Big screen sports and good grub WEEKEND | P.15 FEBRUARY 25, 2011 VOLUME 19, NO. 8
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Council bans marijuana dispensaries By Daniel DeBolt
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MICHELLE LE
Ania Mitros, with 16-month-old son Moby Mitros LaForge, says that lead-contaminated debris was left in her yard by her contractor.
ity Council members backed away from approving an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in Mountain View on Tuesday and decided instead to ban them indefinitely. While a majority of the council had expressed support for such an ordinance last year, Margaret Abe-Koga and Ronit Bryant were the swing votes needed to ban dispensaries indefinitely in a 4-3 vote. Council members Laura Macias and Mayor Jac Siegel also
Planning Commission on Jan. 19. The commission-approved ordinance would keep dispensaries 600 feet from homes, parks and schools, leaving room for as many as three dispensaries in commercial zones along Highway 101, Highway 237 and at San Antonio Shopping Center. A rigorous conditional permit process was aimed at filtering out problematic dispensary operators from those genuinely wishing to provide a medical service. The ordinance was not presented to the council Tuesday, however, as City Attorney Jan-
Contractor files big claim for bad Yelp review LOCAL HOMEOWNER IN DISPUTE OVER LEAD CLEANUP IN HER BACKYARD
‘We need to wait it out a bit.’
Mountain View family for a bad Yelp review. The one sentence claim reads “Baseless defamation damaging our business and false accusation plus.” In the review, Ania Mitros of Chiquita Avenue says Craftsmen’s Guild left behind toxic lead debris after renovating the 1930s home that she and her husband live in, endangering their 1-year-old son, with whom she was pregnant dur-
COUNCILWOMAN MARGARET ABE-KOGA
By Daniel DeBolt
O
nline reviews are a fact of life for today’s businesses, but one local story illustrates how some are coming to grips with the effects of a bad review. A Cupertino-based construction contractor, Craftsmen’s Guild, filed an arbitration claim last week for $70,000 against a
ing construction. But Craftsmen’s Guild denies that it caused the problem, or that it was significant. And because the family left a bad review on Yelp, the company is now asking for $70,000 in damages for defamation. “They put wrong information on Yelp,” said Craftsmen’s Guild co-owner Matt Amini, who manSee MITROS, page 10
Carbajal won’t face new trial By Nick Veronin
A
fter two years in prison, Pedro Carbajal — the Mountain View soccer coach accused of raping one of his nieces and molesting two others — is almost a free man. Carbajal was facing a possible second trial on three molestation charges. He was cleared on Feb.
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16 of two counts of rape and one count of molestation. However, the jury remained deadlocked on the remaining three, and Superior Court Judge Griffin M. J. Bonini declared a mistrial, leaving the possibility that Prosecutor Dan Fehderau might seek to retry Carbajal on the unresolved charges. On Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 23, Fehderau announced that he
would not seek a conviction on the mistrial counts. Carbajal is still in prison, according to his friend Ellen Wheeler, as he still has some paperwork to iron out with Immigration and Naturalization Services. He was applying for citizenship prior to his arrest. “Although I think the charges See CARBAJAL, page 11
GOINGS ON 19 | MARKETPLACE 20 | REAL ESTATE 22 | VIEWPOINT 13
supported the ban. Bryant and Abe-Koga both said they had recently heard opposition from many residents about the prospect of Mountain View becoming the only city on the Peninsula to allow marijuana dispensaries. In December, the Sunnyvale City Council opposed a similar ordinance allowing dispensaries, while Los Altos and Palo Alto also have bans. “We probably would be the first city to do something on this and I don’t know if that’s our place, quite frankly,” Abe-Koga said of the ordinance. “There’s a lot that’s still happening. We need to wait it out a bit.” A draft ordinance created by the city attorney’s office was praised by medical marijuana advocates Tuesday and was approved in a 5-0 vote by the Environmental
nie Quinn said the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office was probably going to create guidelines on how dispensaries should operate as non-profits. Quinn said she wanted time to incorporate those guidelines into the ordinance. Several dispensaries raided by police in San Jose are said to have been operating as for-profit businesses under the guise of being state-required notfor-profits. Change of heart Both Bryant and Abe-Koga supported bringing the ordinance back once such issues were clarified. Bryant, a cancer survivor who had considered using medical marijuana, completely changed See POT CLUBS, page 8