Group Proposes Shake-Up in Santa Ana, Urges Vote

Sweeping changes in Santa Ana’s city government, including elimination of the city manager’s job, were proposed by a citizens’ group Friday and could go to the voters by June, Mayor Daniel E. Griset said.

The shake-up was proposed by members of Santa Ana Merged Society of Neighbors, which is threatening to attempt a recall of the entire Santa Ana City Council. SAMSON representatives met with three council members Friday and said they would drop the recall effort if their demands were put to the voters. The proposals, which Griset said probably would be combined into a single ballot item, call for:

- Election of council members by wards (areas of the city). Council members now must live in their wards but are elected by a citywide vote. The change would require an election for all seven seats in November. Now, only the terms of Vice Mayor P. Lee Johnson and Councilmen Robert Luxembourger and Dan Young expire then.

- The elimination of the city manager’s job on Dec. 31, 1986, making Santa Ana the only city in Orange County without a city manager. Those duties would “be performed by a full-time mayor elected by direct vote of the people of Santa Ana,” according to the SAMSON proposal. The mayor would receive $60,000 per year and would serve a maximum of two terms of four years each. City Manager Robert C. Bobb is paid $84,000 per year.

- An increase in council members’ salaries to $1,500 per month. Council members now receive $125 per month, and the mayor receives $200.

- Election, by ward, of members of the Planning and Redevelopment commissions, who would be paid $200 per month. Commissioners now are unpaid and appointed by the City Council.

“We know it’s a huge undertaking,” said Jim Lowman, SAMSON’s chairman. “But we’re trying to avoid the hassle (of a recall attempt) and avoid the bloodshed, if you will, by a very simple Charter amendment.”

Griset, Johnson and Luxembourger agreed to meet Friday at Willowick Golf Course with 13 SAMSON members to hear the proposals and try to avoid a recall attempt, Griset said. Council members will discuss the plan at their Jan. 6 meeting and, if they agree, will call a special election in June.

Lowman said the elimination of the city manager’s job isn’t proposed “out of spite” for Bobb but because the group feels that all top city officials should be elected and, therefore, subject to recall. “There’s no way that city manager is responsible to the people,” he said.

Bobb declined to comment on the recall or the ballot proposals.

SAMSON is made up of several groups, including critics of a plan to build a $40-million sports arena downtown called Westdome, critics of a program designed to reduce commuter traffic in north-central Santa Ana and the Firemen’s Benevolent Assn., which is suing the city.

SAMSON was formed three weeks ago with the stated intent to recall all seven council members. The group accuses the council members of “insensitivity” and of ignoring protests.

Lowman said the recallers had planned to go door to door starting the first weekend in January but will now wait until the council votes on the demands.

“This was a complete victory,” he said of the Friday meeting. “We started this recall because the council had been unresponsive. Now we want a very, very strong response from them, and then we’ll end it.”

Lowman said SAMSON members want to avoid a recall, if possible. “Bear in mind that there is no attempt to carry on any destructiveness in the city. We’re trying very hard to do something constructive,” he said.

Although the mayor and councilmen at the meeting expressed reservations about the list of demands, all three said they would let voters decide.

“I think it’s fraught with problems, but I wouldn’t oppose putting it on the ballot,” Johnson said. One problem, he said, is that election by wards creates allegiances.

“If I’m elected solely by the folks in Ward 4, I would have no interest in traffic problems in North Central Santa Ana,” he said.

And Johnson said he doesn’t like to be threatened.

“It sounds like you’re (SAMSON members) saying: ‘It’s our way or the highway,’ ” he said.

Griset said he would “be inclined to put some good ballot proposals before the voters,” but that neither the demands nor the threatened recall would slow development in the city.

“I haven’t heard anybody say that the downtown improvements should stop, and I haven’t heard anybody say that progress in this city should stop,” he said.

In addition to the first list of demands, SAMSON members presented a second list of requests that Lowman said were important but not crucial.

One of the requests is that SAMSON leader Sal Mendoza be returned to the Redevelopment Commission. Last week, after hearing that he was involved with the recall, the council voted to oust him from the commission.

Johnson said Friday that he “wasn’t interested” in reappointing Mendoza.

SAMSON also called for the city to take some action to resolve the problems in the Fire Department. Fire association representatives say that unfair and severe discipline, harassment, violations of civil rights, the conversion of the paramedic corps to an all-civilian service and other problems have caused morale to plummet to an all-time low. The association also has sued the city and Bobb over Bobb’s requirement that they sign “declarations of employment” stating whether firefighters want to remain with the department.

Bobb said he has scheduled a workshop with association officials Jan. 8 that will begin at 7 a.m. and last “until we resolve these problems.” SAMSON member George Hanna admitted that the recallers have not determined exactly what the problems are in the Fire Department, but he said he suggested that an advisory group formed of fire officials from other cities look into them.

The final request was for the mayor to meet with the Westdome developers and Roy Carver, who has suggested that the arena could be part of a commercial-office complex that he hopes to develop at MacArthur Boulevard and Main Street. Ron Heicke, a member of Save Our Stadium, the group opposed to Westdome, said a meeting would give the mayor a chance to hear what each developer’s plans are, rather than hearing it from the city staff.

Other groups in the SAMSON coalition are Friends and Neighbors of Centennial Park, which opposes the city’s plan to build an $11-million stadium there to replace Santa Ana Stadium, Hispanic Business and Professional Assn. of Orange County and the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.