Gore Promises Repairs to Tenant
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tracy Mayberry thought Vice President Al Gore was a slumlord, until Gore called her Saturday and promised to repair overflowing toilets and backed-up sinks in the apartment her family rents from him.
Mayberry and her family pay $400 a month to rent the four-bedroom house within sight of Gore's home in Carthage, about 50 miles east of Nashville.
``Before, I was really upset with him. I considered him a slumlord,'' she said Saturday. ``Right now, my opinion varies. If he'll uphold his end of the bargain, that's OK.''
After repeated complaints to Gore's property managers, Mayberry said she was told her family - including her disabled husband, a mentally retarded daughter and another daughter with a seizure disorder - were being evicted. They live on $1,536 a month in Social Security from her husband's disability.
Frustrated, Mayberry contacted a Nashville television station, WTVF-TV, which aired a story on her situation Friday.
By Saturday afternoon, Gore was on the phone to Mayberry, promising to fix the problems and pay for a new place for the family to stay. Republicans were already circulating the TV story to national news organizations.
``He said he'd heard I'd called him a slumlord, and I said I did. I said if you want to run for president, you ought to behave like a landlord should,'' Mayberry said.
``He agreed with me. He said he's going to come in and do a complete renovation ... He kept apologizing. He said he's not what you'd call a hands-on landlord. I said I understand he's got a lot of obligations being vice president and campaigning. But I said I've got a lot of obligations to my family.''
Spokesman Doug Hattaway said Gore was not aware of the house's condition until his staff was contacted by WTVF. Plumbing repairs would be so extensive the water would be turned off for quite some time, and the family likely would need to leave while the work was done, he said.
Since the Mayberrys are on a month-to-month lease, the property managers had asked the family to vacate the home while the repairs were made.
``I should emphasize for the record they're not being evicted,'' he said Saturday.
Gore overruled his property managers and instructed his Carthage lawyer to find a place for the family to stay. They will not have to pay rent while the repairs are made, Hattaway said.
Still, Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson issued a statement saying the Mayberry situation demonstrated a ``lack of compassion'' by Gore.
"`Left to his own devices, these are the decisions Al Gore always seems to end up making,'' Nicholson said.
HENCH adds: Can you IMAGINE how this would be played in the media for MONTHS if it was GW Bush?
6-5-00 UPDATE! - Slumlord Al Breaks Promise to Tenants
-- Just 24 hours later, Gore stiffs tenants on dinner --
WASHINGTON (June 5) - Al Gore has broken another promise - this one to Tracy Mayberry and her family, his tenants in substandard housing adjacent to Gore’s Tennessee farm.
After a Tennessee TV station revealed that Mayberry had called him a “slumlord” and criticized him for failing to make needed repairs on her family’s rental housing, Gore promised to fix the shoddy conditions - and to invite the family “over for dinner the next time he’s in town.” (Source: News Channel 5, a CBS affiliate, 6/4/00).
But Gore was in Tennessee yesterday - and he stood the Mayberry family up. (According to the public schedule released by the Office of the Vice President, Gore spent Sunday night in Nashville.)
“Gore obviously made this promise to the Mayberry family only as an exercise in damage control,” said RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson.
“Once again, we’ve had a glimpse behind the curtain at the real Al Gore - the Al Gore who will do anything and say anything, the Al Gore who, in 1998, gave only $353 to charity. Al Gore has announced a series of government programs he says will help people. But when you look at how little money he gives to charity, and how he treats the tenants in his own housing, you have to wonder if Al Gore really believes the things he says.”
News Channel 5, a Nashville CBS affiliate, reported Friday that Tracy Mayberry, who has five children - two of them disabled - called Gore a “slumlord” after he refused to fix their plumbing, which the family said, “smells just like an open sewer.” Mayberry said that instead of sending a plumber to repair the home’s toilets - which are held together with bread ties - she received an eviction notice from Gore. She said she was told the Secret Service wanted to use the house.
Mayberry also has said she may seek relief in court if Gore doesn’t fix the problems as promised. “If he does not take care of them, I will sue him … And I told him right to his face,” she said. (Source: The New York Daily News, 6/5/00.)
When Tracy Mayberry complained about the conditions in her home, she was given an eviction notice.
When her story made national headlines, her landlord, Vice President Al Gore, promised he'd get everything fixed immediately.
But, Mayberry's toilet still isn't working.
When she flushes it, water and, she says, sewage spill out around the base. "That's just nasty," Mayberry said Tuesday.
Al Gore, her landlord, promised to fix the problem. Actually, he promised to fix a lot of things around the house.
Gore called Mayberry personally and vowed to fix the plumbing, the kitchen floor and the cracked walls. "He said whatever needs to be done, tell him and he'd see to it that it was done," Mayberry said.
That was a week and a half ago. "It's just been a bad week and a half," Mayberry said.
Last Tuesday, a plumber spent a few hours working on Mayberry's toilets and sink. But, the problem wasn't fixed.
"It's the same thing. It has not changed," Mayberry said. As for the floor, they put the new linoleum right on top of the old floor and didn't even both to fill in the holes. Where the holes are, there are now gaps and if you run your foot along the tile, you can see how it buckles.
"It was shabby the way it was done," Mayberry said. Mayberry said she is fed up. It's been a week now since the plumbing and floor work was done, but the plaster on her walls is still peeling, and her ceiling is still cracked and in need of paint.
Mayberry had complained about these problems to the property manager for months but after her story made national news Gore told her they'd be taken care of immediately. "I think it was done just to get me to quiet down, just long enough for everything to die down here and it'd be all over with," Mayberry said.
Mayberry said she's beginning to wonder now if Al Gore is really a man of his word.
Mayberry said she is also upset because Gore had promised to find her family a place to stay during repairs. The property manager said Tuesday, "you can't expect to get everything done overnight."
Late Tuesday afternoon, a Gore spokesman told NewsChannel 5, they'd had trouble finding folks who could do the repair work, but someone would be out to fix the sewer and gutters later this week.
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