MEASURE A MONEY NOT USED TO FIGHT POT SHOPS

Chula Vista Council OKS investigator, paralegal hiring

CHULA VISTA

Chula Vista will hire a paralegal and investigator to help shut down illegal pot shops.

The City Council on Tuesday accepted a proposal from City Attorney Glen Googins to pay for those positions with money from Googins’ departmental budget.

The original funding proposal, which was withdrawn last month after stirring controversy that District Attorney Summer Stephan chimed in on, was to pay for the positions with money from the Measure A sales tax increase. That tax increase, opponents of that original proposal said, was intended to hire staff for the police and fire departments.

Googins’ new proposal was to use money from his own department for the rest of the fiscal year and use money from the marijuana sales taxes to partially fund the positions in future years.

“I know a lot of you will be happy to note that I am not proposing Measure A funding this time,” Googins told the City Council.

Googins told the Council that he still believes Measure A funding would be “not only legal and appropriate, but ideal,” but decided to pursue

other funding options after the original proposal “created some other disturbances in the force, if you will, with the District Attorney’s Office and misunderstandings about different things.”

The two positions will join the city’s criminal prosecutor to form Chula Vista’s Neighborhood Protection Unit. The immediate goal of that unit is to aggressively shut down unlicensed marijuana dispensaries in Chula Vista by opening criminal cases against those businesses and their employees.

The city hired a criminal prosecutor last year. So far, the prosecutor has helped produce six criminal search warrants, charge 16 people with crimes — 14 of whom have pleaded guilty — and recovered more than $60 million in product during seizures, Googins said.

However, there are so many illegal dispensaries that the prosecutor is currently at caseload capacity, he said.

The paralegal and investigator would help the prosecutor not only open more criminal cases but open more complex cases. For example, Googins said the city has struggled to identify owners, operators and managers of the illicit businesses.

“All we’ve been able to do so far — and it’s been meaningful, but doesn’t take the edge off — is to deal with frontline people,” Googins said. “The security, the socalled budtenders, the sign spinners. It doesn’t get to the heart of the criminal operation.”

The City Council and mayor unanimously voiced support for the idea of a Neighborhood Protection Unit that would initially focus on illegal cannabis businesses but later shift to enforce municipal code crimes and violations in Chula Vista that the District Attorney doesn’t traditionally prioritize.

Those municipal code issues involve things such as

addressing properties with chronic noise violations, or abandoned buildings; misconduct in parks, including people drinking and smoking; enforcing rules against problem bars that sell to underage children; or addressing things like vending without a permit or other business licensing issues, Googins said.

Mayor Mary Casillas Salas called the unit a “very important thing for the quality of life of Chula Vista residents,” while Councilman Stephen Padilla said, “There is no doubt in my mind that the Neighborhood Protection Unit brings a great deal of added value to our capacity.”

Councilman John Mccann was thankful that Googins was able to find another funding source.

“I appreciate you redoing this,” he said. “I think there was a lot of concern about using Measure A, even though we could potentially use it. I think this is a better source of funds.”

Although funding for the two positions appears to be settled for the short-term future, the City Council expressed some long-term concerns about relying too much on marijuana sales tax revenues.

Councilman Mike Diaz wanted to make sure some of the marijuana tax revenues cover pension costs.

“(Measure) Q money, at the end of the day, has to be more so for paying our pension debt down,” he said. “So, to the extent that we can do that, I want to see that happen.”

Mayor Salas was concerned about projected budget deficits of $2 million next year and $5 million the subsequent year that will likely force the city to make cuts.

Googins responded that it will be up to the mayor and City Council to make those decisions, but he believes this Neighborhood Protection unit will be an essential service because it enhances public safety that provides additional value to the city.