Baugh throws in towel

***CORRECTION: This version corrects an earlier story. CRC Health Group does not own Morningside Recovery.***

Top Orange County Republican official Scott Baugh has cut ties with Newport Beach drug and alcohol rehabilitation home operators, he said Thursday.

“I was trying to negotiate a resolution that would avoid the need for an ordinance but I don’t think that’s going to be an outcome that’s going to be achieved,” Baugh said Thursday from Iowa, where he was helping with presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s campaign efforts during the Iowa caucus.

“I still believe this issue is preempted by state and federal laws.”

Baugh, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County has been criticized for his work as an advisor for two of the largest drug and alcohol rehabilitation home operators in Newport Beach.

“I was disheartened that he was involved in this. I’m relieved he’s not involved anymore — and I think he still wants to find solutions, but just not as their representative,” said, Jack Wu, a 2006 Newport Beach City Council candidate and alternate member of the Orange County Republican Party’s Central Committee.

Baugh once acted as an advisor for CRC Health Group, which owns Sober Living by the Sea, and Morningside Recovery.

The Newport Beach City Council members will consider new rules next week that would curb what some residents say is an over-concentration of rehabilitation group homes in parts of the city.

Morningside is one of two companies in Newport Beach the city is suing for violating a moratorium to keep new rehab homes from opening.

The rehabilitation center houses its clients in numerous places on Balboa Peninsula.

Sober Living by the Sea is the largest operator of rehabilitation homes in the city, with about 40 houses.

Baugh often communicated with Newport Beach officials on matters relating to Morningside Recovery, Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said last month.

Kiff said Thursday he was unaware that Baugh had severed ties with the rehabilitation center.

Many Balboa Peninsula residents say the rehabilitation homes are a nuisance and are fighting for the city to adopt new rules that would prohibit rehab homes from operating within 1,000 feet of each other.

Such an ordinance would violate federal fair housing laws, Baugh said.

Baugh said he had hoped his work with the homes would eliminate the need for new city ordinances, but now he feels the need to move on.

“If I could no longer contribute to a solution, then my work was finished,” Baugh said.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.