THE CALIFORNIA PRIMARY : Voters Give Nuclear Plant a Chance to Prove Itself

Having invested $400 million in refurbishing the aging Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, metropolitan Sacramento voters narrowly rejected a proposal to abandon the plant and decided instead to see exactly what their money bought.

By a margin of 50.4% to 49.6%, voters defeated Measure B, which would have closed the troubled but recently refurbished plant. Rather, it will continue to operate for an 18-month trial period, as outlined in rival Measure C, which was favored by 51.6% of those going to the polls. Another election on whether to keep the plant open could follow the trial period.

Elsewhere around the state, San Bernardino County voters defeated a measure to create a new Mojave County in the region’s high desert. The proposal was defeated 66% to 34%, with voters in urbanized areas of San Bernardino County providing the margin of difference.

Meanwhile, citizens up and down the state were split over more than a dozen measures to raise local taxes--including 11 proposals to add to the sales tax to pay for highways, jails and libraries. Four sales tax hikes were approved.

In San Diego, Mayor Maureen O’Connor, first elected in a special election two years ago to replace indicted former Mayor Roger Hedgecock, easily won a full four-year term. She took 59.5% of the votes in a five-person field, easily outdistancing second-place finisher Floyd Morrow, a former city councilman who polled 33.5%.

San Jose voters, meanwhile, approved plans for a $100-million, 20,000-seat sports arena that Mayor Tom McEnery had eagerly sought to enhance his efforts to revitalize that city’s downtown. Measure H there captured 53% of the vote.

The narrowly decided Rancho Seco measures comprise the country’s closest election ever on the nuclear issue. In 13 previous elections since 1972, all won by pro-nuclear forces, the closest margin had been 55% to 45% in Maine in 1982.

“We’re happy Sacramento has given us an opportunity to prove ourselves,” said Dave Crespo of the Rancho Seco Political Action Committee, a group of Rancho Seco employees that did most of the legwork promoting the plant. “We have a major chore ahead of us to demonstrate in physical terms that the plant is safe and can operate reliably.”

27-Month Shutdown

Rancho Seco had been one of America’s least reliable nuclear plants before being refurbished during a 27-month shutdown forced by a December, 1985, near-accident that stressed the nuclear reactor vessel and vented radioactive steam into the atmosphere.

The plant’s low production--it has run at an average of 40% of capacity--and its history of fines, equipment failures and operator errors caused even the general manager of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which owns the plant, to call for its closure. He was ignored by the district’s five elected directors, so opponents pressed their effort to close it by initiative.

Even in defeat, plant opponents were unbowed.

“A very strong message has been sent to the board of directors of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District,” said Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin, one of several local officials who campaigned to close the plant as uneconomical. “This issue is not going to go away. People just don’t trust (Rancho Seco) to work efficiently.”

The trial period approved Tuesday will last until the plant’s current fuel supply is exhausted, about 18 months. The district is also required to seek a buyer for the plant, and if none is forthcoming, a second election on Rancho Seco’s future would be held.

Supporters of the proposed new Mojave County, stung by their crushing 2-1 defeat, blamed the loss on San Bernardino County officials.

‘Lot of Money to Defeat It’

“The county Board of Supervisors spent an awful lot of money to defeat it,” said James Cox, city manager of Victorville, which would have been in the new county.

The initiative, which would have created the first new California county in 80 years, was supported by only a third of those voting in the present county as a whole but won the backing of 60% of the voters in the desert area that would have comprised the new county.

The new county would have included 80% of the land area of San Bernardino County, now the largest in the nation outside Alaska, but less than 20% of its population.

Gerda Feldmann, publicity coordinator for Mojave County Proponents, said the group might try again but added, “Today, after 2 1/2 years of working hard on this, I have no fighting spirit left.”

The mixed bag on new taxes was something of a surprise, coming on the 10th anniversary of Proposition 13, California’s landmark tax-slashing initiative.

In addition to the 0.5% sales tax increase approved in four counties--San Diego, San Mateo, Inyo and San Benito--voters in San Diego County also agreed to a property-tax hike to build and rehabilitate schools. That county’s bigger sales tax increase will be used to expand the criminal-justice system; the San Mateo and San Benito boosts will finance local transportation projects, while the Inyo increase will supplement the county general fund.

Hotel Taxes Increased

Meanwhile, voters in the San Diego County communities of Carlsbad, San Marcos and Escondido agreed to increase local hotel taxes to 10%.

Added taxes were less popular in Sacramento, Calaveras, Mono, El Dorado, Del Norte and Trinity counties, where local sales tax increases were soundly rejected. People in Mendocino County voted 53% to 47% in favor of added sales tax to fund local libraries, but the measure failed because it needed a two-thirds majority.

San Francisco voters also turned thumbs down on taxes, rejecting 56% to 44% a proposal that would allow an increase in local business taxes. Mayor Art Agnos had warned that the money was needed to avoid massive cutbacks and layoffs in the deficit-battered city.

Times staff writer William Trombley in San Bernardino also contributed to this story.