Local News in Brief : Countywide : Jail Initiative Dropped, But New Drive Started

About 40,000 signatures collected for an initiative to restrict all future county jails to be built in Santa Ana have been thrown out, and sponsors have begun a second attempt to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Organizers were facing a March deadline to collect signatures of 65,110 registered voters to qualify the measure for the November ballot. Organizers were originally trying to put the proposal on the June primary ballot, but they missed a deadline for that election earlier this month.

“We are still confident that this is an issue which should be placed on the ballot,” said Rick Violett, co-chairman of Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail.

Barbara Kiley, a sponsor of Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail initiative, said that the second version has been submitted to the county registrar of voters and that it is identical to the measure filed with the county in October. The new filing gives the group until July 5 to meet the deadline for the November ballot.

The initiative drive began after the Board of Supervisors voted in July, 3-2, to build a 6,000-bed maximum-security jail in Gypsum Canyon near Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda. The initiative would require that all jails be built in Santa Ana because it is the county seat.