Deal to Revive Jail Funding Bill Is Offered by Bergeson

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) has offered to revive a half-cent sales tax bill for jail and courthouse construction in Orange County as early as next week if Santa Ana officials remove an amendment that would block money for a jail built within a mile of any school.

In return, Bergeson promised in a letter to Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young that she will not move the bill to the governor for signing until after the Orange County Board of Supervisors has given final approval to a site for a new county jail, which is expected to be in Gypsum Canyon in northeastern Orange County.

If the site chosen is unacceptable to Santa Ana officials, Bergeson said Friday in an interview that city officials still would have the opportunity “to come before the Legislature” for redress “just like anyone else.”

Bergeson’s letter was mailed to Young late Thursday night. A copy was made available to The Times.

Young could not be reached Friday for a response to Bergeson’s letter, and it was not known whether he had received it.

But Santa Ana City Councilman John Acosta, when read portions of the letter Friday, exclaimed: “At last, we’ve got the hammer over somebody instead of them always having it over us. These elements around us have always treated us as second-class citizens.”

Bergeson said her promise not to permit the governor to sign the bill into law until a site has been chosen for the jail should be attractive to Santa Ana because the main jail is in Santa Ana, which stands to suffer the most from the impact of jail overcrowding.

“I want to see a site that has a positive impact on the community, if that’s the right word, and I think that (issue) needs to be aired,” she said. “But I’m also realistic enough to know that everybody loses if we don’t have additional jail facilities” that her bill could help finance.

Acosta added: “I don’t know if I can recommend to my colleagues, if they asked me, that we drop the issue. We’ve worked awful hard to get into a bargaining position. I would have to see the letter and look real hard at it. But I’m going to suggest we leverage our position to the maximum.”

Santa Ana City Councilman Miguel A. Pulido, who argued on behalf of the amendment Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he also could not recommend that the amendment be dropped before further study.

Pulido said his stand is based on his reading of a citizens initiative scheduled for the 1990 ballot that would require all future jails to be built in Santa Ana. The initiative, which is sponsored by Anaheim Hills residents opposed to a jail planned for nearby Gypsum Canyon, specifically states that jails can be built within 600 feet of a school.

The amendment to Bergeson’s bill, he said, “is not a poison pill. It’s an effort to make sure we are doing what’s best not only for Santa Ana, but for every city in Orange County.”

He said the amendment does not apply only to Santa Ana, but to all areas where schools are situated.

“I’m glad (Bergeson’s bill) is not completely dead,” Pulido said. “But I think we need to sit down and make sure whatever public policy is made is sound.”

Bergeson’s letter came 2 days after she withdrew her jail-financing bill during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after Santa Ana officials were successful in tacking on the last-minute amendment.

The amendment, offered by state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), had been approved by the Orange County Board of Supervisors just hours earlier in anticipation of the committee hearing.

The main section of the bill would have allowed supervisors to put on next year’s ballot a proposal for a half-cent sales tax that would generate $100 million annually for jail and court projects.

County officials have said the money is crucial to its plan to finance $1 billion worth of planned criminal justice and jail construction projects to ease overcrowding in the county’s chronically overcrowded jail system.

There was an uproar from Santa Ana residents and officials earlier this year when it appeared that the county wanted to build a jail around the corner from Century High School on county-owned land that had been chosen for an elementary school.

The Board of Supervisors first canceled plans to sell the site to the Santa Ana Board of Education, then reversed itself amid a resulting outcry.

Acosta said Santa Ana officials had not been consulted about the Bergeson bill before her letter to the mayor. But Bergeson said she has spoken with Santa Ana city officials since she withdrew her bill Tuesday in Sacramento.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, who initiated discussions with Bergeson about how to revive her bill, said Friday that he is confident the board eventually will give final approval to the Gypsum Canyon site, not for one in Santa Ana.

Bergeson said the reason she objected to the Santa Ana amendment was that specific language about a site for a jail was the province of local government, in this case the Board of Supervisors, not state legislators.

“Why would the Legislature want to preempt the local government?” Bergeson asked. “We stand a good chance of getting the half-cent tax on the ballot. But if the bill is clouded, that makes it more difficult.”

Bergeson said a deadline for moving bills out of committee had passed Friday, but that she could get the rule waived as early as Wednesday.

The bill, she said, could be approved by the Senate and the Assembly by early September.

Bergeson said the bill could be held until the Board of Supervisors gives final approval for a jail site, which could take place in early September. Then the Legislation could be taken up by both the Senate and Assembly before the Legislature takes its half-session adjournment on Sept. 15.

“This is obviously an urgent matter if it’s going to be taken care of this year,” Bergeson said.