Officials say owners of blighted apartments don’t have license

Jen Lawson

Thursday, June 9, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.

City officials have discovered that the operators of a blighted apartment complex in the Meadows Village area that was raided last week by Metro Police and other agencies don't have a license to run a business.

Metro issued another round of citations against the owners and property managers of the Monterey Villas complex near the Stratosphere, but Sgt. Eric Fricker said they are no closer to figuring out exactly who owns the property than they were last week.

"They're playing a shell game," Fricker said. "At this point we still don't know who the owners are and no one will tell us."

Twenty-four of the 80 apartments were sealed June 2 after officials found raw sewage, no electricity or working plumbing systems and other problems that made them unfit for habitation.

The closed apartments were supposed to be vacant but were occupied by squatters who Fricker said were drug users and prostitutes. Some had changed the locks on the apartments and tapped into the complex's power box for electricity.

Since then, a total of 15 people have been arrested at the complex -- including four this morning and two Wednesday night.

The two arrested last night were discovered inside an apartment that had been sealed by the health district due to unsanitary conditions.

"This is pretty bad. There's just no accountability," Fricker said, adding that officers this morning found 10 used condoms in the courtyard and two crack pipes.

Police returned Tuesday and issued the additional citations. The on-site manager, Miguel Godinez of Pro Residential, the property management company, for maintaining a chronic nuisance and operating a business without a license.

Jim DiFiore, the city's business licensing manager, said the owner was denied a business license in July 2004 because the property didn't meet city fire codes.

"This has been a standing denial since that time," he said.

No new renters were supposed to have been permitted to move in after that time, but numerous people told reporters they signed leases agreeing to pay rent as high as $775 a month as recently as a few weeks ago.

Another chronic nuisance notification was sent this week to the property owner, Monterey Villas LLC in Los Angeles, but police don't know the actual people behind the name.

And neither does Richard Carr, a supervisor for Pro Residential, he said.

Police received a letter from an attorney in California saying he is the owner's representative, and that Carr was authorized to speak on the owner's behalf, but Carr told police he doesn't know any of those people.

In the rental office at Monterey Villas on Wednesday afternoon, Carr said he and Godinez are working on improving conditions at the complex. They have been meeting with police and city agencies and are trying to bring it into compliance with city codes.

"We're focused on taking care of the problems," Carr said. "Securing the property is the main thing."

Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers were installed this week, he said.

Wednesday afternoon most of the trash and debris had been removed from the courtyards of the 10-building complex.

A three-month resident, Joseph Peterman, said things are getting better.

"They're trying," he said while sitting in the living room of his orderly second-floor unit. "It was rough, I must admit. But I see a big difference."

Fricker has his doubts.

"It's too early for us to tell if it's a good faith effort or not," he said. On Tuesday an officer noted raw sewage that was leaking from an apartment and pooling in the walkway outside.

For now, officials are working with the managers and regular inspections will occur.

But if police, the Clark County Health District, fire department, code enforcement, business licensing officials and other agencies collectively decide that the problems at Monterey Villas are severe enough, the city can begin taking steps to shut it down, DiFiore said.

Before that would happen, however, the city would devise a plan to relocate the people living in the remaining units, a city spokesman said.