Ball of Confusion

Alex Alexander looked on proudly as local dignitaries gathered on a beautiful June morning to watch the Leisure World globe turn for the first time in two decades. But it didn’t turn for long.

Except for a few days that month, the 32-foot-tall orb has remained motionless--because of concerns that the unfenced Orange County landmark is a potential legal liability.

Nobody knows when it will spin again. Nobody is even willing to claim ownership of the globe. And the volunteers who raised $18,000 to fix the giant metal sphere are doing a slow burn.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Alexander, a Leisure World resident who helped lead the renovation drive. “I can’t understand this stupid bureaucracy that’s holding it up.”

The globe was a symbol of Leisure World developer Ross Cortese’s dream to build retirement communities throughout the world. But its motor burned out in 1972 and was deemed too expensive to replace by company officials. In its highly visible location on a grassy knoll next to Interstate 5 at El Toro Road, the globe continued to be seen by thousands of commuters every day, even as its paint faded and vandals broke its floodlights.

Then last year, Alexander hatched a plan to repair the motor, paint the sphere and fix the floodlights that lit it at night. The campaign gathered support from the Leisure World community, which contributed toward repair. Two Lake Forest electricians, Tom and Jim McConnell, put in many hours to fix the globe’s electrical system, and Leisure World helped organize fund-raising efforts.

Last October, the globe seemed ready to spin again. But the replacement motor proved to be too small. The project was delayed several months.

Then June. The public ceremony was held before dozens of well-wishers. For the first time in more than two decades, the huge metal ball began turning. But only for a few days--due to a safety problem. When it began spinning again two weeks later, motorists noticed that the world was turning in the wrong direction.

Finally, Leisure World officials decided that the unfenced globe was too accessible to the public. They feared lawsuits.

Now, even ownership of the globe is in question.

Leisure World officials say they gave it to Orange County several years ago. And when Laguna Hills annexed North Laguna Hills from the county on July 1, the city took over the globe, said Leisure World spokeswoman Tanya McElhaney. “Laguna Hills got it,” she said.

But Laguna Hills officials want no part of the globe.

“The globe doesn’t represent Laguna Hills,” said City Councilwoman Melody Carruth. “It represents Leisure World.”

Assistant City Manager Don White insisted that the city owns only the land under the landmark, not the globe itself.

“None of the paperwork we received show that the globe is ours,” White said. “We don’t own the globe.”

So the spin on the spinning world continues.

Laguna Hills officials say they are researching the ownership issue, but admit that it isn’t a high priority.

McElhaney is looking into the cost of fencing and landscaping the quarter-acre strip where the globe is located, but said her office is understaffed and hasn’t been able to move quickly on the issue.

And the volunteers such as Jim McConnell continue to wait, their patience waning.

McConnell said Leisure World officials should have considered the legal problems long before $18,000 was raised from the community and hundreds of hours were spent repairing the globe.

“This was something that was big, it was a great thing for the community,” he said. “I’m at a point where I’m humiliated because somebody didn’t do their homework.

“I anticipate the moment when I get the phone call asking me ‘Can you turn it on today?’ ” he said. “All I wanted to do is do something nice for the community. It’s frustrating because all I have to do is push a button.”

And Leisure World officials now suggest that the orb just might end up someplace else.

Bob Ring, president of Leisure World’s 6,100-unit condominium association, said the globe might be moved to the entrance of a Leisure World golf course in Aliso Viejo in south Orange County--as part of an ongoing project to renovate the retirement community there.

“We’re trying to upgrade our image at Leisure World,” Ring said, “and the globe is our symbol.”