From Babies to Oil Spills, 1990 Kept O.C. on the Run : Year in review: Laguna Canyon was saved, traffic got help and surrogate birth launched a legal whirlwind.

From the first seconds of the New Year to the waning days of December, 1990 was the year of the controversial newborn.

It also was the year in which crude oil poured onto Orange County’s beaches, Laguna Canyon was saved from a developer’s backhoe, and, on the third try, county officials persuaded residents to approve a tax increase to battle traffic woes.

Display of John Lennon’s photographed nude backside was hotly debated in Fullerton, the cost of entering the Magic Kingdom went up to a C-note for a family of four while the charge for entertaining a child at Knott’s dropped 40%. And the city of Huntington Beach was taken to court and accused of racketeering for allegedly operating a speed trap.

But let’s start at the beginning.

The new year was only seconds old when Myra Kristine Palmer was delivered--with forceps, to speed her birth--by Dr. Charles W. Turner, and an obstetrical controversy was born. Turner immediately tucked the newborn into a Christmas stocking, left the infant’s mother on the delivery table and rushed the baby to the nearby Melodyland Christian Center to display Myra before television cameras at a New Year’s service. Turner was charged with gross negligence and incompetence in connection with the New Year’s birth and a number of other deliveries, including two in which the newborns died under his care. The state has temporarily suspended his medical license, and Orange County Superior Court Judge Eileen C. Moore refused last week to lift the suspension.

Two weeks ago, two new mothers were sent home with the wrong babies when Western Medical Center-Santa Ana apparently mixed up the two baby boys, who differed in weight by only 1 ounce and looked alike. Citing the confidentiality of medical records, the hospital has refused to confirm the mistake, but one of the mothers tearfully told of how she bonded to the baby she was sent home with and did not notice until the next day that the newborn’s hospital wristband bore another mother’s name.

But no baby made more headlines this year than Matthew Christopher Calvert, born to surrogate mother Anna Johnson and genetic parents Mark and Crispina Calvert. Months before the baby was born, Johnson sued for joint custody of the baby, the first-ever suit by a surrogate mother with no genetic link to the baby she was carrying. After a series of emotional court hearings, Superior Court Judge Richard N. Parslow Jr. ruled Johnson had no rights to the baby. As the year ends, Johnson is appealing the decision, as well as suing the doctor who implanted the embryo and others who arranged the surrogacy contract for emotional distress.

In the year that the 20th anniversary of Earth Day was celebrated, Orange County saw its first offshore oil spill. The American Trader ran over its own anchor off Huntington Beach and 400,000 gallons of crude oil gushed onto 15 miles of shoreline, threatening fragile wetlands and endangering birds and other marine life. Five weeks and $25 million later, the shoreline was cleaned up, and by summer the surfers, grunion and sea gulls were back.

But there are lingering effects from the oil spill. Marine life continues to be monitored, and lawsuits have been filed to seek reimbursement to the public for loss of recreation, income and damage to natural resources. More insidiously, the oil spill left an undercurrent of disillusionment among residents that galvanized concern and awareness of the environment.

Down the coastline in Laguna Beach, environmentalists scored a victory in 1990. Longtime critics of the Irvine Co.’s development plans for Laguna Canyon wound up toasting Chairman Donald L. Bren after the Laguna Beach City Council negotiated to buy a 2,150-acre stretch of the scenic canyon for $78 million.

In north and central Orange County, the environmental issue of the year was malathion spraying. Helicopters dropped the pesticide on 11 cities to battle the Mediterranean fruit fly. A truce in the battle against the insect was called at the end of May, and on Nov. 8 state officials proclaimed victory.

Traffic was as bad as ever, if not worse, in 1990, but there was new hope. Voters passed Measure M in November, a half-cent sales tax hike that will be spent to widen freeways and roads, build “super-streets” and expand rail service.

