Anaheim : Legislators Offer Help in Fight Against Jail

State Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) and Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) said this week that they will help Anaheim fight a proposed county jail near Anaheim Stadium.

Although a lawsuit “is definitely still an alternative,” Anaheim city spokeswoman Sheri Erlewine said, City Council members decided during a closed meeting Tuesday to battle the jail by enlisting the help of Seymour and Robinson.

City officials said they will ask both men to introduce legislation and “pursue administrative remedies” to prevent the county from spending state money until public hearings, environmental reviews and full economic analysis on all potential sites are conducted.

“If the primary thrust is to ensure public input and appropriate evaluations, I would be strongly supportive,” said Seymour, a former Anaheim mayor.

Robinson, who co-authored a June ballot measure that would provide $495 million for jail construction statewide, said the likeliest strategy will be to write language into a subsequent appropriation bill that would prevent the state from spending the money in Anaheim.

“It seems to me that land use has to be done by the county. But if the state is going to fund 75% (of the new jail), it then has a responsibility to say whether it wants a jail next to the California Angels, the Los Angeles Rams, Disneyland . . . ,” Robinson said.

The city also plans to “actively participate” in the environmental review process which the county will conduct before it decides on any site for the new jail.

Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors chose the Anaheim site from among four suggested by county staff members. Two were in Anaheim and two were in Santa Ana. Selection of the site near the Anaheim Stadium prompted loud complaints from Anaheim officials and residents.

Anaheim officials also will “demand that the county evaluate not just the four sites, but all potential sites,” Erlewine said.

When the city first learned that it was on a final list of potential jail sites, it threatened to sue the county if Anaheim was chosen before completion of an environmental impact report. The county’s commitment to the environmental review may have diminished the legal basis for such a suit, officials said.

But because Anaheim officials had the “distinct impression” during the supervisors’ meeting that the county appeared committed to this location, “the potential basis for litigation” still exists, Erlewine said.