Task Force Is Sought to Rid City of Buildings Used in Drug Activity

During a wide-ranging session Wednesday, the San Diego City Council’s Public Services and Safety Committee called for the creation of an inter-agency task force to help rid the city of abandoned buildings that serve as drug houses.

Committee members also voted to tighten restrictions on businesses that show adult movies, and reinforced a long-standing council policy designed to force the city’s few remaining card rooms out of business by the end of 1995.

The drug abatement program, patterned after successful programs in other cities, would involve nine full-time members, including a Police Department detective and a deputy city attorney.

The inter-agency task force would work to board up and tear down houses that shelter drug users and abusers. In some cases, owners would be asked to repair their properties to discourage unlawful uses.

The committee recommended that the city spend $406,000 on the team. However, since the program would use existing employees in the police and city attorney’s office, start-up costs would be $310,000.

The Drug Abatement Response Team would replace a part-time program that, in the past two years, has cleaned up about 100 buildings that were being used for illegal activities ranging from drug use to prostitution.

In 90 of those cases, property owners voluntarily repaired their properties, according to the city attorney’s office.

Of 10 cases that went to court, nine resulted in settlements that ended drug or prostitution activity. One case is still active.

The full-time abatement team will help San Diego control “war zones” where drug dealers and criminals now have the upper hand, according to council members Wes Pratt and John Hartley, whose districts encompass a number of abandoned buildings that are havens for drug dealers and users.

Hartley said the drug abatement team would play an integral role in the cleanup of abandoned houses along the planned route of Interstate 15 in the City Heights neighborhood.

There, drug users and criminals have taken control of abandoned buildings owned by Caltrans, which has not yet torn them down for the I-15 link.

In a related action Wednesday, committee members also recommended that the Dispute Resolution Office be allotted $89,000 next year.

That amount would allow the office “to do what it’s supposed to do,” according to Michael Shames, executive director of Utility Consumers Action Network.

Shames, one of the dispute resolution program’s founders, helped to persuade committee members that its initial $54,000 was not enough to operate the program.

Also on Wednesday, the committee recommended that the city’s remaining handful of card rooms be allowed to increase hourly table fees.

The city has regulated card rooms, where patrons pay an hourly fee to play card games that do not involve gambling, since the 1940s.

The city has not approved an hourly table fee increase since 1976, according to Louis Katz, an attorney who represents one San Diego card room.

However, taxes levied against the businesses have risen to $3,000 a month, up from $1,000 a month since 1976, Katz said.

Council members Pratt, Hartley and Linda Bernhardt voted to allow the card rooms to increase their fees to $5 an hour, up from $2.50. Council members Judy McCarty and Ron Roberts voted against the proposed increase.

Although the committee endorsed the fee increase, its members stopped far short of eliminating the “sunset” regulation that calls for the elimination of card rooms within the city limits by the end of 1995.

And the committee refused to change an existing ordinance that prohibits owners of card rooms from transferring their licenses to potential buyers.

Since the adoption of the sunset ordinance in 1976, the number of card room licenses has fallen from an estimated 100 to just 13, according to the city manager’s office. The city wants to close the legal card rooms because police have consistently described them as breeding grounds for crime.

Lt. Lesli Lord, who directs the Police Department’s vice operations, on Wednesday said that an undercover operation has found “ample evidence” of crime at card rooms.

Several card rooms are under investigation for bookmaking, gambling, drug use and purchase of stolen property, in addition to misdemeanor crimes involving card room licensing violations, Lord said.

The committee Wednesday also recommended approval of a regulation limiting size of so-called “peep booths” where adult movies are shown.

The proposal was opposed by an attorney for one establishment that fails to meet the minimum requirements.