Tough Poway Law Sets Stage to Purge City of Drug Users, Dealers

The Poway City Council has launched an offensive to rid the city of drug users and traffickers by requiring landlords to evict tenants guilty of drug offenses and by preventing users from doing business in the city--all in an effort to turn Poway into what officials claim would be the nation’s first drug-free community.

The ordinance, passed unanimously Monday night, requires all landlords and managers of rental property within Poway to evict tenants found to be using or selling drugs on their rental property.

Who would provide the evidence of such activity was left unsaid, but the ordinance specifies that the city attorney must present a written notification to the landlord that the city has reason to believe that the violations exist.

City Atty. Stephen Eckis said the new law, which will take effect Oct. 19, does not authorize “witch hunts.”

‘Concrete Evidence’

Eckis is charged with notifying landlords of their duty to evict tenants found to be using or dealing drugs, and said he will rely on “concrete evidence” and not simply suspicion before starting the city-initiated eviction process. He said he will know better what sort of evidence that entails after the law goes into effect.

Landlords face prosecution for misdemeanor offenses if they fail to act to evict offending tenants.

But Shari Jones, a 32-year-old San Diego resident, charged that the Poway ordinance is designed to protect property values, not to wage a drug war in the North County community.

Speaking as a lone voice opposed to the ordinance, Jones predicted that the local law will be challenged in court and overturned because it violates constitutional guarantees of civil rights and due process.

She also warned that the law will discourage drug addicts from seeking treatment for fear of losing their lodgings, and will exacerbate the problems of the homeless.

Jones called the law “an affront to common sense, an insult to decency” and “an emotional, reactionary response” to a complex problem.

Councilman Jan Goldsmith, a promoter of the ordinance, pointed out that state laws already exist to penalize drug users and traffickers. Poway’s local legislation, he said, is designed to force users to seek help, not to punish them.

Under the new law, the Poway city attorney would present the written statement on suspected drug use to a landlord. The landlord would then be required to evict the tenant, filing notice of eviction and following up by taking the tenant to court to enforce the eviction.

Landlords have said they favor the legislation because they feel drug users are detrimental to their property.

Since Poway began considering the drug abatement law several months ago, other communities have followed suit. The San Marcos City Council has discussed a proposed ordinance patterned after the Poway law. Solana Beach and Chula Vista city officials also have requested similar ordinances from their city attorneys.

Goldsmith and Councilwoman Linda Brannon were named to a council subcommittee to expand the Poway campaign against drugs even further by preventing drug abusers from obtaining permits from the city or doing business with the city.

Brannon told fellow council members that the city has “been too tolerant too long” toward drug abusers. She proposed to extend the city’s “zero tolerance” toward drug users “the full spectrum” by:

- Preventing drug users from obtaining contracts with the city for provision of goods or services.

- Preventing drug users from obtaining contracts, licenses or permits to do business in the city.

- Providing facilities for treatment of drug addiction within the city, amending zoning codes to provide a proper place for such facilities.

These and other actions, Brannon said, will make Poway “a beacon that points the way to the President’s drug-free America.”

Goldsmith said the road to a drug-free city requires “more of a change in attitudes than a change in the laws.”

Eckis said he had no indications yet that the new drug eviction law will be challenged, but added that he does not expect opposition until the law has been put into practice.

The eviction of tenants from rental units applies not only to single-family homes and apartments, but also to mobile home renters and tenants of recreational vehicles within the city limits.