SANTA ANA : Contract Likely for Courthouse Lobbyist

After a fierce battle last year to secure a new $79-million federal courthouse, Santa Ana City Council members are scheduled Tuesday to approve a $15,000 contract with lobbyist and former Democratic Rep. Jerry Patterson for past and future work on the project.

The city’s coordinator on the project, Jill Arthur, said the contract includes payment to Patterson for lobbying work he did last year on Santa Ana’s behalf to win the courthouse for the city.

Because Patterson’s fees are approaching the $10,000 limit that can be spent without prior council approval, and because he is expected to continue monitoring the funding requests, Arthur said the council would be asked to approve the contract Tuesday.

The House Appropriations Committee voted to spend $250,000 in the current fiscal year to begin design work on the 218,000-square-foot courthouse, and President Bush’s budget request last month included $3.65 million for design costs. If funding comes through as scheduled, Arthur said construction on a four-acre Civic Center site could be completed in 1997.

Although the city had been seeking the federal courthouse for 20 years, last-minute bids by the cities of Irvine and Laguna Niguel caught Santa Ana off guard. Santa Ana offered additional incentives to eventually win the facility.

“It’s not a done deal just because it’s in the President’s budget,” Arthur said of the anticipated battles over the federal budget. “It’s not a slam-dunk when you have been working for 20 years to get a courthouse and there were many times when we thought we had it before we got it.”

Santa Ana’s efforts to win the courthouse date back more than 20 years when Patterson was on the City Council and suggested placing such a facility in the county. As a congressman, he worked for a 1980 amendment to a federal law that designated Santa Ana and Los Angeles as sites where courthouses could be built.

Patterson, who lost his seat in the 1984 election to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), now serves as the city attorney for Cypress, Dana Point and Lake Forest.