Council’s Stand on New Jail Site

“Most of the homeowners in eastern Yorba Linda paid a premium for homes located in a rural area and purchased their homes based on views across the canyon,” said Arthur Simonian, city manager for Yorba Linda.

The protesters “feel it was a done deal going in,” said Rick Violet, appointee of the Yorba Linda City Council.

“You’re facing a firestorm of public hostility and anger if you make the decision today. . . . You are facing lawsuits,” said Irwin Fried, mayor of Yorba Linda.

All of these comments could be related to the recent fight against the auto mall in Yorba Linda, but they’re not. They were made in reference to the jail site at Gypsum/Coal canyons.

The same city officials who cried about how the people against the auto mall treated them are using the same reasons and tactics to fight the jail site.

Those people who paid a premium for their homes are the same ones who would look down on the auto mall and who organized the fight against it, but the City Council and staff said they would not be affected by an auto mall just a few yards from their homes. Yet those same council and staff members say the jail, which is two miles away, would directly affect these same people.

When residents presented their case to the council earlier this month, council members Irwin M. Fried, Gene Wisner, J. Todd Murphy and Henry W. Wedaa lashed out at the citizens for thinking the council had come to the meeting with their minds made up and for threatening lawsuits, yet this is exactly what council members and their staff are doing to try to stop the jail.

I am against placement of the jail site at Gypsum/Coal canyons as it is proposed, but the jail is not the reason for this letter. Rather its intent is to show the two faces of the Yorba Linda council.

The council has voted for the auto mall, but the citizens of Yorba Linda should have the last say about what the gateway of our city will look like.

MICHAEL B. MALLOUGH

Yorba Linda