Santee Files Suit to Prevent Building of Temporary Jail

Charging that San Diego County officials violated numerous state and local laws in their “rush” to build a temporary men’s jail, the City of Santee filed a lawsuit Thursday aimed at blocking the construction.

The Superior Court lawsuit, which follows Santee’s repeated unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Board of Supervisors not to build the 600-bed jail next to the Las Colinas women’s jail, represents the culmination of nearly a year of political and legal jousting over the controversial project.

Santee officials and residents have vociferously opposed the project since its inception, characterizing the proposed barracks-style jail as a “barbed-wire concentration camp” near schools and housing that will disrupt redevelopment plans for the city’s downtown.

Equally Forceful

County leaders, however, have been equally forceful in pushing the project, which they contend is needed to alleviate a longstanding jail overcrowding problem that will be exacerbated this spring when the county’s Vista jail closes for expansion. County officials hope that the temporary Santee complex will be ready for use this summer, but the lawsuit, scheduled to be heard April 15, could delay that timetable.

In a related development, the county on Thursday postponed plans to open construction bids on the Santee project, which also includes a planned 192-bed expansion of the women’s jail, because of what one county administrator described as “procedural and process problems . . . at the 12th hour.”

Faced with specification flaws that could have skewed some of the bids for the $5-million project, the county decided to return unopened the more than 100 bids received, giving bidders until March 29 to revise their proposals, according to Rich Robinson, the county’s special projects director.

The bid-opening delay had an impact in court Thursday, as a Superior Court judge, noting that the county is not in a position to proceed with construction, refused to grant Santee’s request for a temporary restraining order. However, Santee spokesman Bill Adams emphasized that the city will renew that request if the county “digs up one shovelful of dirt” or tries to move ahead with construction before the April 15 court hearing.

‘Factually Flawed’

In Thursday’s lawsuit, Santee officials alleged that the county conducted an inadequate and “fatally flawed” environmental review of the project, as well as overlooked viable alternatives to the Santee facility because of what they contend was the county’s “precommitment . . . to the Las Colinas site, to the exclusion of all others.”

“The county is rushing to a preconceived conclusion without compliance with the law,” the lawsuit said. “The Santee ‘interim’ jail is just one more chapter in a sorry story of inept and incompetent government. The people of Santee, apparently because they are viewed as politically impotent, are to be the next victims of the never ending ‘jail story.’ ”

Last month, the supervisors approved an environmental impact report that cleared the way for construction of the temporary men’s jail, despite the fact that the study described the jail as “incompatible with existing land uses.” County administrators, however, have sought to downplay that finding by emphasizing that the jail is expected to be in use for less than seven years, until new permanent detention facilities are built.

Beyond their obvious disagreement with the supervisors’ action, Santee officials claimed in the lawsuit that the environmental study was “replete with technical and factual errors”--among them, an alleged failure to solicit information from various local, state and federal agencies, as required by law. County officials have denied that allegation, saying that the environmental report satisfied all required standards.

Supervisors Not Swayed

Repeating an argument that failed to sway the supervisors, the Santee suit also charged that the county did not adequately examine possible alternative sites for the jail--specifically, county-owned land on Ruffin Road in Kearny Mesa.