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Dwivedi. | Submitted

Anil Dwivedi, the 36-year-old owner of two low-income Eureka apartment buildings, is running for mayor.

The local landlord, who remains embroiled in four lawsuits over illegal rent increases at the Hillsdale Apartments on E Street, filed his initial candidate intention statement at City Hall on Thursday.

Reached by phone this afternoon, Dwivedi said he first considered running for office a few months back but just decided a couple of weeks ago to try bringing his experience as a business owner to City Hall.

“I love Eureka, and I believe Eureka has tremendous potential,” he said. “And over the past several years, I have invested heavily in [the] Eureka community. I created local jobs, helped provide housing to approximately 40 extremely low-income families, many of whom had experienced homelessness or housing instabilities. So I believe I have spent years solving problems on the ground, and I want to bring that some practical, result-oriented approach to City Hall.”

Asked what he thinks about the job being done by the current city council and incumbent Mayor Kim Bergel, Dwivedi admitted that he’s at a loss.

“I actually personally don’t know much about current mayor and council members,” he said. “I met personally Kim here and there [at] events a couple of times, but I don’t know enough to make any comments regarding their work.” 

After a beat he added, “I think there is always room to do better.”

What would his priorities be if he wins election? He offered a list of five items.

“I would like to clean up the streets, especially the Old Town and downtown areas, because I was told by many business owners and some locals that these streets are filthy,” he said. Later, he specified that he was referring to garbage and potholes.

“Second, I want to offer more things to do for both children and adults,” he said. “And third, I would say I want to revive downtown and make it more inviting for the locals and tourists who visit, because Eureka is beautiful and it just requires a little bit more care and attention.”

The fourth item on his to-do list was bringing life back to the Bayshore Mall. Dwivedi showed up to the beleaguered mall’s foreclosure auction on the courthouse steps back in April, but the $12 million starting bid “turned me off tremendously,” Dwivedi said. He didn’t offer details on his mall revitalization plan.

“And another most important thing that I’m already working on that I would like to find a solution for [is] the homelessness and the people who are on the streets,” Dwivedi said. “So that would be one of my biggest priorities.”

Asked about the city’s existing programs for addressing homelessness and mental health issues — including the Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE) and Uplift — Dwivedi said they’re “amazing,” noting that a few of his tenants were referred to him through Uplift.

He also noted that CSET was among the agencies that responded to the emergency situation in Old Town on Sunday, when a tenant of Eureka Central Resident (another building he owns), spent nearly five hours at the edge of the roof, apparently experiencing a mental health crisis.

“So I’m so proud of these agencies and how hard they work, and I want to make sure they are empowered and they have all the tools in their hand to do their job better,” he said.

As for his ongoing legal battles, Dwivedi said he doesn’t want to comment on the details while the case is ongoing. 

“I respect the legal process,” he said. “I let the attorneys do their work, and I would rather focus on my vision for the future of Eureka.”

Patrik Griego, a senior partner at Janssen Malloy, represents the tenants suing Dwivedi in a class action suit. Reached by phone this afternoon, Griego said the case is very close to a settlement, though, once reached, it will still have to be approved by the court and presented to each member of the class, who can choose to opt in or out of the deal.

In broad terms, Griego said, the deal will require Dwivedi to refund tenants for the rent amounts he charged above what’s legally allowed per California’s Tenant Protection Act — roughly $10,000 — plus about $90,000 in attorneys’ fees to Janssen Malloy. That amount doesn’t include the costs of his own legal counsel.

“And he got caught again just recently,” Griego said. “He asked for too much rent again.”

According to Griego, Dwivedi asked an employee in the City of Eureka’s housing department whether he was legally allowed to raise his tenants’ rent by 8.8 percent. The employee cautioned that they were not an attorney but said that “sounds right,” according to Griego. In reality, the legal limit for an annual rent increase was less than that. “So he racked up another $8,000” in damages, Griego said.

Dwivedi, whose candidacy was first reported by John Chiv, said Eureka didn’t make a good first impression when he first moved here about four years ago. 

“When I was living down south, we just wanted to come to somewhere place that is cooler, and we ended up in Eureka,” he said. “And initially, I would say, as a tourist, I did not like it much in the beginning. But then slowly, slowly, when we stayed about a week, we started liking it.”

“I think Eureka has that, that … in order to like it, you have to live in it,” he continued. “You have to feel the city, and you needed to start talking to people, and then that’s how it happened with me personally. I fell in love, and then I decided I would like to come here more and move in here.”

Asked if he had anything he’d like to add, Dwivedi said, “I just want to make sure that voters see my problem-solving skills instead of reading the past headlines about the existing lawsuit, because I deal on a daily basis with hard decisions that I have to make dealing with local agencies, state agencies, federal agencies. So I want to make sure that people can see that, and I’m not just a talker. I work. I produce results, and I’m not just talking.”

He added that he’s literally providing housing for homeless folks, explaining that many of his current tenants either had no house or were facing housing instability.

“So, for me, my only goal is to bring my experience to the City Hall and make sure that I can produce results,” he said. “I am not the person who just talks. So that’s I would like to add.”

He also sent the following statement (along with the photo above) via email:

Thank you for reaching out.

I appreciate your interest in my campaign. I decided to run for Mayor because I care deeply about Eureka and believe our city has tremendous potential. Over the past several years, I’ve invested heavily in our community, created local jobs, and provided housing to more than 40 extremely low-income families, many of whom had experienced homelessness or housing instability. Through this work, I’ve seen firsthand both the opportunities and the challenges our city faces.

As a business owner and problem-solver, I’ve gained practical experience managing budgets, improving properties, working with government agencies, and finding solutions to complex challenges. I want to bring that same results-oriented, accountable approach to City Hall.

If elected, my priorities will include revitalizing downtown and Old Town, supporting local businesses, improving public safety, addressing homelessness with practical and compassionate solutions, keeping our streets cleaner, encouraging economic growth, creating more opportunities for families and visitors to enjoy our city, and working toward lowering the tax burden whenever it is fiscally responsible to do so.

I truly believe Eureka’s best days are ahead of us. My goal is to bring people together, focus on practical solutions, and help make our city an even better place to live, work, and raise a family.

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Dwivedi is running against incumbent Mayor Kim Bergel. Resident Casey Dresser has also filed a candidate intention statement for the race, earning a Facebook endorsement from Cornelius Loewenstein, a cantankerous critic of the current council whose steady haranguing of Bergel prompted her to seek a restraining order in 2020. Her request was denied.

We’ve arranged to speak with Dresser next week.

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