You Can Call ‘em Words to Reside by

If you are an Orange County resident, there is about a one-in-three chance that you live in a city that is visionary, progressive, centrally located, maybe artistic and educated, where people are a prized commodity and where the entire municipality may be the very hub of something.

At least that’s the story as far as a lot of chambers of commerce, city officials and various civic boosters are concerned. Because nearly a third of the county’s cities have adopted slogans or mottoes for themselves that can make the legendary attributes of Boy Scouts (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, etc.) seem almost half-hearted and anemic.

Some of the mottoes were submitted as a result of citywide contests, others were suggested and adopted by city officials, and the origins of still others are indistinct, misplaced or forgotten.

The common thread, however, appears to be a burning, passionate sense of civic pride that in at least one case might have bordered on the cosmic.

Take Garden Grove, for instance. Until 1968, the city’s motto was somewhat flinty, with legal overtones: absit invidia, or absence of malice. But, said May Rollinson, a retired city records manager, the City Council wanted something more sprightly, and in 1968 staged a contest to find it.

The winning entry, “City of Youth and Ambition,” was submitted by Sandee Sparks, wife of then-Fire Chief Sam Sparks. However, the contest was notable for the number of entries--some of them bordering on the Byzantine--that were rejected.

They include: “The Citizens-Centered City,” “The People-Powered City,” “Treasure Trove of Opportunity,” “ A Garden of Prosperity Amid a Grove of Tranquillity,” “Happiness Is Garden Grove,” “With Truth and Loyalty First,” “The City With Supreme Loyalty,” “The Blossom of Orange County,” “The Hub of Orange County,” “Tomorrow’s Garden from Yesterday’s Grove,” “Strawberry Capital of the Nation,” “Comfortable Living--Convenient Facilities,” “Growing Green and Growing Great,” “Garden of Families and Groves of Recreation,” and “Loyal, Efficient, Perceptive Garden Grove.”

Another city that decided to up its image with a new motto was Stanton. For years, drivers entering the city were greeted by markers that read, “Crossroads to Vacationland.”

“We didn’t want to be known as a crossroads where people kept going through,” said City Clerk Darleen Cordova. “We wanted to be someplace where people would stay.”

So, as in Garden Grove, a contest was held, with a $50 savings bond as a prize. The winner, reviewed and selected by a panel of citizens chosen by the City Council, was “Community Pride and Forward Vision.”

The author was Roy Bruckner, then the community development director, who Cordova said lived in Claremont at the time and has since gone to work for the city of Azusa.

Another prideful city is Westminster, “The City of Progress Built on Pride.” The original motto, suggested to the City Council in 1968 by the mayor’s economic development commission (a group of local business people) was “The City That Pride Built,” said Mary Lou Morey, the city clerk.

However, she said, the city council didn’t like it, possibly because it lacked the magic motto element of progress. So, she said, they changed it and adopted their own version that November.

Costa Mesa also amended its motto, in 1984. Since 1954, said City Clerk Eileen Phinney, the motto that appeared on the city seal, and later on the city flag, was “Hub of the Harbor Area.” But as the city began to be known as a center for the arts in Orange County, the Chamber of Commerce felt that more was needed. So, in August, 1984, an artistic coda was added to the motto and Costa Mesa became the “Hub of the Harbor Area and City of the Arts.”

Anaheim, too, is a hub, albeit an unofficial one.

Though the city lacks an official motto, city spokesperson Colleen Heskett said that a map of Disneyland, printed by the Chamber of Commerce in 1955, bore the assertion that “Anaheim Is America’s Hub of Happiness.” This, said Heskett, apparently sounded good to a lot of people because it has been used as the city’s unofficial motto since then.

Neighboring Buena Park’s motto also is considered unofficial, even if it is geographically somewhat ambitious.

Linda Long, a department clerk for the city clerk’s office, said that the motto “Center of the Southland” is one of the oldest in the county, probably dating back to the incorporation of the city in 1953, when developers and officials apparently liked to think of their new community as yet another hub.

Easily the newest motto in the county is Brea’s, “Brea--Our People Make the Difference.” It dates back less than a year.

It is not so much a motto as a yearly slogan, said Doris Pregenzer, an assistant to the city clerk, and it changes with the annual mayoral election. It is the mayor’s prerogative to choose a new slogan at the time he or she assumes office, and the words are printed on commendations and proclamations during that year.

Last year’s motto would have gladdened Chicago residents, and possibly Frank Sinatra: “Brea--My Kind of Town.”

Santa Ana became “The Golden City” in 1975 after what apparently was a bit of wrangling among City Council members. City Clerk Jan Guy, perusing old council minutes, found that a motion to table discussion of the new motto was defeated and the motion to adopt the motto was passed with one council member opposing. The minutes, she said, did not say what the disagreement was about.

Former Santa Ana Mayor John Garthe remembered, however, that a city song was adopted about the same time, joining the official city tree (the jacaranda), the city flower (the hibiscus) and the city colors (royal blue and gold).

Tustin is “The City of Trees,” said former city clerk Mary Wynn, but no one seems to know the motto’s origins.

“Only because there are a lot of trees,” said Wynn. “That’s the only thing I know. It’s been the motto as long as I’ve been with the city.”

Visitors to Tustin, however, may take the motto to be something much longer. A marker in the center of First Street announces the city limits and urges, “Work Where You Must, but Live and Shop in Tustin.”

Another city in which the official motto is often obscured by an unofficial one is Huntington Beach.

Since 1984, the city’s official motto has been “City of Expanding Horizons,” an entry submitted during a citywide contest, said city public information officer Bill Reed. The winning author was Elaine Craft, the host of a television show that appears on local cable channel HBTV 3, called “Huntington Beach Horizons.”

Of course, said Reed, “our unofficial motto has always been ‘Surf City,’ and it probably always will be.”

If there is an award for the best motto for a city without a motto, however, Irvine surely is the winner.

For years, the story has circulated in that city that its official motto is “Just Another Day in Paradise,” which would easily make it the most grandiose official city slogan in the county.

It isn’t true. Representatives of the city, the Chamber of Commerce, the Irvine Co.--none will admit responsibility for coining the motto, although most said they had heard it used. The city has no official motto, all said.

But, said Dawn Grandi, a receptionist for the Chamber of Commerce, the chamber did come up with another unofficial one, and printed it in the chamber business directory. And, without question, it is the most exalted motto of all.

Irvine, it asserts, is “The Ultimate Dream.”