Is Your Eye on the Ball?

With all the Rehab/Sober Living Home/Conflict of Interest stories and opinions being bantered around, I wonder if the residents of Newport Beach have taken their eye off the ball?

That ball? Keeping more Rehab/Sober living homes from opening up all over our residential areas.

In today's Daily Pilot is this article, titled "Rosansky cleared by letter," which essentially details Mayor Rosansky's "involvement" with a Rehab/Sober Living Home.

If there hasn't already been plenty of opinions about this subject...here's another one.

First - "An independent investigation has determined Newport Beach Mayor Steve Rosansky has no conflict of interest in regulating rehabilitation homes..."

Ok. How independent is an investigation if the people investigating the Mayor of a City are paid by the same City Council and City they are investigating?

Second, Mayor Rosansky's situation and story (which I believe is good and true) were only worsened by himself.

Here's why -

1. He's an elected local official which means he has no more private life. What he does for a living impacts the City he is the Mayor of in every single way. By keeping silent about these accusations and rumors, it only made him look like he was guilty and hiding something (at least he didn't quit over them, that would make him look really guilty). And because he's the Mayor, he has to respond publicly and quickly to these types of issues, especially since they deal with such a hot-button item as this.

2. In the course of his business, he knowingly rented to a Sober Living Home operator (who was operating a Sober Living Home a few blocks from the house in question, and more in Costa Mesa). That is why he put "premises are not be used for recovery housing,” in the lease. I've rented before and NEVER have I received that stipulation in the lease (even when I was much more of a long-haired, tattooed, Harley-riding degenerate than I am today) . Well, guess what, the fellow he leased to used that "Home Office" as a Sober Living Home. He shouldn't have really been surprised by that.

What that said, he did, however, terminate his business relationship with the home in question as soon as it was CONFIRMED to be operating as a Sober Living Home.

And please, a real conflict of interest item should earn the guy more than $100 a month right (which by the way, HE HASN'T COLLECTED SINCE 2004!)?

If he wanted to make money off of the Sober Living Home issue, I think this wouldn't qualify

How about it he had made $300k/year managing some businesses, one of which does $500k/year of business with Sober Living by the Sea?

Wouldn't that give a guy more reason to modify ordinances to make sure that steady stream of dollars kept coming through?

With that said, the real goal of this issue is to keep more of these Sober Living/Rehab homes from opening up in yours and my neighborhoods.

Attacking Mayor Steve Rosansky and the $100/month he used to make will not help accomplish that goal, will it?