The Pacific Beach Town Council (PBTC) discussed alcohol issues, safer streets and cleaner elections at its regularly scheduled monthly meeting, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, at the Earl & Birdie Taylor Library, 4275 Cass St.
The meeting began with a moment of silence to honor military men and women serving overseas, but became vocal as the discussion turned to alcohol.
At a recent town hall meeting, Councilman Kevin Faulconer announced he would form a task force to address alcohol issues, which have long inspired debate and divided the community.
The 10- to 15-person task force will be announced soon. The board will consist of residents and business people from Pacific, Mission and Ocean beaches. The board will meet monthly to “look at [alcohol] holistically,” said Allison Stanley, a representative for Faulconer. Meetings will be open to the public.
Looking at alcohol issues “holistically” means broadening the focus beyond alcohol on beaches, explained Stanley. The board will also discuss house parties as well as responsible and irresponsible drinking establishments. “It does all tie together. Each piece affects the other,” she said.
In response to why a task force is necessary to examine the issue, Stanley said that the city has “already looked at [alcohol issues] ad nauseum.” The goal of the newly formed board will be able to take “different viewpoints and find common ground,” she said.
The timeline for proposing suggestions and possible solutions to the beach communities’ alcohol-related problems, such as trash and drunken driving, is six to nine months.
City Attorney Mike Aguirre’s office and the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) will guide the task force’s discussion and offer insight on what alcohol-management strategies are realistic.
One proposed strategy, an alcohol ban on beaches and Mission Bay Park, was approved in a 164-126 vote by the PBTC in July.
Other facets of the alcohol issue, such as homeless people buying single cans of liquor from liquor stores, also need to be addressed, said PBTC president Don Mullen.
“It’s important that we don’t keep ignoring things we can do to improve everyone’s quality of life,” he added.
Mullen has appointed Katie Keach to represent the PBTC on the newly formed task force, citing her experience with alcohol issues while serving as former Councilman Michael Zucchet’s director of communications. Keach also worked for Congresswoman Susan Davis.
Taking the discussion from alcohol on the beaches to alcohol on the streets, SDPD Lt. Brian Ahern said that increased patrolling of Pacific Beach over the weekend of July 28 netted 28 drunk driving arrests, 32 impounds and hundreds of tickets for non-alcohol-related moving violations such as speeding. Such “saturation patrols” are more effective than checkpoints, Ahern said, because they don’t require advance notice and aren’t as visible.
Ahern advised attendees who have problems with drunken neighbors to report them by calling the SDPD’s non-emergency number, (619) 531-2000. Though callers often have to wait as 20 minutes or longer, reporting the problem is crucial, said Officer Allen Alvarez, because all calls get logged in a computer, making habitual offenders easier to identify and hold accountable.
Residents with concerns about liquor licenses in their neighborhoods will soon be able to find answers to some of their questions on the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Web site, www.abc.ca.gov. Starting Oct. 1, visitors to the site can click on the name of an establishment, see its license number, and view its history, including conditions and protests.
“The city has virtually no control over issuance of licenses,” Ahern said, adding that ABC issues many liquor licenses despite police protests.
With elections looming in November, the council turned its attention to former Councilman John Hartley of San Diego Alliance for Clean Elections.
“Clean elections ” it’s not an oxymoron; it’s campaign finance reform,” Hartley said.
Pointing to soaring campaign costs that can hit the million-dollar mark, Hartley said that clean elections seek to restrict the spending power of such special interests as pharmaceutical and tobacco companies.
Furthermore, said Hartley, clean elections allow candidates to spend more time with voters rather than “chasing dollars” and also opens the political landscape up to minorities.
“It’s a change in the system,” Hartley said. “It’s more accessible so the public gets served, not special interests.”
The clean-elections system is based on a set number of campaign contributions, voluntary spending limits and no campaign contributions from private donors or a candidate’s own pockets.
Such programs have been successful in Arizona and Maine, said Hartley, where roughly half of the candidates in recent elections “ran clean.”
The goal is to get an initiative on the ballot in San Diego in 2008, said Hartley. For more information, visit www.sdcleanelections.org.
Noelle Davis, a field representative for Congresswoman Susan Davis, announced that the congresswoman was recently honored for her military advocacy work on pay equity and discounted school lunches and prescription costs for military families.
Brian Jones of Congressman Bill Bilbray’s office announced the passing of HR 4844, which would require voters to present photo identification prior to voting. “The ID will definitely cut down on fraud,” Jones said. The state will pay for IDs for those who can’t afford them, he added.
The council is seeking volunteers for the upcoming Beachfest celebration, Saturday, Oct. 14. To volunteer, call the PBTC offices, (858) 483-6666.
Service organizations can get a free 10-by-10 booth space and schools a free canopy area by calling Discover Pacific Beach, (858) 273-3303.
Portions of the proceeds from another community event, the council’s fifth annual wine tasting, were presented to Richard Crider of the Pacific Beach Recreation Center, recently affected by budget cuts to the city’s Park and Recreation Department. Mullen presented Crider with a $2,000 check.
The council will hold its next dineout event at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, at Café Athena, 1846 Garnet Ave.
The PBTC’s next general meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the Earl and Birdie Taylor Library.