North County residents are beyond frustrated with the county’s response to party noise and SIP enforcement.

There’s no TGIF for Sabrina Carrillo of Prunedale. As weekends approach, Carrillo’s anxiety level goes up. She knows the loud music and booming bass beats are about to fill the canyons of North County as soon as the huge parties get underway – including those featuring live concerts that charge entrance fees – some starting early in the day and lasting late into the night, making it impossible to sleep. Now with the Fourth of July weekend coming, she and her neighbors worry that after months of being cooped up, people will ramp up the celebrations.

“Normally the Fourth of July weekend is fine. We don’t really have the big parties because of the firework shows,” says Carrillo, who started a private Facebook group to keep track of parties. But with no public shows because of bans on large gatherings due to the pandemic, North County residents are bracing for a noisy weekend. Especially, says Carrillo, because they feel as if pleas for enforcement by Monterey County officials fall on deaf ears. She blames a lack of understanding among dispatchers and Monterey County sheriff’s deputies about the county’s noise ordinance, passed one year ago.

But that ordinance has not stopped the problem. The “topper,” as Carrillo described it in a letter to County Supervisor John Phillips on June 21, was at least nine large parties in Prunedale the night prior. (Phillips reported that out of 92 calls for emergency response that day, 15 were noise complaints from North County.)

Besides noise issues, Carrillo notes, it looked like there were violations of the county’s shelter-in-place order.

Phillips says SIP has decreased the number of parties this spring – he lives in North County and calls the Sheriff’s Office himself about nighttime parties sometimes. But he expects the number to go up this summer.

“This is the time of year where we see more of that. We’ve asked (the Sheriff’s Office) to focus on ‘pay-for’ parties,” Phillips says, adding that the sheriff has committed to stronger enforcement.

During board discussions last year, the supervisors amended the proposed ordinance to regulate noise mostly at night, after winery interests in Carmel Valley and elsewhere opposed rules that might stop events like weddings. The final ordinance lowered the nighttime ban from 10pm to 9pm and added the term “plainly audible” to the standard of what constitutes a violation, rather than just decibel limits.

North County residents noticed an improvement in law enforcement response at first, but say it dropped off. After parties continued over Christmas, Carrillo wrote to Sheriff Steve Bernal, detailing how at least one dispatcher told a caller that no noise ordinance existed in North County. Deputies continued to issue warnings instead of citations; citations carry a $250 fine for first-time offenders.

Sheriff’s Capt. John Thornburg says extra deputies are scheduled to work the holiday weekend.

As for SIP, he says, “Our enforcement plan has not changed. We educate folks on why they would use social distancing and wear a mask.”