There Will Be New Battles in 1986 Over Old Issues

Presenting 1986, a year starring Orange County’s finest in several evolutionary new roles.

Zubin Mehta and Mikhail Baryshnikov sign on for premier runs at a long-promised $70.7-million Performing Arts Center. Cal State Fullerton, the original commuter campus, sets down roots with its first student housing. The case of accused serial killer Randy Kraft, charged with the deaths of 39 young men, finally comes to justice after lengthy delays. Ralph Clark steps down from the Board of Supervisors after longer than anyone can remember.

And in a return engagement, the battle over expansion of John Wayne Airport plays on.

The year promises to be a good one for the economy, a great one for the arts-minded, a tough one for Democrats and a potentially lousy one for politicians who face an ever-widening probe into Anaheim fireworks manufacturer W. Patrick Moriarty’s political contributions and business connections.

Economic consultant Sanford Goodkin ebulliently forecasts “a very, very good year--as opposed to just very good.”

But the political picture is somewhat dim for Democratic Party chief Bruce Sumner, looking at a slim 36.6% registration total going into an important election year.

“What’s ahead and what the goals are may not be the same,” Sumner conceded tentatively as he promised to oust Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan and take over two-term Republican Assemblywoman Doris Allen’s seat in two fell swoops.

“We’ve got a lot of challenges,” suggested newly hired County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish, who oversees the county’s $1-billion-plus budget. “But I look forward to this year. I really do. It’ll be my first full calendar year, and my first real crack at the budget operations.”

It’s that kind of confidence and optimism that promise to make 1986 a year of transition for Orange County. San Juan Capistrano, the city of old mission bells and aging cowboys, celebrates 25 years of cityhood. Santa Ana and other older central cities prepare for major new redevelopment efforts, and Irvine, Orange County’s experimental “new town,” turns 15.

A number of important development decisions scheduled early in the year will have impacts on the landscape of the county for years to come.

In February, voters in San Clemente, facing an unprecedented construction boom, will decide on a pair of growth initiatives, one that would limit development to 500 new homes a year, and an alternate (proposed by the City Council) that would ask voters simply

to ratify existing growth restrictions.

In Irvine, a citizens committee has qualified another initiative that could effectively block funding for new freeways through the county’s coastal and southeastern foothills, though the measure will not appear on the June ballot unless it is upheld by the appellate courts.

A go or no-go decision on the proposed 20,500-seat Westdome sports arena in Santa Ana is scheduled in March, while residents angered about the stadium and a host of other issues have tentative plans to circulate recall petitions against the City Council as early as mid-January.

Meanwhile, sports fans should also be keeping an eye on developments in nearby Anaheim, where the California Angels are battling against the city’s plans to construct high-rise offices on part of the Anaheim Stadium parking lot. A Superior Court judge will decide on the dispute by mid-February.

It all reflects a seemingly breakneck development pace that began with the national economic recovery a few years ago and promises to carry on through 1986, with nearly $3 billion in new construction forecast, including 4.5 million square feet of office space and 16,700 new housing starts.

Included in those statistics will be the opening of yet another luxury hotel, the $70-million Four Seasons, joining the haughty ranks of the Ritz-Carlton, Meridien, Marriotts and Hiltons when it swings open its doors June 1 in Newport Beach.

New Irvine Village

Also making its debut will be Irvine’s first new village since Woodbridge became the address of the family-oriented middle class during the 1970s: Westpark, a city-within-a-city that will eventually include 5,000 homes, mostly geared for young professionals, scheduled to open with its first models sometime in May.

Yet, for all the new development, there is little relief in sight for the county’s congested freeways.

A $10.7-million extension of the Costa Mesa Freeway to MacArthur Boulevard, the county’s first new freeway construction in a decade, will be completed in March. But other improvements to the Costa Mesa and Santa Ana freeways are at least a year away, though the county transportation commission will decide in March whether to make experimental commuter lanes on the Costa Mesa Freeway a permanent feature.

The first new lanes on Beach Boulevard should be under construction by the end of the year as part of the effort to convert the thoroughfare into the county’s first “superstreet.”

Money to construct such improvements could be tight. Congress’ new Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing measure could mean restrictions next year in funding for new highways, as well as Orange County refugee-assistance programs and a $1-billion flood-protection plan for the Santa Ana River, already authorized by the House and scheduled for consideration in the Senate next year.

Politics a Key

Politics will be a key part of the public agenda in 1986, with primary and general election ballots that will include all of the state’s top elective offices and a good many of the county’s legislative, judicial and city council seats.

Everything is up for grabs. Longtime Republican Rep. William E. Dannemeyer’s announcement that he will seek U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston’s seat has set up a bowling-pin effect in the area surrounding his Fullerton-area district.

State Sen. Ed Royce (R-Anaheim) has already announced plans to run for Dannemeyer’s seat. Assemblywoman Doris Allen (D-Cypress) says she is thinking of running for Royce’s seat, as is former Westminster Mayor Kathy Buchoz. And the Democrats say they have an ideal candidate for Allen’s seat in the person of attorney Mark Rosen.

But the real electoral brouhaha is likely to be over Dornan’s seat in the 38th Congressional District, where Democratic Assemblyman Richard Robinson of Garden Grove says he is “99% sure” he will be a challenger. So, very likely, will be Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, the Democratic Party favorite until Robinson’s recent announcement.

