Deukmejian Sees Delays if He Gives In on L.A. Prison Site Impact Study

Gov. George Deukmejian’s refusal to allow a full environmental study before purchasing property for a proposed state prison in Los Angeles reflects his strongly held belief that the reviews would trigger lawsuits and further delay his ambitious prison construction program, according to top aides.

In fact, the dispute over the Los Angeles prison proposal is merely the most recent case in which the Deukmejian Administration has attempted to skirt provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires environmental impact reports (EIRs) before major projects can be undertaken.

In every prison project he has proposed, the governor has sought and received from the Legislature permission either to completely bypass such environmental studies or to conduct abbreviated studies.

“We haven’t done a complete EIR anywhere in the state,” said Rodney J. Blonien, Deukmejian’s undersecretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency.

“One of the reasons is that an EIR can take at least 12 months to complete and it makes it easy for someone who doesn’t like a project to tie it up and keep it in litigation ad nauseam. “

The prospect of further delays in his prison program has become a touchy political issue for the Republican governor, who is campaigning on a strong law-and-order platform at a time when state prisons are dangerously overcrowded.

Just last year, Deukmejian was sharply criticized by some lawmakers after he asked the Legislature for $78.8 million to build emergency prison cells as a stopgap method of dealing with a prison population that has swelled beyond all predictions.

In that case, Deukmejian persuaded the Legislature to bypass major provisions of the environmental requirements. Yet many of those projects, which were to be completed by July, are still unfinished. Administration officials blame last winter’s severe weather for those delays.

In his proposal for a prison two miles southeast of the Civic Center, Deukmejian agreed to conduct an environmental impact report, but only after the Eastside property was purchased. Even when completed, however, that report would not include studies of optional prison sites, as would normally be required.

A heavily amended version approved by the Senate would require a full environmental study before purchase, including consideration of at least two other potential prison locations elsewhere in the county.

Deukmejian has declared the plan unacceptable, and late last week he pledged to veto any measure that would “further delay the process.”

Blonien said the governor’s major concern is that, no matter what alternative sites are considered by the state, opponents will contend that some better location was ignored.

“It makes it very, very easy for someone who wants to keep a prison out to file a lawsuit,” he added.

To bolster their argument, Administration officials point to the case of a prison proposed for the town of Avenal in Kings County. Despite completion of an abbreviated environmental review of the 3,000-bed project, and support from most local officials, a group of five local farmers filed suit contending that the state did not consider another potential location for the prison.

The Administration prevailed both in the Superior Court and in the Court of Appeals. The lawsuit, however, delayed the project for a year and eventually the state agreed to pay legal fees of the prison opponents to keep them from taking their case to the state Supreme Court, further delaying construction.

However, opponents of the governor’s plan point to another case that they claim shows the need for conducting a full environmental study before proceeding with a prison project.

That involved the Administration’s failed attempts to locate a prison at Adelanto in San Bernardino County.

As in the case of the Los Angeles prison proposal, the property was purchased before completion of a full environmental review. Later, it turned out that the property was unsuitable for a prison because of its proximity to the flight patterns of a nearby military base.

The Legislature recently was forced to put the property back on the market--a decision that some prison opponents claim could cost the state money.

In debate last week, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), one of the prison plan’s chief opponents, cited the Adelanto case and declared that any agreement over the Los Angeles prison plan must include “a fair environmental impact study.”

Comparing an environmental study to a real estate transaction, Roberti said: “The governor wants you to get the escrow after you buy the house--so the buyer has to clean the termites.”