Move to Place Young Recall on Ballot Fails

Organizers of a campaign to oust Santa Ana Mayor Dan Young said Tuesday that they will not have the necessary 10,101 signatures to place the recall measure on the November ballot.

The deadline to collect the signatures is Friday. Now that the group cannot meet that deadline, members will try to collect enough signatures by Oct. 29 to force a special recall election, which would be held in March or April, Jim Lowman, a spokesman for the group said.

Lowman, a member of Santa Ana Merged Society of Neighbors (SAMSON), which in recent weeks joined the recall effort, would not say how many signatures have been collected since the recall effort began in late May. “They don’t want me to disclose that,” he said.

Pat Mill, one of the leaders of the recall group, said the members agreed not to disclose the number of signatures until the petition drive is over. She denied that the group is withholding the figure because it is embarrassingly low. “I asked not to be told a number,” Mill said. “I don’t want to know.”

Blames Newspapers

Lowman blamed the group’s failure to meet the July 1 deadline on what he called inadequate coverage by The Times and Orange County Register. “Everything in both newspapers pointed to one issue, public safety, when we were pointing at 10,” he said.

Lowman said he did not think that Young’s positions on public safety issues were enough to warrant a recall, although the effort was galvanized by Young’s vote with the City Council’s majority to impose a contract on the city’s police officers after months of fruitless negotiations.

The group that launched the recall effort, in fact, calls itself COPS--Committee Organized for Public Safety.

“Waste is more of an issue with me,” said Lowman, pointing to the group’s other accusations that Young has needlessly spent city funds on parties, public relations and plans to annex North Tustin. Lowman said he is confident the group will gather the necessary signatures by Oct. 29.

Young said the recall group’s failure to meet the July 1 deadline was evidence of his strong support. “They took their best shot at me, they took their most vicious shot . . . and they completely and utterly failed,” Young said. “It proves that I’ve got people in the city on my side for what I want to accomplish as mayor.”

Young, whose council term expires in 1990, plans to run in November in the city’s first popular election for mayor (the council now elects the mayor).

The recall effort, however, may target only one office--in this case Young’s council seat, City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said last month. If Young wins the mayoral race and the recall group succeeds in gathering enough signatures by Oct. 29, the special election would be moot.

The prospect of running for mayor with a recall effort hanging over his head could be politically troublesome for Young, but he said Tuesday that he is not worried. “It (the recall effort) didn’t work for July and it won’t work for October,” Young said.