Swap Meet Operator Says He’ll Fight Santa Ana Order to Close

Swap meet operator Rick Norton, whose two open-air markets were ordered shut by the Santa Ana City Council, said Tuesday that he will fight the order and try to keep them open.

“We may have potential actions against the city,” said Norton, president of Norton Western Ltd. of Santa Ana, who said he hopes to “be able to continue to operate until another site can be found.”

Norton would not elaborate on what legal action he might take, saying only that the Monday night vote to close the swap meets was “discriminatory” and that his lawyers were considering their options. The weekend swap meets are attended mostly by Latinos.

Norton announced Monday before the vote that he had amassed a $100,000 war chest--about $60,000 of that his own money--to run against Councilman Dan Griset, a key opponent of the swap meets.

He acknowledged Tuesday that he now lives in an unincorporated area near Tustin but said he plans to move into Santa Ana before the election next year.

The council’s vote came after nearly four hours of public debate that was marked by accusations of racism and conflict of interest, of alleged secret tapings of meetings and of unethical, if not illegal, conspiracies.

‘Purely a Racist Position’

The most explosive moment of the highly charged meeting occurred about midnight when Councilman John Acosta bluntly tackled the racism issue and criticized his own constituents as being bigoted. “It takes a lot of courage to say what I’m going to say,” said Acosta, over shouts of protest from the public.

Opposition to the swap meets, he said, “is purely a racist position by my people who live in the Washington Square neighborhood and north of 17th Street.

“Some of them told me that ‘The Mexicans are taking over,’ . . . or that ‘We have to get rid of these people,’ ” said Acosta, one of two Latinos on the council.

“Those kinds of things really make me sick.”

Two residents stormed out of the meeting--they later returned--when Acosta, without naming them, said their comments that night and in the past were racist.

One of them was Sara Broadbent, the Washington Square Neighborhood Assn.’s president. She later denied the racism allegation and said that Acosta “has got a lot of hot air.”

The councilman had said Broadbent’s statement that the neighborhood would object to the swap meets whether they were attended by Latinos or Norwegians was a disguised racist statement. The code word “Norwegians” was used to refer to minorities by bouncers at a popular Santa Ana restaurant that was sued for discrimination last year, Acosta said.

Apology Given

Councilwoman Patricia McGuigan said she was offended by Acosta’s remarks, and Griset said he was “saddened” by them, although he did not question Acosta’s “sincerity” in making them.

Acosta apologized to McGuigan, but he questioned Griset’s commitment to minorities, noting that he has not made “a single minority appointment to (city) boards and commissions.”

Mayor Dan Young ruled Acosta out of order and called for a vote on the issues.

The actual agenda items the council was considering looked mundane enough on paper: a proposed zone-law amendment that would have allowed a swap meet at Rancho Santiago College to continue, and the extension of Norton Western Ltd.’s lease to operate a swap meet at Eddie West Field, which expires Sept. 30.

But more than 200 people had to jostle for seats in the crammed council chambers. Hundreds more followed the proceedings on closed-circuit TV from another room and in an outdoor courtyard.

Swap meet vendors and their families, predominantly Latino, wore black armbands and toted small American flags, balloons and placards decrying the collapse of free enterprise and calling for the recall of Griset.

‘Voter’ Identification Labels

Santa Ana residents who opposed the swap meets also carried signs and wore identification labels that, in an oblique reference to the citizenship or residence status of their foes, said simply, “Voter.”

Residents of several Santa Ana neighborhoods, but particularly of Washington Square, which is directly north of Eddie West Field, have complained that the swap meets create too much traffic, litter and noise, reduce property values, and should not be allowed on the city’s scarce open space.

Swap meet supporters said the neighborhood impact problems have already been mitigated and that the swap meets provide an important source of income to the city and to hundreds of low-income families.

On both matters, the council voted 5 to 2 to shut down the swap meets, with Councilmen Miguel Pulido Jr. and Acosta in opposition.

Aware that an open-ended public hearing could well stretch into Tuesday, Young asked each side to select 15 speakers. The very first speaker, Manuel Ortega, an attorney for the swap meet vendors, challenged Griset’s right to vote on the issue since he lives in Washington Square and could stand to benefit from increased property values if the swap meets were closed.

Fascinating Argument

Griset, responding earlier to a letter from another Norton Western attorney who made a similar argument, said he doubted that the swap meets made much of a difference in the value of his property but that he was “fascinated by an argument” from swap meet supporters suggesting that they might.

Norton, the last swap meet supporter to speak, said he had a tape of a meeting of Santa Ana Neighbors for Excellence (SANE)--the group that headed the campaign against the swap meets--at which Griset and Young outlined a “blueprint on how to eliminate swap meets in the city.”

Norton, calling Griset’s and Young’s actions “at least unethical,” said he would release the tape Tuesday. But at a Tuesday morning press conference, Norton said his attorney had recommended that he delay releasing it because Young took exception to being “secretly taped.”

Susan Tully, SANE president, denied that Griset and Young had provided the group with a “blueprint” and accused Norton of trying to obscure the real issue: the misuse of land zoned as open space.

“Nothing prohibits Mr. Norton from moving to a commercial or industrial area,” Tully said. “A swap meet doesn’t belong in an open-space zone.”

City Earned $300,000

Both swap meets are on land designated as open space, but the city has sanctioned the meet at Eddie West Stadium since 1979 in return for a share of Norton’s revenue. Last year, the city earned about $300,000 from the swap meet, according to Planning Manager Melanie Fallon.

The swap meet at Rancho Santiago College became a weekend fixture earlier this year. The college earns about $4,000 per month from its arrangement with Norton Western.