Black Leaders, Santa Ana Settle King Squabble

A coalition of black religious leaders, angered over Santa Ana’s refusal to close its city offices Monday on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, has agreed to cancel its threatened protests and to work toward a holiday next year.

Mayor Daniel E. Griset and City Manager Robert C. Bobb met with representatives of the Interdenominational Ministers Alliance Thursday and persuaded them to drop the threats, which included a boycott of a black history parade Feb. 1, a rally at City Hall on Monday and an effort to oust incumbent City Council members as they come up for reelection.

The Rev. Russell T. Hill, an alliance spokesman, had announced those goals Tuesday, saying that the 27 church leaders were “incensed and righteously indignant.”

By Thursday, however, the group had embraced “a spirit of peace, justice and equality” after Hill and the Rev. John McReynolds met with Griset and Bobb.

The alliance, Hill said, “acknowledges that there are considerable financial, legal and productivity problems” standing in the way of a holiday Monday. He said Bobb’s promise that all employees would be allowed paid leave to attend a King celebration at Valley High School Monday would be sufficient this year.

Bobb said he had arranged for the administrative leave before the ministers announced their protest. Hill, who indicated that he had been unaware of Bobb’s arrangements, said he wanted to be sure that every city employee knew that he or she could attend the celebration.

Griset pointed out that holidays must be decided by employees during contract negotiations. He added that a holiday would cost the city more than $260,000.

Griset said King himself would have approved of the discussions that had led to Thursday’s resolution.

“This was a man whose life has taught us what can happen when people come together,” he said.

Hill, whose group claims more than 5,000 members, said nothing had changed since his announcement of the protest Tuesday but that the leaders realized it would be impossible to observe the holiday this year.

“If anything,” he said of the 11th-hour agreement, “this is testimony to the fact the dream still lives on.”

Although only two Orange County cities, Huntington Beach and Irvine, are observing the Monday holiday, Hill said, Santa Ana was singled out because it has thelargest black community, numbering about 30,000, and because it is the county seat.