Planning Commission adopts certification program

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- The city has one more weapon in its limited arsenal

against problematic sober-living homes after planning commissioners

unanimously approved on Tuesday a county certification program designed

to monitor the clean-living environments.

The county certification program -- four years in the making -- was

developed by a multi-jurisdictional task force in the hopes that it will

help officials more closely monitor sober-living facilities. The Planning

Commission wholeheartedly endorsed the guidelines, saying the program

would benefit everyone involved.

“It gives us a measure of control over operations, to see that they

are clean and decent and reasonably safe places to be,” Planning

Commissioner Eleanor Egan said of the program.

The Board of Supervisors approved the Orange County Adult and Alcohol

and Drug Sober Living Facilities Certification process in December, and

it will take effect in October, officials said.

Some of the recommended guidelines outlined in the county’s program

include specific requirements regarding staff, admission and intake,

building and grounds, monitoring and review and a good neighbor policy.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Katrina Foley said it was an easy

decision because the county had already done the preliminary analysis.

“It was all or nothing,” Foley said. “If the city wants it, we have to

vote for it. And we want it.”

The program requires county certification for any sober-living

facility that wants business from the county -- from the courts or

probation department. Certification is voluntary, but without it homes

will lose out on business, Foley said.

“The idea is that everybody will want to be certified because a

referral from the county ensures that you stay in business,” Foley said.

Although it is a county-sponsored program, cities would share the

burden and monitor their own sober-living homes. Data collected by city

staffers would be transferred to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department,

where additional positions have been created to administer the program.

The idea that the city would be required to monitor the homes pleased

Egan because the city would otherwise not even know they exist, she said.

Under existing state law, sober-living homes that don’t offer medical

treatment and have six or fewer people on the premises are not required

to carry any permits for operation.

Perry Valantine, Costa Mesa’s director of planning, said city

officials are anxious for the program to kick in.

Costa Mesa hosts 106 “group homes,” a designation that includes foster

and elder-care facilities, sober-living homes and drug and alcohol

treatment centers, according to a 2001 report.

Sober-living homes have been an especially sore spot for city

officials in recent years. Costa Mesa houses 21 sober-living homes, the

2001 report shows, all of which offer no medical treatment and are

therefore exempt from state licensing.