Buena Park : City Officials Will Seek to Shut Down a Motel

City officials will go to court in an effort to shut down a motel that fire and code enforcement inspectors say has a long list of safety violations.

City Atty. James Markman said the 60-unit Melody Manor Motel, at 8180 Commonwealth Ave., “defies description.” He said there are about 40 occupants there, most of them renting on a semi-permanent basis, and the latest inspection of the motel showed that serious hazards exist for them.

“You can stick your head through” holes in the walls of some rooms, Markman said. The building has no electricity, and there is a long history of narcotics activity being conducted there, among other problems, he said.

Conditions at the motel in the past year have also led to “innumerable fire calls,” he added.

Markman said that the city had tried to persuade Gordon Daskowski, the third owner the motel has had in a year, to improve conditions but that negotiations were fruitless.

“We reached the end of the limb” waiting for the owner to say when and how he would make improvements, he said. On Monday, the City Council voted 4 to 0 to seek a court closure of the motel, according to City Clerk Marguerite Courson. Councilman Kenneth B. Jones was absent from the meeting.

Daskowski could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

City officials had recommended that the building be demolished if improvements were not made by September, Markman said, but the council decided against that action after officials from Fullerton Savings & Loan Assn., the mortgage holder, indicated to the council that the company would sue to protect its equity.

Fullerton Savings has held a first trust deed on the property since 1984, when the motel was owned by Samuel Behar of Los Angeles, Senior Vice President Steve Knutzen said.

“Unbeknownst to us, the thing went downhill,” he said. The firm has a mortgage on the property of nearly $1 million, Knutzen said, while Trans Am Realty Investment in Los Angeles has an outstanding loan of $96,000 and Su Ching Cheng, a previous motel owner, a loan of $329,000.

Markman said city officials had been reluctant to force the eviction of motel occupants because of fears that they would become homeless.

Now, however, safety concerns outweigh those fears, Markman said. “We’re concerned about keeping the people safe.”