In Riverside County’s Second District : Supervisorial Candidates Avoid Cityhood Issue

Candidates for the Second District seat on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors are determined not to let what may be the area’s hottest issue interfere with their campaigns.

None of the four candidates for supervisor from the district--which includes Norco, northern Corona and central Riverside--has taken a firm stand on a proposal to create a new city from most of the unincorporated area in the district.

A group called the Jurupa Study Committee has been working for more than a year to bring cityhood to a vote of the residents of Mira Loma, Glen Avon, Pedley, Rubidoux, Sunnyslope, Indian Hills, Jurupa Hills and Agua Manza.

Other residents more recently have begun organizing to “stay county.”

Let Voters Decide

And three of the four candidates in Tuesday’s election for county supervisor--incumbent Melba Dunlap, Sam Digati and Thomas J. Watson--have said that the issue should be left to the area’s voters.

“The voters in that district should make the decision for themselves,” Dunlap said.

But the 55-year-old incumbent doesn’t think the area is ready for cityhood. “Not at this time, under this leadership,” she declared.

“Really, it’s a decision that the people there have to make for themselves,” said Digati, 66, a four-term Riverside city councilman and retired businessman.

Favors Cityhood

One candidate, David L. Russell, said he favors cityhood but later in the same interview declared the move unnecessary--as long as he is elected. If he becomes supervisor, he said, local residents will gain the control of policy they now seek through incorporation.

Cityhood, he said, “is a good idea, if it’s done right. . . . It was right 20 years ago; it was right 30 years ago. The longer you (wait), you run the risk of paying a greater price. When something is important to maintaining the community’s ideals and life style, to wait is asinine.”

Russell, 48, is a Pedley resident who resigned from the Jurupa Study Committee to run for the county office.

If elected, Russell said, he would “put a ‘For Sale’ sign on the door” at the County Administrative Center and move his office--and those of county agencies serving the unincorporated area--to Jurupa.

Leading Challenger

“If we can bring the county under (local) control,” he said, “. . . then we don’t need cityhood.”

Watson, a 45-year-old investment broker who lives in Jurupa Hills and is considered by many to be the leading challenger, attributes the push for cityhood to dissatisfaction with county government in general and with Dunlap’s leadership in particular.

Residents “feel as though there is a lack of leadership in the county,” he said. “We have had just normal, routine housekeeping activities from her office. I don’t think there has been any aggressive, assertive leadership for the Second District.”

Dunlap countered by citing accomplishments during her first term as supervisor, including new jobs in the district, a program requiring child-care facilities in industrial parks, a home-improvement program for senior citizens and a rent-stabilization ordinance for mobile-home residents.

Running on Record

“I’m doing an excellent job for the people in this county,” Dunlap said. “I have a good record, and I’m running on it.”

Cleanup of the Stringfellow Acid Pits is an issue that has been closely connected to the Jurupa cityhood drive. Area residents have criticized county officials for failing to press the state and federal governments for a rapid cleanup.

Stringfellow--where more than 35 million gallons of highly toxic industrial wastes were dumped, legally, before 1972--also has emerged as a key piece of ammunition in the three challengers’ attacks on Dunlap.

“I don’t want to attack anyone,” Digati said, “. . . but (Dunlap) has had a negative attitude” toward pushing for a cleanup of the acid pits. “A supervisor should continue lobbying” for a solution, he said.

‘Zero Movement’

“We have seen absolutely zero movement toward the elimination of that problem,” Watson said. Dunlap, he charged, has stated repeatedly during the campaign that Stringfellow might never be cleaned up.

“She also stated that the county has no responsibility for that cleanup,” Watson said. “The county created the problem, allowed and encouraged” the toxic dump in the first place, so the county “owes it to the residents that are affected now, and will be affected in the future, to see that it is cleaned up.”

Dunlap denied that she has failed to act forcefully on Stringfellow. “That (charge) tries my patience,” she said.

“Within four months of my election, Stringfellow was named the top priority” in the country, with $56 million already earmarked for its cleanup, the incumbent said. A filtration plant was opened in November to purify ground water from area wells.

Assails Challenger

Watson “has never spoken out about Stringfellow, until 1986,” Dunlap said. “Why? Where has he been for 15 years?”

Although Watson has served--for 17 years, he said--on the board of directors of the Rubidoux Community Services District, the Jurupa Hills resident has not attended any meetings or supported any efforts to bring the various levels of government together to clean up Stringfellow, Dunlap charged.

Watson could not be reached late Saturday for comment.

The other major campaign issue has been growth, which all four candidates agree is the most important long-term concern for the area. “It is the only issue,” Dunlap said.

‘Growth by Catastrophe’

“I think growth has been handled in a fairly juvenile way,” Watson said. “We have had growth by catastrophe,” with the county allowing new houses to be built without providing first for the necessary services, such as water and sewer lines, police protection and schools, Watson said.

Elsewhere in Riverside County, voters will choose two other county supervisors. Incumbent Patricia (Corky) Larson of Palm Springs faces opposition from Dave Lutes of La Quinta to represent the vast Fourth District, which stretches across the desert from Palm Springs to the Colorado River.

And in the Fifth District--which encompasses Moreno Valley, Perris and much of Riverside--five challengers are trying to oust Norton Younglove from his seat on the board. They are Donovan E. Bee, Carmen Cox, W. A. (Bill) Meyer, Edward Rasmussen and Edwin G. Shepard.