Adelanto’s Pro-Prison Drive Takes a New Tack

No one would deny that there is something different about the tiny high-desert town of Adelanto.

While many civic leaders statewide are busy trying to keep prisons out of their towns, officials in Adelanto, 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County, have begged the state to send them convicts.

But their unusual nine-year battle has brought them not a single prisoner. So townsfolk have decided to take a new tack: They are officially asking to be removed from the district of conservative Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora), who is actively opposing the prison.

The request was forwarded to Gov. George Deukmejian in a most unconventional manner.

Resolution Adopted

“The City of Adelanto recognizes its impotency to operate within the shadow of (Richardson’s) omnipotence, waves the flag of surrender and asks for mercy from the colleagues of Sen. Richardson--please set us free,” declares a resolution adopted last month by an angry City Council.

Richardson was not available for comment. But his chief aide, Michael Carrington, noted that the governor has no authority to redraw legislative district lines and charged that the city’s request for new representation is nothing more than “an antic.”

Richardson remains the state’s “leading law-and-order legislator who believes in locking them up,” Carrington said, but there are simply too many problems in placing a prison near Adelanto. Among those is the fact that the prison site is beneath the flight pattern of George Air Force Base and subject to severe airplane noise problems.

Adelanto City Manager Patricia Chamberlaine said the council’s unusual request “is a terrible long shot.”

But she said in an interview that “there’s nothing milquetoasty about the people of Adelanto or the officials of Adelanto. We learned long ago that niceness gets you absolutely nowhere. We’re very frank out here.”

War of Words

The city’s strongly worded resolution is merely the latest development in an increasingly nasty war of words between officials of the town of 6,700 and Richardson, who became their senator in 1982 when a controversial reapportionment changed the boundaries of his district.

In recent months, prison opponents have begun a recall drive that targets four of the five council members. And Richardson has launched his own investigation of city officials amid suggestions by his staff that council members--several of whom are employed as real estate agents or developers--stand to gain personally from construction of a new prison.

City officials staunchly deny Richardson’s charge, accusing him of “waging a war of innuendo” by leaking rumors.

“What he is really doing is trying to discredit us,” said Mayor Edward A. Dunagan, who said a prison would be a “good clean industry” for a town where the only major source of jobs is two cement factories.

Desire to Grow

At the heart of the dispute is the town’s desire to grow despite its less than robust economy. City officials say nearly one of every two residents is without a job, there are no physicians in town, no supermarkets and few of the services offered by most city governments.

The idea of attracting a 1,500-bed maximum-security prison with a $13.5-million payroll and the business it would bring made sense to city officials. At first the state, too, seemed overjoyed at the prospect of a town that wants a prison.

The state quickly bought a piece of property for $2 million. But everything changed after corrections officials were told that to build a prison beneath the air base’s flight pattern might open the state to potentially costly lawsuits. The city argued unsuccessfully that there already is a public school beneath the flight pattern and no suits have been filed.

Nonetheless the Legislature voted to sell the land. City officials claim this never would have happened if Richardson, who they said originally favored the project, had resisted pressure from opponents.

“Sen. Richardson claims he had a change of heart and realized that Adelanto wasn’t a good area for a prison,” Dunagan said. “We think that was a lot of bunk.”

Suspicions Aroused

Carrington, Richardson’s aide, said the senator was never convinced about the wisdom of an Adelanto prison. Moreover, Carrington said he and other staff aides began to wonder why officials continued to push the project even though it seemed to be a dead issue.

“The infusion of capital from a prison may have been advantageous for some (land) speculation,” he said.

Richardson aides said the senator eventually asked Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate the city. While Carrington suggested that the investigations are under way, both agencies denied it.

A spokesman for Van de Kamp said no one in the office “knew anything about any kind of investigation.” FPPC spokeswoman Lynn Montgomery acknowledged that the commission had received a request from Richardson but later informed city officials that there would be no investigation “unless we see any reason to investigate.”

Adelanto City Atty. Ivan L. Hopkins said he is unaware of any property transactions involving council members that might be tied to the prison. “I’m not certain whether the senator is trying to teach the upstarts a lesson or what,” Hopkins said.

Quiet Campaign

Meanwhile, council members complain that Richardson continues to wage a quiet campaign against them, “attempting to establish himself as judge, jury and prosecutor.”

Gus E. Ronnebeck, former Adelanto councilman and past Chamber of Commerce president, said no one really believes the community will succeed in its redistricting request. “We’d just like to have our plight brought to the attention of the world that this guy is not representing us and he’s hurting us.”

As for Richardson, his aides say he has no intention of letting the district go, even if that were possible.

Said Carrington: “We happen to like the desert area and there are many people in town who like the senator dearly.”