Air travel improved significantly with the September opening of the $63-million Thomas F. Riley Terminal at John Wayne Airport, part of a $310-million airport expansion. The new terminal offers 12 times the space of the old one, an array of eateries and watering holes, and a feature found at countless other airports for years but new to Orange County--covered “jet-ways” between the terminal and planes, putting an end to passengers trekking across the Tarmac.

The county also took steps toward the biggest proposed public works project in its history--a new jail expected to cost more than $1 billion. Two weeks ago the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to negotiate with the Irvine Co. to attempt to purchase 2,500 acres in Gypsum Canyon, east of Anaheim, for a new lock-up facility, a development the cities of Anaheim and Yorba Linda have pledged to fight.

The action comes 12 years after a federal court judge first ordered the county to remedy the chronic overcrowding at the jail. To reduce the number of inmates, Sheriff Brad Gates has ordered minor offenders--such as some drunk drivers--to be released early, a practice that has drawn criticism from some judges.

Gates also took his lumps in another courtroom, when a jury found that the sheriff had discriminated against two private investigators in denying them concealed weapons permits. The county agreed to pay the two $616,000 in damages.

The county’s woes were not confined to the jail. As 1991 arrives, the Board of Supervisors continues to try to balance a budget that could fall more than $50 million short by the end of June, 1991. Confronted with a dwindling county treasury, the Board of Supervisors passed along deep state cuts to medical care for poor people and recently approved a hiring freeze and ended funding for several youth shelters while exploring other ways to cut costs and raise money.

Cities broke new ground in 1990. In Costa Mesa, the City Council helped set national policy on immigrants’ rights when U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp opposed the city’s local law barring social services to illegal aliens. In a letter to then-Councilman Orville Amburgey, who was the council’s chief proponent of the policy, Kemp warned that HUD would withhold federal funds from Costa Mesa, which later rescinded the ordinance.

Santa Ana and Anaheim were more sporting with their concerns. The two cities continued to race to build sports arenas for basketball and hockey teams that may or may not come to Orange County to play. Anaheim has broken ground on its $100-million facility, while Santa Ana soon will break out the ceremonial shovels for its $85-million arena.

1990 ranks as the bloodiest year yet for Orange County, with several more homicide victims passing through the county morgue than last year’s record-setting 161. Especially disturbing this year was a rash of killings by children. Three shootings involving youngsters fatally wounding friends or relatives occurred in May and June alone, while a teen-ager fatally wounded another youth during an argument on the beach a few months later.

Gang-related violence continued to haunt the central part of the county, and the normally tranquil South County saw a surprising increase in gang activity.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait, it didn’t take long for the effects to be felt directly in Orange County. Thousands of men and women in active and reserve troops from El Toro, Los Alamitos, Tustin, Santa Ana and Camp Pendleton were dispatched to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Desert Shield, leaving behind worried and financially pressed families to celebrate the holidays alone. The season was happier for the families of at least three Orange County residents who were held hostage when Saddam Hussein’s troops invaded Kuwait, but who were returned home in time for Christmas.

Through all the ups and downs of the year, though, there was evidence that people are pretty satisfied with their life in Orange County. The November election returned nearly all the incumbents to office, with only a couple of notable exceptions. Robert Peterson, the county’s superintendent of schools since 1966, was replaced by Whittier College professor John F. Dean. And the county will once again have a Democrat in the state Assembly after Thomas Umberg unseated incumbent Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

And finally, proving you can go home again, Richard M. Nixon returned to Orange County, triumphant, for the opening of the Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace. For the occasion, four U.S. presidents convened--the first such gathering in nearly a decade--for the pomp and celebration surrounding the $21-million library. At one point, the line of spectators trying to get in stretched for two miles.

But even before it opened, the library sparked controversy when the director said he would bar researchers perceived as anti-Nixon--including Bob Woodward, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who helped break the Watergate story that led to Nixon’s resignation. The official later retracted his statement, but the brief uproar among the press covering Nixon was a reminder that some things never change.

Times librarian Mary K. Lewis helped research this story.