Musician-Activist Young to Run for Santa Ana Mayor : Politics: The first to announce candidacy, he wants to reform the city into a ‘market-liberal municipality.’

Blues guitarist, restaurateur and stockholders’ rights activist Randell Young became the first announced candidate for mayor Thursday.

Young called the City Council’s unanimous vote to increase the utility tax to fund a new jail “the last straw” in his decision to shift from a full-time entrepreneur and musician to a candidate.

“I’d rather not be a politician per se,” Young, 39, said.

Incumbent Mayor Daniel H. Young, who is no relation, has said he will not run for reelection in November. Other frequently mentioned possible candidates include plumbing contractor and community activist John Raya and Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr.

Randell Young, who operates the jazz and supper club Randell’s on Hutton Drive, voiced particular frustration with Pulido.

“I couldn’t get Pulido to meet with me,” Young said, to discuss his plan for reinvigorating the city’s economy “by increasing jobs and opportunities for residents--not by raising taxes.

“The quickest and surest path toward greatly reducing crime in Santa Ana is to reform the city into the most market-liberal municipality in California.”

Young, who moved to Orange County 11 years ago from Washington, opened his namesake Art Deco club in 1992 on the ground floor of a Hutton Centre skyscraper. It is completely nonsmoking, considered a risky proposition for a jazz club, and features creole cuisine. One of the appetizers is called Randell’s Supreme.

On Friday nights, Young plays with his own blues group at the club.

Last year, Young filed a civil rights lawsuit against the club’s landlord, Nansay USA, charging that the company was harassing him and discriminating against him because of the club’s African-American clientele. That suit is still pending.

Young also owns commercial property in Santa Ana and Santa Monica, as well as a small record company.

“As a concerned citizen with two businesses located in this city, the only responsible course of action for me is to rally its citizens around a new, entrepreneurial direction for Santa Ana,” Young said.

Until his mayoral candidacy, Young’s best-known activism was in the “shareholders’ rights” movement, founded by corporate financier T. Boone Pickens.

Concerned about what he saw as power abuse and waste on the part of management, Young joined Pickens’ United Shareholders Assn. and began attending area stockholders’ meetings at such companies as Allergan, Northrop and National Education Corp.