Firm Housing Offenders Still in Violation of City Codes : Punishment: The work furlough operation has never been granted a certificate of occupancy, but has been granted an extension in complying with building codes.

Nearly four years after it opened, Mid-City Work Furlough in San Diego has housed offenders in violation of fire and building codes and has never been granted a certificate of occupancy.

Despite the city’s formal order that the business stop operating and be forced to pay $36,000 in civil penalties in 1989, Mid-City has never shut. It agreed in court earlier this year to rectify all violations by late September.

Mid-City obtained all of its permits by the September deadline but still has not completed a number of necessary improvements, including installing enough bathrooms, a sprinkler system and fire-resistant walls, among other items. Until that is done, the city cannot issue a certificate of occupancy.

An attorney for Mid-City said the city has repeatedly kept the company from finishing its project, mostly by changing the requirements for improvements. Any delays, Mid-City attorney F. Sigmund Luther said, “I would attribute to the city.”

Faced with a court order to shut down by Nov. 15, Mid-City petitioned the Superior Court and was granted an extension to finish all work by Jan. 29.

“I argued before the judge that these people have nobody to fault but themselves,” said Mary Jo Lanzafame, deputy city attorney. “They have had all this time to correct their violations and yet they haven’t done it.”

A history of unsuccessful legal action against Mid-City and its owners over building code violations illustrates the problems San Diego inspectors have in trying to regulate private work furlough facilities, which operate virtually unchecked by city authorities though they are entrusted to uphold public safety.

Private work furlough is an alternative to jail, in which low-risk offenders are required to pay their room and board. Those housed in private work furlough are supposed to be closely supervised and must stay at the facility when they are not at work or in school.

The Times reported in July that three residents of Mid-City were arrested for narcotics possession within a two-week period in mid-May and early June.

One of its residents, sentenced for selling cocaine, testified that he escaped detection for drug use by bribing one of Mid-City’s employees. Donna Woodley, a defense attorney who runs Mid-City with her husband, Mike Baker, said in an earlier interview that the resident’s allegations are untrue.

Mid-City operates its 84-bed facility without a county contract, which makes it ineligible for housing low-risk prisoners, the state attorney general ruled in 1990.

The county counsel’s office argued in a separate legal opinion that judges are legally authorized to make such sentences, and Mid-City has housed an average of 60 offenders in its program over the past eight months.

Last week, the county Board of Supervisors issued its first-ever county contract with Pacific Furlough Facility, a Mid-City competitor, allowing law enforcement supervision and inspection for the Logan Heights facility.

A Mid-City attorney argued before county supervisors that the business was unfairly excluded from competing for the contract and has filed court action on the board’s action.

Mid-City officials say they immediately notify the courts anytime an offender causes problems or violates a court order, but neighbors have complained about Mid-City in past years.

One wrote to the city’s planning commission in 1990 that Woodley and Mid-City have operated a “fly-by-night operation hiding behind the guise of solving our over-crowded-jail problem.”

Ronald Slayen, the owner of a warehouse-office around the corner from Mid-City, wrote that Woodley consistently ignored city building and zoning codes and should not be entrusted “the responsibility to be our jailer.”

Woodley and Baker responded to the planning commission with biographical information. Woodley, the biography said, was born and raised in San Diego and got her law degree in 1977 from Western State University. She has been a defense attorney for indigents and active in local charities, the biography says.

Baker, who has lived in San Diego for more than 20 years, came to the city when he enlisted in the Navy in 1970 and served in Vietnam, the biography said. He graduated from San Diego State University in 1976 and worked as a court clerk in San Diego Municipal Court, retiring in 1989 after an illness.

Mid-City Work Furlough had problems with the city even before it opened in the 4000 block of Pacific Highway in February, 1989. In January of that year, the city issued notices of building code violations on the business but allowed it to operate nonetheless.

One month after Mid-City opened, city inspectors told company officials that they needed mechanical, electrical and building permits and a conditional-use permit that allowed it to house low-risk offenders. That same month, city building inspectors cited Mid-City for violations of 22 sections of the Uniform Building Code.

In June, 1989, the city fined Mid-City $36,000 in civil penalties for failing to correct its violations but allowed it to keep operating until it obtained its conditional-use permit.

The city’s Planning Commission denied Mid-City’s request for the permit in May, 1990, and the City Council refused to hear the company’s appeal, saying it had refused to cooperate with the city’s planning department.

In May, 1991, a member of the state Board of Corrections inspected Mid-City and, although the review was generally positive, the inspector criticized Mid-City for inadequate training policies for its staff, the lack of toilets and questioned whether it had the proper fire alarms.

Luther said it was during this time that the rules first changed. Corrections officials suggested that Mid-City be evaluated as a detention facility rather than a “residential care” facility.

Under the definition of residential care, Luther said, Mid-City was required to install skylights but not a sprinkler system. When the definition changed, the sprinklers were required, Luther said.

The second delay came when the city’s Planning Commission did not approve Mid-City’s conditional use permit until February, 1992, and the permit was not made final until May through bureaucratic delays, Luther said. The city’s Lanzafame said Mid-City didn’t get its permit until that time because Mid-City officials contested the permit’s requirements.

The city’s passage of a correctional placement ordinance in April further slowed the process, Luther said, and, when city officials demanded in August that an extensive sprinkler system and extra-strong fire walls be installed, Mid-City balked.

As part of a compromise, the company will be required to have sprinklers solely in Mid-City’s portion of a block-long warehouse rather than the entire building that also houses a pottery shop, VCR repair store and refrigerator rental company.

“The work is ongoing as we speak,” Luther said. “There’s no evil motive here. These things take time. The big-ticket items, such as the fire sprinkling and the additional bathroom-shower facilities, still need to be done.”

Luther said the company’s position was upheld by the Nov. 13 ruling by Superior Court Judge James R. Milliken, who extended Mid-City’s deadline to Jan. 29.

Deputy city attorney Lanzafame said years of delays are frustrating.

“I have done everything in my power to get this back on track,” she said. “We have made every effort to notify the court of the delays Mid-City has created. I have fought to put an end to this. I wonder when it’s going to end.”