Bergeson Rejects Santa Ana Proposal on Jail-Site Approval

Santa Ana city officials said Friday that they would accept state Sen. Marian Bergeson’s offer to revive a half-cent sales tax bill for jail and courthouse construction under one condition that was promptly rejected by Bergeson.

In a four-page letter to Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young and Councilman Miguel A. Pulido said they would accept Bergeson’s offer if the senator agreed to include language in the bill that would tie any use of the sales-tax funds to specific jail sites that have received final approval by the Board of Supervisors.

Bergeson withdrew her bill--SB 1334--last week after state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) offered an amendment that would ban jail construction within 1 mile of a school, effectively eliminating most of downtown Santa Ana--where the main county jail is located--as a possible new jail site. Santa Ana city officials had sought the amendment as protection against a countywide ballot measure that would prohibit the construction of any new jail outside the county seat.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled next Tuesday to vote--at the request of Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, whose district includes Santa Ana--on a resolution supporting the Torres amendment.

Bergeson said she objected to the proposed amendment because her bill was meant to be nothing more than a way of letting Orange County voters decide if they wanted to finance a new jail through a higher sales tax. She offered to revive her bill with the promise that it would not be submitted to the governor until the Board of Supervisors gave final approval to a jail site, which is expected to be in Gypsum Canyon, in northeastern Orange County.

The senator said Friday that she was “disappointed” that Santa Ana was not satisfied with her offer and was insisting that specific jail sites be included in her funding bill.

“It’s a non-deal,” Bergeson said. “I offered what I felt was a good faith effort. . . . They’re misconstruing the intention of the legislation. That’s where we have the basic problems.”

Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley said that he was “annoyed” by Santa Ana’s insistence that a jail site be named in Bergeson’s bill.

“If I were her, I’d consider it a personal affront,” Riley said. “The fact is that Marian Bergeson is one of the most trusted people in the county, and she gave her word that she would not pass this thing through until site selection is made.”

Pulido, when told of Riley’s response, said Santa Ana’s latest request “is not a matter of personal trust, or reputation.”

Santa Ana officials, Pulido said, are taking the centralized jail initiative more seriously than other politicians and want a guarantee that Bergeson’s sales-tax bill could not be used someday as a vehicle to pay for a new jail in Santa Ana.

“We see the initiative as a real thing,” Pulido said. “The attitude out there is that it’s going to be thrown out in court. We have to be prepared for the most uncomfortable scenario. . . . That bill, unamended . . . could result in a 6,000-bed jail facility within 600 feet of a school here in Santa Ana.”

Pulido said that Santa Ana’s request that a jail site chosen by the supervisors be named in the funding bill is “consistent with (Bergeson’s) philosophy.”

“She’s saying, ‘I want the Board of Supervisors to decide’,” Pulido said. “She doesn’t want Sacramento to be involved in site selection.”

But Bergeson said she is “adamant” in her position that her bill remain a funding measure, and nothing more.

“I think they feel threatened,” Bergeson said of the Santa Ana officials. “They just plain don’t want a jail. I’m looking at the broad picture. What is definitely needed is a funding mechanism. It’s not up to Sacramento to make those decisions as to location.

“The more the issue gets clouded, the less chance there is that there will be an election next year” on the funding measure, she continued. “And the longer this goes on, the more likely it is that expansion would have to occur where jails currently exist.”