County to Lock Bag Ladies Out of Main Civic Center Restrooms

In an effort to ward off bag ladies, the county will close the two main restrooms on the ground floor of the Hall of Administration to all but employees, a county official said Thursday.

Vergil Best of the county’s General Services Agency said the two bathrooms will be locked and keys given only to ground-floor employees. Two smaller bathrooms on the ground floor will be made available to the public.

County workers have reported that bag ladies “are washing themselves and even stripping down and taking a bath in the sinks,” Best said. “Some employees have had water thrown at their faces and have been sworn at.”

He noted that there have been more than 50 complaints in the past six months from county employees who work on the ground floor of the five-story Civic Center building in Santa Ana.

“We have a certain amount of people who are street people who have lived in the Civic Center area or around town for a long period of time,” Best said.

One county employee, who asked not to be identified, said the presence of bag ladies in the bathrooms was “no big deal.”

Best said office workers located on the ground floor agreed to a 90-day trial of the new program, which is expected to start in several weeks.

He conceded that transients might start using other county buildings in the vicinity. If so, “we will call the City of Santa Ana and ask them to deal with the problem,” Best said.