Petitions Submitted to Limit All Future Jails to Santa Ana

A citizens group seeking to require that all future jails be built in Santa Ana submitted 112,000 petition signatures to the county registrar of voters office Monday, about 70% more than needed to qualify the proposal for a countywide election.

If 65,110 signatures are verified as those of registered voters, the measure could be set for the next countywide election in June, 1990, according to county Registrar Donald F. Tanney. The proposal could, however, go to voters sooner if a special election is ordered for another purpose.

“This is the moment we have all waited for,” Rick Violett, president of the Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail, said during a rally at the registrar’s office Monday afternoon. “The bottom line is that we are sending a message to the Board of Supervisors . . . loud and clear.” But county officials questioned whether the proposed ballot measure would even apply to the planned Gypsum Canyon jail facility east of Anaheim Hills, which the group originally was formed to combat. And Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates reiterated the need for a new jail to relieve overcrowding in existing facilities.

Monday’s rally held to deliver the petition signatures in Santa Ana was attended by about 40 people waving signs and wearing hats in support of the initiative--including council members from the cities of Anaheim and Yorba Linda.

The success was an especially sweet one for a sputtering signature drive that has missed at least three deadlines.

The initiative effort was started last summer by residents of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda who were upset by the supervisors’ decision to build a much needed 6,000-bed jail in nearby Gypsum Canyon. Supervisors, under pressure to relieve overcrowding in the main men’s jail facility in downtown Santa Ana, repeatedly had studied various sites for a new jail, eliminating locales close to populated areas, including Santa Ana, whose city officials had opposed expansion of existing jail facilities.

Residents failed to collect enough signatures in time to reach either the June or November ballots this year. Subsequently, however, the group attracted more attention and was able to raise enough money to hire individuals as well as private companies to boost its signature-gathering.

The initiative effort was started last summer by residents of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda who were upset by the supervisors decision to build a much needed 6,000-bed jail in nearby Gypsum Canyon.

Residents failed to collect enough signatures in time to reach either the June or November

In order to make its measure more attractive to residents across the county, the taxpayers group sought to guarantee that no city or unincorporated area except Santa Ana would be chosen for a new jail. The group said it named Santa Ana because it is the county seat and the location of the central courthouse, where most of the prisoners are processed.

If the measure qualifies for the ballot, its most immediate effect would be to put pressure on the supervisors, who will be voting soon on the final environmental impact report for the proposed Gypsum Canyon jail. The vote, which could come later this month, would require the supervisors to determine if there is an acceptable environmental impact on the surrounding area.

The original vote in favor of the Gypsum Canyon jail site was 3 to 2, with Supervisors Don R. Roth and Gaddi H. Vasquez--whose district includes the location--opposed. Privately, county officials said Monday that they do not believe that a ballot measure would sway any of the other three supervisors.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said the county already has invested several million dollars in its plans for the Gypsum Canyon jail. “With the investment we already have, I would believe that our position would be to protect that,” he said.

All four of the other supervisors were in New Orleans on Monday, attending the Republican National Convention.

Sheriff-Coroner Gates said Monday that the county jails continue to operate at about 30% above their capacity and that the overcrowding has forced his department to release more than 24,000 people this year who might otherwise have been incarcerated.

A 10-Year Problem

“I’ll operate jails wherever they’re placed, but the bottom line is that we sorely need a jail,” Gates said. “If this initiative would forestall and disrupt what we have in place (for Gypsum Canyon), that would be a serious question.”

Jail overcrowding has been a major issue in Orange County for more than 10 years, and in 1985, a federal judge held Gates and the Board of Supervisors in contempt of court for failing to resolve the problem. After making moves to expand existing facilities and selecting a controversial interim jail site near Anaheim Stadium, the board continued a search for a remote site for a larger jail. In July, 1987, the board majority voted to build a facility in Gypsum Canyon.

County officials said the proposed initiative raises several legal questions, including whether it would even apply to the Gypsum Canyon jail, since that project is already being designed. County Counsel Adrian Kuyper said Monday that the question is unclear.

Riley also questioned whether the county could be forced to build in Santa Ana if it meant condemning private property because there was no other room for a new building.

And Tanney said it is unclear whether the initiative would have to be placed on a special election ballot if one were scheduled before June, 1990. He said the law only requires that the initiative be considered in the next statewide election, not necessarily a county’s special election.

That could become a politically important question because the supervisors are preparing their own ballot measure to ask voters for money to build the jail.

The supervisors decided against putting a jail bond measure on the November ballot, saying they feared that it would lose. They have said it is difficult to get Orange County voters to pass any kind of a tax increase and could be even more difficult with a jail initiative on the same ballot.

Tanney said verification of the petition signatures will take at least two weeks. He said the Election Code requires that the process be completed in 30 days.