3 Santa Ana Officials Get Recall Notices Over Gay Issue

A religious group outraged by the prospect of a Gay Pride Festival in a city park served recall notices on three Santa Ana City Council members Monday night and promised to oppose the reelection of two others.

The notices, the first step in a recall campaign, were served on Mayor Daniel H. Young and council members Patricia A. McGuigan and Daniel E. Griset.

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, leader of the Anaheim-based Coalition on Traditional Values, had given council members an ultimatum, demanding that they sign by noon Monday a “pro-family” resolution promising to pass an emergency ban of the Gay Pride Festival.

But by the time the council meeting began late Monday afternoon, only one council member had signed the proposed resolution: John Acosta, who has consistently opposed the festival.

But Acosta called the recall effort “counterproductive,” adding: “I don’t think it’s going to solve anything. We should have all sat down and talked instead of this going to this extent.”

Mayor Young described the recall notices as “hypocritical.”

Mayor Interviewed

“For a group that is supposed to support traditional values, they have been threatening to my family, more political than politicians and overwhelmingly harassing,” Young said during an interview before the council meeting began.

“Sheldon isn’t even a registered voter in Santa Ana,” McGuigan said in an interview. “I don’t see how this is appropriate for him to lead this. I feel like I’m standing on ground that is appropriate for my community.”

The Gay Pride Festival is scheduled for Sept. 9 and 10 in Centennial Regional Park. Despite opposition from Sheldon’s group, a permit for the festival was issued after City Atty. Edward J. Cooper warned council members that denial of a permit would be unconstitutional discrimination against the festival sponsors.

Before Monday’s council meeting, Sheldon called a news conference at City Hall, during which John Turner of Santa Ana, a computer technician and member of Sheldon’s coalition, rebuked council members.

Reading from a prepared statement, Turner said the council “let the homosexual lobby bully them into allowing gays and lesbians nationwide to come to our neighborhood to ‘parade’ their life style. This includes such activities as live marriages, body painting, gay games, massages and kissing booths, all in public view.”

Council members who were served recall notices have seven days to draft a reply. The coalition then has 160 days to circulate recall petitions. To qualify a recall measure for the ballot, Sheldon said that each petition will need 11,040 signatures from registered voters in Santa Ana.

Turner said two other council members who refused to comply with the coalition’s ultimatum--Miguel A. Pulido and Ron May--were not targeted for recall because they face reelection in November, 1990. “We will deal with those two when the time comes,” Turner said.

Councilman Richards L. Norton also ignored the coalition’s ultimatum, but because he has been in office less than six months, he was exempt from recall by law. Norton won his seat in a special election in April.

“The City Council was only upholding the Constitution,” Norton said in an interview. “It’s too bad it has to come down to this.”

John J. Duran, attorney for Orange County Cultural Pride, the festival organizers, praised the council for withstanding the coalition’s pressure.

“These elected officials swore under oath to uphold the Constitution, and to those elected officials who have kept their word, I applaud them,” he said. “I believe if the traditional-value coalition is successful in gathering enough signatures, the voters of Santa Ana will beat them back out of respect for the Constitution and for the Bill of Rights.”

Two weeks ago in an effort to reach a compromise, Young ordered an ordinance drafted that would ban from city parks all events during which alcohol would be served or admission charged. The ordinance also would have prohibited fencing off any part of a city park to accommodate an event.

The Gay Pride Festival will charge $10 admission, and organizers plan to sell beer and wine, but the ordinance would not have taken effect in time to affect the event.

Young said the proposed ordinance was prompted by rowdy, beer-drinking crowds at various events as well as by the controversy surrounding the Gay Pride Festival. But when it became apparent Monday night that the council was still divided on the ordinance, the matter was postponed until September.