COSTA MESA : Checking In for a Second Start on Life

On the surface, the Newport Bay Inn looks like any other spiffy Orange County motel with wet bars, sun decks, complimentary pagers, whirlpool suites and in-room movies--a typical oasis for its frequent starched-shirt, fast-lane executive guests.

But in another part of the hostelry is a clientele that, while just a few steps upstairs, is worlds away from those spit-and-polish professionals. They are drug addicts and alcoholics struggling to recover from their potential deadly habits.

Alternative Solutions, the county’s newest drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, is the only such facility to be housed in an operating motel. It is state-licensed to provide housing and support for up to 36 recovering addicts.

Housed on the second floor of the inn, residents typically spend three months in the program, which includes 24-hour monitoring, group meetings and individual counseling for about $1,000 a month.

Grant McNiff, the center’s director, said Alternative Solutions was started to prevent people well on their way to recovery from relapsing.

“The chances of sobriety here are far better than coming out of (rehabilitation) and going home to the same environment,” said Grant, who also heads the board of directors for the Orange County branch of the National Council of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency.

“The biggest pitfall is the second 60 days. We would like to be the fire hydrant of sobriety rather than a sip of Sparkletts water.”

Clients, who come from as far away as Hong Kong and Canada, include men and women discharged from primary-care facilities such as the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, those referred from courts as an alternative to incarceration and high-profile personalities who want to avoid the limelight.

“A lot of people get out of treatment centers and want to come back to the beach,” McNiff said. “But they come back to the same environment that contributed to their using in the first place. Here, we change that environment and they’re still free to do what they have to do.”

If residents use drugs or alcohol, they must leave. So far, about 41 people ranging from high-school dropouts to executives, have graduated from the program. Two have been dismissed.

Ingrid Pampalone, 26, completed the program last year. The Costa Mesa resident, who is now attending college, said the program taught her how to stay sober in the “real world.”

“I had no idea how to do life,” she said. “I just had no clue. They supported me every step of the way.”

The facility, one of about 16 recovery homes in Orange County, also works as an alternative to incarceration, because the top floor can be secured and electronically monitored, McNiff said.

“It’s a good solution for the multiple offender who is not a bad person but just does dumb things, the guy with more than one DUI,” said McNiff. “Jailing someone simply reinforces bad habits, while we can provide the opportunity to learn new (habits). Plus, this is paid for by the offender rather than taxpayer-supported.”

McNiff speaks of alcoholism from personal experience. Like everyone else on staff, the former real estate developer is a recovering alcoholic. He and Newport Bay Inn owner Donald Ward were close friends who drank together for decades and had offices next door to each other.

“Our quality of life was saloons,” said McNiff. “We would have been classified at times as locker-room boys.”

McNiff got sober in 1980 and contacted Ward five years later, after Ward completed rehabilitation at the Betty Ford Center. Upon his release, Ward started a relapse prevention group in his home, where McNiff gave talks. As the group grew the pair saw the need for extended care, and the Alternative Solutions idea was born.

Unable to get city approval to open a home in a Costa Mesa residential district, Ward went directly to the state for licensing, a move that was legal because Ward already had a conditional-use permit to operate a commercial venture at his motel, McNiff said.

In fact, Costa Mesa city officials said they had no knowledge that the motel’s top floor is being used as a rehabilitation center. Senior code enforcement officer Sandy Benson said “although the state always preempts us on licensing, we do have our own code requirements.”

Benson said the Newport Bay Inn has a permit to operate only as a motel and will now have to apply for a conditional-use permit for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. That means going through the Planning Commission for permission to use more than six beds for this purpose, she said.

“All I know is that we are licensed by the state for 36 beds,” said McNiff. “If there’s an oversight with the city on our part, we’ll go through all avenues to correct it. We don’t feel that there will be a problem.”