Supervisors to Discuss Musick Expansion Bill

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will be asked to take a stand on a bill in the Legislature that would freeze state funds for a proposed expansion of James A. Musick Branch Jail.

The bill would prohibit county and state money from being used to build or expand a county jail within a mile of a military base slated for closure, or one already closed, until the base’s new use is approved.

Musick is within a mile of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which the Marines are scheduled to close in July 1999.

Sheriff Brad Gates has said he hopes to have plans for the expansion of the jail set when he leaves office in January.

The bill would halt any activity regarding Musick until the federal government issues a record of decision, a document certifying that the new plan for the base is environmentally sound. The federal environmental study on El Toro is expected to be completed around October 1999. A judge ruled last month that parts of the county’s environmental report on the Musick expansion were inadequate.

The bill was introduced Feb. 20 by Assembly members Bill Campbell (R-Orange), Dick Ackerman (R-Fullerton) and Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) and Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange).

Campbell said Thursday that he introduced the bill at the request of Lake Forest officials, who wanted legislation to kill the jail expansion completely.

He said that doing so would have interfered with local authority but that holding back money until El Toro plans are approved is acceptable.

Lake Forest Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph said she strongly supports the legislation. The city is fighting both the county’s plans for a commercial airport at El Toro and a proposal to expand Musick to include maximum-security prisoners.

Ackerman said he joined Campbell in support of the bill because of concern that the final plan for El Toro might not jibe with an expanded jail next door.

“There is lots of concern that there might be a park right next to the jail,” Ackerman said. “People taking little kids out there to play wouldn’t be too happy to find a maximum security jail right across the fence.”

He said it also would be appropriate to delay decisions about Musick because the candidates vying to replace Gates, Marshal Michael S. Carona and Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters, have expressed reservations about it.

Ackerman and Campbell said Gates called them to complain that the bill would handcuff him as he tries to shepherd the expansion through the Board of Supervisors before leaving office.

Neither lawmaker offered suggestions for an alternative to the Musick expansion. The county has been under a federal court order since 1985 prohibiting overcrowding of the main jail in Santa Ana. A plan to build a jail in Gypsum Canyon was abandoned a decade ago because of opposition from neighbors.

Lewis said Thursday that he agreed to support the bill believing it would only affect Musick. If it affects other facilities, he said, he would urge Campbell to amend it. The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee on April 14.

Campbell said he wrote the bill to include Musick but didn’t know whether it would affect other counties.

“If we’re able to give that benefit to other communities, it makes sense,” he said.

Times staff writer Shelby Grad contributed to this story.