiller said at a Board meeting that landlords who rent sub-par properties and refuse to take care of them are basically “slum lords.” He referred specifically to a trailer park located off Hwy. 51 on Union Street.

In the July 16 meeting, Onesi said Underwood had spoken rudely and unfairly.

“And I’ll quote, ‘The only people giving suggestions there were d— slum lords,’ and that was put in the paper, and that was about me, and I don’t like it.”

Onesi said her complaint at the Commission meeting was that the ordinance requiring new mobile homes in the city to be double-wide rather than single-wide would price the average renter out of the market. With the average renter’s income being $25,000-$35,000, she said, the rent of $1,000 to $1,200 monthly would not be in their budgets.

“I don’t have any trailers in the city limits,” Onesi said. “I told them what I thought because I have rental property … You’re running the renters right out of town. The voters, you’re running them out, because they can’t pay this stuff.”

“It’s not the size of the trailers. It’s who owns the trailers and who they’re renting them to. That’s your problem, right there,” she said. “You should not wipe us all with the same brush, because a lot of us are d— good people and I’m one of them — I’m one of the best ones — and I terribly, terribly resent being called a slum lord.”

Onesi addressed the Board for more than eight minutes — allowed to continue past the 5-minute limit by Mayor Joe Cox as a courtesy — talking about the work she had done over many years to improve her properties and rid the town of drug dealers, prostitutes, and dog fighters.

“I did this because I’m a decent person, and to call me a slum lord, excuse my French, pisses me off really bad,” said Onesi. “By doing this, you have made a mockery — or these two people that I’m talking about — have made a mockery ­of everything that I’ve done … I’ve done more to clean up this town than probably half the people in this room or maybe all the people in this room, so I am deeply upset to be called a slum lord.”

She said the reason she was referred as such was because the aldermen had to be seen as knights on white horses riding in to save the day from a villain in order to get votes. She also said the two aldermen had called her out on Facebook videos, saying Onesi specifically was “the problem” because she complained about city workers.

Onesi said a city employee had demanded cash to pick up limbs from her property and she had complained about it. The City had later given this employee, whom she did not name in the meeting, a large raise.

During his report time, Spiller said he was fine with anyone saying what they wanted to say before the Board, but that no one was mentioned by name when the “slum lord” comment was made. He likened Onesi’s complaints to someone who had heard a convicting sermon in church.

“When you feel a spirit in that lesson, and it reflects on you, it must have something to do with you,” Spiller said. “It is hard if it hits home … No one called out anyone’s name.”

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