Leader to press on rehab sites

Preparing the latest salvo at the problems created by some drug and alcohol rehab facilities, Newport Beach City Councilman Steve Rosansky is launching a plan to get other cities involved in the issue.

Other city officials have already worked toward sponsoring a bill when state legislators reconvene in January. But nothing will get done without bipartisan support and pressure from the local level, Rosansky said.

To generate the necessary pressure, he wants to hold a conference on rehab facilities in Newport Beach in early 2007 and invite a variety of city officials, state legislators and representatives from the League of California Cities.

Newport Beach residents have complained for years about the drug rehab facilities, where they say clients sometimes are noisy and litter and trucks and vans drop off people and food at all hours in residential neighborhoods.

Residents also worry about who’s living in the homes, because in some cases the clients are placed there instead of or after serving jail time.

State and federal laws restrict how cities can regulate rehab facilities, and that’s why Newport is hoping to get state law changed. State Sen. Tom Harman, who represents Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, has agreed to carry a bill on rehab facilities, but it’s unclear what that will look like.

A grass-roots effort will be key to getting a bill passed, Rosansky said.

“I’ve got to believe that if you’re a Republican, a Democrat or a Green Party person and you’ve got a sober-living facility moving in next to your house, you’re going to be concerned about it,” he said. “It’s not a political issue; it’s a people issue.”

The other piece of Rosansky’s plan is to form a coalition that would raise money to fund lobbying for new legislation and contacting other cities to urge support.

If legislative efforts fail, the money could back a ballot initiative.

The conference may be a success, but “to keep the momentum going, you have to have money,” Rosansky said.

Other cities that have problems with rehab homes likely will want to join the effort.

“It’s been a problem in Costa Mesa for years,” said outgoing Costa Mesa City Councilman Gary Monahan, who has been on the council for 12 years.

“If an operator claims they have six or fewer guests, there’s no regulations at all, and we have to prove they have more than six, which is almost impossible.”

Newport residents have been clamoring for the city to do something about the proliferation of rehab homes, and some have become frustrated at being told there’s nothing that can be done.

Bob Rush, who has been following the issue of residential-care facilities for about eight months, said the council has known about the problem for several years

For Rosansky to call for a conference now, in Rush’s opinion, is “window dressing at this point,” he said.

“We’re not talking about something that can be unraveled in a year,” he said. Because so many of the facilities have moved in but are largely unregulated, “it is going to take a decade or more to unravel now.”