Santa Ana’s Mayor Target of Recall by Public-Safety Group

A group of Santa Ana residents that has clamored for more police protection in the city launched a recall effort Monday against Mayor Dan Young, whom it accuses of neglecting public safety.

The group, which calls itself the Committee Organized for Public Safety (COPS), handed Young a notice of its intent to recall him and a list of nine grievances at the beginning of the City Council’s Monday night meeting.

The list, which calls Santa Ana “the crime capital of Orange County,” begins with Young’s vote two weeks ago to impose an “unfair contract” on the city’s police officers, an action the group said would “continue insufficient police protection.”

The group also charges that Young authorized the expenditure of $25,000 on a “cocktail party for the City Council”--referring to the city’s purchase of tickets for a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored party at MainPlace mall last year--and that he organized a “shadow government to secretly negotiate annexations, thereby diverting city staff and funds from needed police and fire negotiations.”

In 2nd Year of Term

Young is in the second year of his four-year council term and plans to run for mayor this November in the city’s first direct election for that post. He dismissed the recall movement as “a cheap political trick” inspired by his probable opponent in that race, council member John Acosta, and Acosta’s supporters.

“I think the fact that his campaign manager (Hal Gosse) is on the steering committee is a pretty good indication of that,” Young said.

“I have a solid record of supporting public safety,” he said. “It’s unconscionable to go after me on this issue. . . . I don’t think the community is going to stand for it.”

Young pointed out that the police contract makes Santa Ana officers the highest paid in the county in terms of total compensation and that a fire station that the group alleges he did not want constructed is in fact being built right now.

Beverly Ravelli, a member of the recall group, called Young’s assertion that Acosta is spearheading the movement “a lie.”

“I never talked to John Acosta,” Ravelli said. “It’s just about time that someone hit Dan Young where it hurts: in his political career. If he is this unresponsive to residents of his own city, what would happen if he went further in the county or the state?”

Gosse said that while he will work on Acosta’s campaign, he is not his campaign manager. And, he added, although he “might circulate a few recall petitions,” he is not on the group’s steering committee.

Acosta also denied that he is involved in the recall effort.

“I felt a recall wasn’t really the answer,” Acosta said. “There are other ways to take care of the problem, and to operate under a cloud of recall is not conducive to good government.”

But Acosta said he could not tell the group what to do.

About 35 people, including such community activists as Susan Tully, Patricia Mill and Jim Tucker and Police Benevolent Assn. president Don Blankenship, met at a downtown restaurant last week and decided to proceed with the recall, said Mill, chairperson of the group.

Young now has seven days in which to respond to the accusations. The recall group then must submit a sample petition that includes Young’s response to City Clerk Janice C. Guy for approval and must publish a notice of intent to circulate the petitions.

To qualify for the November ballot, the group must collect about 10,000 valid signatures--which represents 15% of the city’s registered voters--by early July, Guy said.

“We’ll get them,” Mill said.

Young doubted that they would. “I’m very strong in the community, very popular.”

Supporters of Young have called a press conference for Wednesday at the Civic Center to refute the charges and denounce the recall effort.