POT OPERATIONS FOUND IN CITY OF RICHMOND-OWNED HOUSES

The City of Richmond owns two large rental homes that were found to contain
marijuana growing operations in raids conducted by Richmond RCMP over the
past two weeks, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

The houses are located at 9215 Granville Ave. and 9686 Ferndale Rd. and
were occupied by tenants who rented the property from a management company
hired by the City of Richmond to rent out its 40 rental houses.

"I think it's an unfortunate incident and I don't think there's any need
for the city to be embarrassed," said George Duncan, the city's chief
administrative officer, when confronted with information gathered by The Sun.

The raids come a few months after Richmond Mayor Greg Halsey-Brandt hosted
a forum for landlords and property managers to help them prevent their
houses from turning into marijuana growing operations.

Reached Friday, Halsey-Brandt described the raids at the city-owned houses
as "ironic" considering the efforts the city has made to be pro-active and
take steps to help educate people about the marijuana problem.

"What it underlines for all of us and other landlords is just how clever
these folks are," said Halsey-Brandt, adding that the tenants maintained
the houses and created false windows to throw off any suspicion of growing
operations inside.

"We do have to be vigilant. Even the city isn't immune to this sort of thing."

Duncan has since ordered York-West Asset Management Group Inc., the company
responsible for managing the city's rental properties, to inspect the rest
of the rental houses to make sure none of the other tenants are growing
marijuana.

"These property managers have a responsibility to meet and they're
responsible to inspect our properties and ensure they've rented them to
good people and that the properties are being maintained and cared for,"
Duncan explained.

"They do frequently do outside inspections of the property and if the
property looks like it's being cared for on the outside, I guess they have
less inclination to go in and inspect the inside, however, that's obviously
going to change now."

Janet McAllister, the branch manager for York-West Asset, said the company
does a wide range of checks on tenants and has them fill out detailed
information, including social insurance number, birthdate and references.
Credit checks are also done and the properties are regularly inspected,
McAllister said.

"You can cross all the t's and dot all the i's and you can still get bit in
the butt," she said, adding that she doesn't believe any of the other
rental houses contain growing operations.

Richmond RCMP's first raid occurred on July 6 at the city-owned Ferndale
Road house after they received a call from a neighbour who said three men,
one with a gun, were outside the house. When police arrived, the men had
fled but police arrested a woman who failed to cooperate with them.

RCMP Constable Peter Thiessen said police then executed a search warrant at
the house and seized about 200 marijuana plants. The woman is facing
charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking.

Neighbours questioned Friday said they didn't know who was living in the
large two-level house, which has been assessed at $355,000 this year,
according to the B.C. Assessment Authority. Thiessen said information in
that house led police to the city-owned Granville Avenue house Thursday
night where they seized about 80 plants. No one was in the house when
police raided it.

On Friday, police were at another house in the 7800-block Malahat in
Richmond but Thiessen couldn't say if that was linked to the two
others. Duncan, however, confirmed the city didn't own the property.

The city-owned houses are purchased by the City of Richmond with the
intention of eventually knocking them down and using the space for parks or
new roads.