Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Plan to Change, Reduce Ward Boundaries OKd

The City Council broke a deadlock late Monday night and voted to adopt Vice Mayor Patricia A. McGuigan’s plan to redraw the city’s ward boundaries, reducing the number of districts from seven to six.

The first vote on the plan, which creates two new wards on the city’s west side and two large wards spanning the northern and southern ends of the city, ended in 3-3 tie. Councilmen John Acosta, Miguel Pulido and Ron May opposed the plan, while Mayor Dan Young and Councilman Wilson B. Hart voted with McGuigan in favor of her plan. Councilman Daniel E. Griset, a supporter of McGuigan’s plan, had not yet arrived at the meeting. When the matter was considered again at about 11 p.m., May and Pulido switched positions, providing six votes for the redistricting plan, one more than needed for passage.

Pulido and May said after the vote that they changed their minds to avoid a hopelessly deadlocked situation. “I saw a stalemate coming, and we were out of time,” Pulido explained. “I could live with both of these plans.”

An alternative plan was submitted by Acosta, but it never came up for a formal vote.

The council had to select one plan or the other last night to comply with a city Charter amendment passed by voters in November, 1986, that reduces the number of wards to six and calls for the seventh seat on the council to be a popularly elected mayor.