ESCONDIDO -- Facing pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, Escondido has decided to allow a group of mobile-home residents to continue using city meeting rooms without charge while the city studies whether the fee schedule is unconstitutional.

City Attorney Jeff Epp said Wednesday that the city was not ready to concede that the city's policy of charging political groups more than other community groups violates First Amendment free speech rights, as the civil liberties organization asserted last month.

But Epp said city officials were willing to give the mobile-home residents a reprieve while they contemplate the issue.

The controversy began in early July when city officials decided to begin charging fees to the mobile-home residents, who had been meeting at the city's East Valley Community Center once a month for many years.

The decision came three weeks after the residents had launched a campaign to subject Escondido City Council members to term limits, so the residents accused the city of retaliation. But city officials said the term-limits campaign and the tone of the group's recent newsletters had distinguished it as a political organization.

Then David Blair-Loy, legal director for the local affiliate of the civil liberties organization, read about the controversy in the North County Times and questioned whether the city's policy was constitutional.

Blair-Loy then sent Epp a five-page letter detailing what he described as the meeting room policy's "viewpoint discrimination" and its vague definition of political and religious groups.

On Wednesday, Blair-Loy praised Epp's decision to grant a reprieve.

"My concern is that the city comply with the First Amendment, and for the moment they are not violating the First Amendment because they have not imposed the fee increase," said Blair-Loy.

Donna Martin, president of the mobile-home residents, said she had mixed feelings about the reprieve.

"It's good news for now, but I don't know how much notice they will give us if they decide to begin charging," said Martin. "We have to do our newsletter a couple weeks before each meeting, so I am worried we will announce a meeting and then have to cancel."

Martin said her members were also concerned that city officials treated them differently during their last monthly meeting July 24. She said they were required to sign a form promising to pay for any damage to the room, and city employees carefully inspected the room after the meeting.

"We've been meeting there for more than 10 years," said Martin. "We are not a militant group."

Robin Bettin, the city's assistant director of community services, said Escondido officials have become more careful this summer because of recent damage to some meeting rooms. But she said a sign-in sheet was the only new form the mobile-home residents were asked to complete.

Epp and Bettin said it would take about six weeks for the city to analyze its policy and determine how to handle political groups.

The city's policy divides groups into tiers based on a variety of factors, including whether their members live in Escondido and whether the group is a business.

Scouts, Little League baseball and other youth sports pay up to $25 per hour for rooms, while service clubs and homeowners associations pay up to $30. Groups from outside the city, political organizations and religious groups pay as much as $55.

Because the mobile-home residents meet for three hours each month, the city's reclassification of their group would increase their fee from $60 to $120.

But the group is actually facing an even larger increase because city officials have not been charging them $60. They had been "grandfathered" in at no fees because they have been around for so long, Bettin said.

Martin has vowed not to use city facilities if her group is ever charged a fee.

Contact staff writer David Garrick at (760) 740-5468 or dgarrick@nctimes.com.