RB Council Recap: Dumanis, Jails & Marijuana

The Rancho Bernardo Community Council held its monthly meeting on Thursday.

Here are some of the highlights:

• District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis: The evening's guest speaker was Dumanis, who discussed a clemency bill, auto theft, the shift of prisoners to county jails to save the state money and medical marijuana [See below]. Auto thefts are down, and a recent operation recovered 53 stolen vehicles and landed more than 30 people in custody, she said. As for shifting prisoners, Dumanis said San Diego is "geared up better than any other place in the state to do it" because of the collaboration between law enforcement agencies. However, the shift brings long-term prisoners convicted of non-violent, non-serious and non-sex to county jails that traditionally have been holding places for people awaiting trial, she said. Some offenses that are considered non-serious: vehicular manslaughter, identity theft, various kinds of economic crimes, stalking and drug dealing, Dumanis said. The state is not providing sufficient funding for counties to take in the prisoners, she said, at an estimated cost of $30-$35,000 per prisoner in county jails, compared to $50,000 at the state level.
• Medical Marijuana: Dumanis said the DA's office has prosecuted a few medical marijuana cases, but the San Diego City Attorney's Office is moving forward with code enforcement actions against some of the county's approximately 200 dispensaries. Recently, the city and the owners of the building housing a dispensary in RB—MediBloom on Avena Place—set an agreement that will prevent the property owners from paying civil penalities for housing the dispensary if they evict MediBloom. The action is still in court, but Lance Rogers, the attorney for MediBloom, said in an interview with Patch that the property owners have not told him about an eviction. Rogers said though the dispensary does not have a business permit, because the city is not providing them to dispensaries, he does not consider this a "material breach" of the dispensary's lease and sees no cause for an eviction. The federal U.S. Attorney's office recently announced a crackdown on California dispensaries. Medical marijuana is legal in California but is illegal under federal law. See more about the issue .
• New meeting place: Beginning in January, the council will hold its meetings at the Oaks North Community Center, 12578 Bernardo Oaks Dr.
• Upcoming council events:
  • : Saturday, Nov. 5
  • :Saturday, Nov. 12
• Next meeting: The council will hold one meeting for November and December, on Dec. 1.

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