Supervisors to Propose Suit if Canyon Jail Site Talks Fail : Prisoner crowding: A majority of board says it is prepared to take action to foil development or annexation of Irvine Co. land.

A majority of Orange County supervisors will propose next week that the county consider legal action to acquire the controversial Gypsum Canyon jail site if negotiations with the Irvine Co. do not produce a breakthrough within 60 days.

In a letter circulated to their colleagues Thursday, Supervisors Harriett M. Wieder and Thomas F. Riley urged negotiations with the company, which owns 2,500 acres in the canyon near Anaheim. Company executives have said they are willing to talk but stress that the land is not for sale.

Recognizing the possibility of a standoff, a majority of the board now is going even further, and several members confirmed Thursday that they are ready to take tougher action if negotiations fail.

“We’re saying it’s time to get busy with the Irvine Co.,” Riley said. “And if that doesn’t work, let’s do whatever we have to do to build this jail.”

The letter and its recommendations come as board members brace for a landmark meeting Tuesday, when the supervisors will take up other matters relating to the county’s mounting crisis in jail overcrowding.

Orange County’s five jails were designed to hold 3,203 inmates, but instead they regularly house about 4,400. Meanwhile, thousands of prisoners are being released every year to make room for more serious offenders inside the jails.

Reports of the recent overcrowding have attracted the attention of a federal judge, who in October ordered a special monitor to inspect the jails. The monitor completed his work earlier this month, and strongly urged the supervisors to press ahead with the controversial Gypsum Canyon jail.

That site was selected by the board in 1987, but it takes four supervisors to authorize acquiring the land through condemnation, and only three support Gypsum Canyon. That and financial considerations have stymied the board’s efforts to proceed with the project.

At their Tuesday session, the supervisors will be asked to reaffirm their support for Gypsum Canyon and to prepare financial plans regarding the project.

In addition, Wieder and Riley--joined by Supervisor Roger R. Stanton--recommend authorizing immediate negotiations with the Irvine Co. If the talks do not show signs of progress after two months, the county attorney’s office then would be authorized to “prepare and present to this board appropriate legal actions as necessary to preserve the county’s option to acquire the property and prevent incompatible land-use development of this site.”

Although he did not sign the letter distributed Thursday, Stanton said later that it “has my full support.”

Instructing the county attorney to prepare for a deadlock in negotiations could set up any number of possibilities, officials said. It could give board members the legal authority they need to begin condemnation proceedings to acquire the land, for instance.

But it could also lay the groundwork for a lawsuit against the city of Anaheim, which is seeking to annex the land, thereby taking it out of the county’s reach.

“Gypsum Canyon may be subject to potential annexation to the city of Anaheim for purposes of residential and commercial development,” Wieder and Riley said in their letter. “Without question, the county must be prepared to take action to preserve the county’s options for building a jail in Gypsum Canyon.”

Riley declined to speculate on a possible county lawsuit against Anaheim, but Stanton said it would be considered along with other options.

As pressure mounts for the board to take action, however, the major financial questions remain. Even if it scaled back to a smaller jail than originally proposed, building in Gypsum Canyon could cost nearly $500 million, and the county says that it is broke.

Just this week, the supervisors heard a report from budget officials warning that the county faces a $13-million, mid-year deficit and projecting a much larger shortfall later on.

Sheriff Brad Gates, in an interview Thursday, acknowledged that new jail construction will be expensive, and he called for a special election in March, 1991, to consider a half-cent sales tax to pay for it.

“We know we don’t have the money now,” Gates said. “So let’s put the issue on the ballot.”

Gates has long supported a sales-tax vote on the issue, but surveys offer little hope that such a measure would win at this time. One poll last year found that just 37% of county voters would back a half-cent sales tax for jails, while 50% opposed it.

Even Stanton, an ardent supporter of Gypsum Canyon, expressed doubts about holding a vote so soon.

“I’m ready to put something on the ballot and put something on without delay,” Stanton said, “but I’ve never heard any discussion about going in March.”