Staff Report Opposing Jail Site in Desert Called Flawed : Government: County study ‘inaccurate’ and ‘incomplete,’ consultant says. Supervisor Roth calls for rejection of findings.

A county administrative office report that recommended abandoning any further plans for a remote desert jail is “incomplete” and “inaccurate” in some of its assumptions, a local consultant who reviewed the report said Monday.

John G. Rau, president of Placentia-based land-use consultants Ultra-Research Inc., said the county staff report misrepresents land values for Gypsum Canyon, a proposed jail site east of Anaheim. Moreover, Rau said, the county report overlooks construction cost issues, financing options and the potential loss of tax revenue if Gypsum Canyon land is acquired for use as a jail, rather than left for home construction.

“In summary, it is our opinion that the feasibility report is incomplete and, we believe, inaccurate in some of the assumptions used,” said Rau in a letter sent to Supervisor Don R. Roth on Monday and then quickly distributed by Roth’s staff to other board offices. “We would suggest that further analysis is required.”

Rau said his firm’s analysis was prepared over the weekend at no cost to county taxpayers.

Its findings, combined with Roth’s vehement rejection of the county staff’s work, set the stage for what could be a blistering and unusual board session today, as the supervisor is expected to take county administrators to task for their role in preparing a report that Roth himself requested.

That report took more than 10 months to prepare and cost county taxpayers more than $35,000 in consulting and site feasibility study fees alone. In addition, the report’s preparation involved assistance from half a dozen county departments and “countless staff time,” one official said.

Still, Roth dismissed its findings entirely.

“This is such a blatant example of poor work that I feel we just have to do something about it,” said Roth, who chairs the five-member Board of Supervisors. “Figures lie and figures get twisted around and this report is just wrong.”

Roth, who has long supported construction of a jail in Riverside County as Orange County’s best hope for housing its skyrocketing inmate population, said he will ask his colleagues to reject the staff report and send it back to the county administrative office for further work. Roth added that he would request that a final report be returned within 60 days.

Roth has been particularly critical of the county staff’s estimates of land values in Gypsum Canyon and at Chiriaco Summit, the desert site in Riverside County proposed for a regional jail. The report suggests that 2,700 acres in Gypsum Canyon could be purchased for about $15 million, an estimate Roth and other board members view as ridiculously low.

That view was seconded by Rau’s analysis, which called the estimate “totally unrealistic” and said buying the land could actually cost $810 million.

County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider, in a memo to the supervisors, conceded that land prices in Gypsum Canyon may exceed the report’s estimate but argued that the high costs of operating a desert facility may make those estimates irrelevant.

Even if the desert site were given to the county free, Schneider said, “within one year, the increased operational cost would negate any advantage of acquiring the site.”

Interviewed Monday, Schneider declined to say whether the county report was flawed, but he acknowledged that some of the assumptions in it could be challenged and that doing so could change some of its conclusions.

He added that if Roth wins support to send the staff report back for further review, planning could go forward on Gypsum Canyon and Chiriaco Summit simultaneously. No time would be lost on developing either if the review can be completed in 60 days, Schneider said.

The jail issue has long presented Orange County supervisors with one of their most intractable dilemmas. Three supervisors--Thomas F. Riley, Harriett M. Wieder and Roger R. Stanton--have indicated their preference for putting a maximum-security facility in Gypsum Canyon, and an environmental impact report has been prepared for that site.

But Roth and Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose district includes the canyon, both are strongly opposed. It would take four votes on the board to acquire the property through condemnation proceedings, and thus work has never begun because that site lacks sufficient political support.

No other acceptable site has yet emerged, leaving the board deadlocked on how to proceed.