City attorney trumpeted alcohol ban on local beaches.

Some Pacific Beach barkeepers blamed a decline in the number of spring breakers they'd seen this year on an e-mail or letter they had heard a local chamber of commerce sent to colleges warning of the city's new beach booze ban.

They were right on one score. There was a letter sent to several universities in and out of state. But the author wasn't the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce or any other chamber in the county. It was City Attorney Michael Aguirre.

Aguirre said he drafted it at the behest of SafeBeaches.org, an organization of local residents who support the ban.

The group sent the letters to college campuses throughout the western region. According to the city's Web site, three schools in Arizona, three in Colorado and 14 in various California counties outside San Diego, were targeted.

A portion of the letter read: "If you're ticketed for consuming alcohol on the beach, you can be fined up to $250. Repeat offenders will get to know the City Attorney's Office even better, as we will seek higher fines and even possible jail time. And now you know how to keep the San Diego City Attorney's Office off your vacation itinerary."

The San Diego City Council's yearlong trial ban on alcohol consumption on the beaches in the communities of Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Ocean Beach took effect in January. A brawl that drew police in riot gear to Pacific Beach on Labor Day last year prompted the decision.

Scott Alevy, a spokesman for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he thinks Aguirre overstepped the boundaries of his office with such a letter, and that it had a potentially negative impact on the business community.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Aguirre countered saying, "Where is nothing pro business about abusing our beaches and having people overindulge in alcohol."