Group’s Petition Cites ‘Compromise of Moral Values’ : Santa Ana Workers Protest Gay Pride Festival

About 130 Santa Ana city employees have signed petitions opposing a Gay Pride Festival scheduled for September, but both the city manager and the festival committee president said the protest should have no effect on the event.

Ed Bentley, president of the 450-member City Service Workers’ Assn., said Friday that 51 of the city’s 52 parks maintenance workers had signed the petitions, along with about 70 maintenance workers from other city departments.

“A lot of us live in Santa Ana . . . and we just feel that the festival is morally wrong,” Bentley said. “Our association is a very conservative association, so for us to take a public stand and start a petition like this might show you how serious we are about this.”

The festival is the first of its kind in Orange County, although other communities in California have been the site of gay pride events for years. It has prompted a storm of protest here, both from fundamentalist Christian groups and from Santa Ana residents. While openly gay couples may have become a common sight in cities such as San Francisco, Long Beach or even Laguna Beach, they are relatively rare in conservative, largely Latino Santa Ana.

City Atty. Edward Cooper said in a report last month that the city probably could not legally revoke the festival organizers’ permit, since the city routinely issues permits to use the park to other large groups.

The employee petitions, which had not yet been given to city officials late Friday, say that supporting the Gay Pride Festival “would constitute a compromise” of the workers’ moral values. They also urge the City Council to revoke a permit for the event in Centennial Park on Sept. 9-10.

Bentley said, however, that he is not instructing employees to refuse to work at the festival.

“We have an obligation to work if ordered,” he said. “We’re telling our employees . . . to be responsible.”

Union officials could conceivably file a grievance on behalf of an employee ordered to work at the event, but Bentley said he is not sure on what grounds. “We have to review our contract,” he said.

City Manager David N. Ream said the city employees are merely expressing their opinion about the event and are not inviting any disciplinary action by signing the petitions. He foresaw no problem in staffing the event with whatever number of maintenance workers are needed--which, he said, would be “minimal.”

“I’m sure we’ll have enough,” he said.

Janet Avery, president of Orange County Cultural Pride, the gay and lesbian group sponsoring the two-day festival, said the group plans to hire its own cleanup crews and is not concerned about the petitions.

“That’s between the city and the employees,” she said.