Neighbors Near Fracas Say City Council Is to Blame

Several residents living in neighborhoods along Edinger Avenue near the melee at Sunday’s Gay Pride Festival were sharply critical that the Santa Ana City Council allowed the festival to be held in Centennial Park.

Manuel Rosa said the council “was dead wrong to give in” and approve the gathering. He warned that all but Councilman John Acosta--who opposed the festival--will “pay the price.”

“Acosta is the only one who stood his ground and opposed this festival,” said Rosa, one of scores of area residents drawn to the corner of Edinger and Mohawk Drive by the sounds of sirens and police helicopters overhead. “The council let those people take over our park, and we won’t forget. We’re going to recall the whole damn council.”

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, led a monthslong unsuccessful bid to halt the festival after his group found out that the city had approved a permit for the gathering.

However, the city attorney warned council members that denial of a permit would be unconstitutional discrimination against festival sponsors.

Just a few feet from the festival grounds, about half a dozen people gathered signatures Sunday for a recall drive. “This council has failed to respond to the will of the people,” said Jerry Stotler, a Santa Ana resident who circulated a recall petition, wearing a three-piece suit and sunglasses in the warm sun.

Stotler added: “The issue is sex in the park. I don’t care if you’re heterosexual or homosexual, sex does not belong in a public park. This is our park, and we don’t like this one bit.”

Stotler predicted that festival foes would file papers at City Hall this morning in a bid to recall six of the council members.

Sheldon and his supporters have already filed recall notices against six of the council’s seven members who refused to sign a “pro-family” resolution that would have barred the festival.

Mayor Daniel H. Young and Acosta were unavailable for comment. But Councilwoman Patricia A. McGuigan, a key supporter of the festival, said Sunday that she does not regret the city’s clearance for the event: “Freedom of assembly and freedom of speech is what it is all about. Nothing has changed.”

However, added McGuigan, who attended the festival Sunday and was near the violence: “It’s just very unfortunate that this had to happen.”