Meanwhile, a whole host of Orange County candidates are setting themselves up for statewide office. Besides Dannemeyer, on the U.S. Senate Republican candidate roster are Rep. Dan Lungren of Long Beach and state Sen. William Campbell of Hacienda Heights, neither of whom has officially announced for the seat. Supervisor Bruce Nestande will be deciding soon whether to make an all-out bid for lieutenant governor.

Supervisor to Retire

And the year will bring the end of an era, in a sense, when Ralph Clark ascends to chairmanship of the Board of Supervisors in January and retires from the board in December after 15 years.

Orange Mayor James H. Beam and Anaheim Mayor Don R. Roth are both running for Clark’s seat. Jerry Patterson, the Democrat whom Dornan defeated for the 38th Congressional District seat in 1984, says he will decide early in the year whether to mount a challenge of his own.

And 5th District Supervisor Thomas F. Riley may well face a challenge from former Laguna Beach Mayor Jon Brand. The major issue in that race, Brand says, is likely to be John Wayne Airport.

Although the county recently signed a historic agreement with Newport Beach allowing for limited airport expansion, Brand said Riley “looked stupid” two days later when the board authorized a massive, though temporary, increase in jet flights, infuriating Newport Beach.

County residents can confidently expect that their favorite airport controversy won’t go away during 1986. Even if Newport Beach does bury the hatchet, the McDonnell Douglas Corp. and several major airlines are waiting for their turn in federal court.

Relief for Some

Yet some relief is in sight for airport-area residents in Santa Ana Heights. Money for the first county-guaranteed home purchases and sound insulation should begin flowing by the end of the year.

The Orange County Jail also promises to provide continuing political fodder during 1986. By midyear, county officials will have to comply with a federal court-ordered 1,400-inmate ceiling, a goal they expect to accomplish with expansions to the satellite James A. Musick and Theo Lacy correctional facilities.

Construction of a new intake and release center near the main jail in Santa Ana will continue at a hectic pace throughout the year and into 1987--even as Sheriff Brad Gates, following the most controversy-ridden term in his tenure, faces an electoral challenge from Municipal Court Judge Bobby D. Youngblood.

Law enforcement officials will have some help next year, however, when the county plugs into a statewide computerized fingerprint registry that will give police officers immediate access to 1.5 million prints to help identify arrestees and fingerprints found at crime scenes. The system will be on line by August.

The court system will will be busy processing its own end of the law-enforcement equation. Randy Kraft, accused by the district attorney’s office of 39 murders, tentatively faces trial on 16 murder counts.

Murder Cases

In addition, the Orange County Superior Court will reconsider four major murder cases for which juries have already voted the death penalty, but which have been sent back for rehearing for various reasons--two of them because of reversals by the state Supreme Court, in a year when several Orange County law-enforcement and elected officials will play key roles in the campaign to unseat the court’s most liberal members.

Former Costa Mesa dentist Tony Protopappas faces a bevy of civil suits stemming in part from the deaths of three of his patients. Also coming to civil trial next year will by suits filed by Anthony Sperl, the former Stanton police officer who accidentally shot 5-year-old Patrick Andrew Mason in 1983, and the child’s mother, Patricia Ridge.

And the fight against the insidious threats of disease and hazardous chemical contamination widens on several fronts.

While the rate of increase in cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome has slowed, the number of AIDS cases is still expected to increase next year from the roughly 85 cases reported this year.

Orange County Fire Department paramedics next year will be wearing newly purchased masks to avoid direct mouth-to-mouth contact with emergency victims. So will fire officials in Anaheim.

Uniformity Foreseen

While the county Health Department so far has not formulated any clear-cut policies on the disease, the county health officer, Dr. Rex Ehling, said he expects a more uniform approach to dealing with the disease on the part of hospitals, schools and health departments throughout the state next year.

“I really think it’s going to be important for us to come to grips with it as public institutions,” Ehling said.

On another front, Orange County will be establishing the first birth defects registry in Southern California in an attempt to establish patterns that might be linked to environmental threats.

County water officials will for the first time be monitoring drinking water for possible hazardous chemical contamination.

And a study committee looking at the problem of transporting hazardous materials to landfills outside the county is expected by the end of the year to identify potential sites and designs for temporary storage or treatment facilities that would allow Orange County to become at least partially responsible for its own hazardous wastes.

The year may also bring some environmental setbacks, however. Although Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel has promised not to open any new tracts to offshore oil development this year, meetings will be held throughout the year to set up a plan for future oil leases, some of which could include the Orange County coastline.

McColl Dump

And the environmental granddaddy of them all, the McColl hazardous waste dump in Fullerton--scheduled as a Superfund cleanup site this year--is in the process of being “reassessed,” according to state officials, who are conducting new environmental studies to measure the effects of the cleanup.

In any case, no cleanup is in sight for this year, and McColl joins a long list of 1985 county problems--the airport, the jail, communicable disease, hazardous waste control--which will be on the 1986 agenda as well.

There was a bright light when the YWCA announced it will have new housing available for the homeless late next year in Santa Ana. It will serve 40 of the estimated 4,000 to 8,000 homeless people who will ring in the New Year on the streets of Orange County.