Probe Called for in OCTA Land Deal

The board overseeing Santa Ana’s federal empowerment zone is calling for a congressional inquiry into a transportation agency’s rushed $23-million purchase of a prime piece of land that zone officials had counted on to create 1,200 jobs and substantial tax revenue.

The 31-acre parcel at the center of the upheaval is in Santa Ana’s federally designated empowerment zone, and city planners say they had envisioned something along the lines of the Irvine Spectrum, combining retail businesses and office space.

But Orange County Transportation Authority officials plan to turn the site near Harbor and MacArthur boulevards into a bus depot, generating about 500 jobs and no tax revenue.

Empowerment zone board members say they are concerned that the OCTA’s purchase will threaten the economic viability of their $3-billion effort to revitalize impoverished neighborhoods in Santa Ana.

“It’s terrible what’s happened,” said Virginia Avila, an empowerment zone board member. “Due to the fact that the OCTA has acquired this property that was in the empowerment zone, 1,200 jobs less will be going up here.”

Avila, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the bus depot jobs--which transit officials promise will pay as much as $22 an hour--are little consolation.

“I’m thinking of the poor people here who aren’t mechanics or bus drivers or union workers,” she said. “Where will they get the opportunity to be self-sufficient?”

The real estate deal was reached over five business days last month after transportation board members directed the staff to act on the sale in a closed session following a regularly scheduled Oct. 14 meeting.

Some board members, most notably Supervisor Todd Spitzer, questioned the legality of the closed session.

Spitzer, concerned that laws preventing government bodies from operating in secrecy were being violated, refused to participate in the closed session and again this week when the board voted to reaffirm the earlier decision.

The vote this week was an effort to block a possible lawsuit over public meetings law violations, made at the suggestion of the agency’s general counsel, who said that though he believes no laws were violated, the public vote was an added precaution.

Seven board members voted yes, with Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. voting no and Orange County Supervisor Cynthia Coad abstaining.

Pulido was not present at the Oct. 14 closed session because his second son was being born. As a result, Santa Ana City Manager David N. Ream attended the meeting, and those present say he strenuously objected to the vote.

While Santa Ana city officials acted quickly, going to court on Oct. 21 to get a temporary restraining order blocking the sale, they weren’t quick enough. Transit officials--who had been given notice of Santa Ana’s intent--had inked the final sale that morning.

“I was shocked that in the face of an impending injunction they still went forward and closed the deal,” said Santa Ana City Atty. Joseph W. Fletcher, who called the transaction “the most outrageous deal” he has seen in 16 years as a city attorney.

While accusations and hard feelings swirl, the controversy is making its way through the courts. Last week, Santa Ana officials got an injunction preventing any further work to be done on the bus depot project until a January hearing on alleged violations of California’s environmental quality act.

City officials hope to overturn the entire purchase, Fletcher said.

Transit officials--who point out that a large number of their riders are from Santa Ana--say they had tried to work with the city to locate an alternative site for the bus depot. With the clock ticking down on the arrival of hundreds of new buses next year, bus officials say they had an urgent need to act.

OCTA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Mills said that if Santa Ana can find another suitable site, the offer to trade land still stands.

At Monday’s board meeting, Pulido asked the transit agency if they had money available to help the city purchase an alternative site.

“We already spent our money,” Mills responded.