Lake Forest’s Fear: Big Brother Blew It

If Lake Forest had a big brother, it would be Irvine.

Geographically conjoined, the two cities share the common bloodline of Southern California suburbia--good schools, safe neighborhoods, comfortable life.

Still, there’s a pecking order.

Bigger (Irvine has 135,000 people, Lake Forest 60,500), more experienced (Irvine is 30 years old, Lake Forest 10) and more accomplished (Irvine has the Spectrum, Lake Forest the Saddleback Valley Plaza), Irvine carries more weight than its young sibling.

Fittingly, Irvine has taken the lead among South County cities in fighting the county’s plan to build an international airport at the abandoned El Toro Marine base. Tough and unrelenting, Irvine has shown the county it has no intention of backing off.

Through it all, Lake Forest has been alongside, step for step. Brothers in arms, if you will.

These days, however, Lake Forest wonders if big brother has blown it over another shared interest: the expansion of the James A. Musick Branch Jail, which abuts both cities on their northern edges.

Lake Forest fears big brother is being reckless; Irvine says little brother is needlessly panicking.

Quick history: A year ago, both cities agreed to offer the county a deal that would cap any long-range expansion of the Musick jail at 4,400 inmates. They made the offer because the Board of Supervisors had voted to boost Musick’s population, now about 1,250, to around 8,000 over time.

Late last year, the supervisors consented to the proposed cap, but only if the cities dropped their joint lawsuit over jail-expansion plans. By then, however, a newly elected Irvine council majority had decided the deal wasn’t necessary and tabled a decision on it.

With that, the county pulled out.

That left Lake Forest worried that despite assurances from Sheriff Michael S. Carona that he won’t need more than 4,400 beds, the Musick population may someday mushroom. It places the blame squarely on big brother’s shoulders.

I had lengthy conversations this week with two of the principals, Lake Forest Councilman Richard T. Dixon and Irvine Councilman Chris Mears. Each is convinced the other’s course is well-intentioned but misguided.

“If we had to do it all over again, we probably wouldn’t have asked Irvine to join us in that lawsuit,” Dixon laments. “Had we not, and if everything went its same direction that it did, we would have already had a settlement on Musick.”

8,000 Beds at Musick?

Dixon says Lake Forest isn’t willing to gamble that a post-Carona administration won’t want to expand Musick. If the county doesn’t find a remote jail site--a likely prospect, he says--Musick may well be the logical expansion target.

“It was the best deal we were going to get,” Dixon says of last year’s compromise. “Do we like it? Heck no. I personally live in a housing area right across the street from Musick. No one wants to have a 1,500- or 3,100- or 4,400-bed jail facility across the street. However, I sure as heck don’t want a 7,500- or 8,000-bed and potential maximum-security jail over there, either.”

Dixon also worries that the county’s tooth-and-nail airport battle with Irvine may leave the pro-airport supervisorial majority feeling uncharitable, if and when future jail expansion talks roll around.

So he’s irked at Irvine? “To say I’m not irked would be wrong,” Dixon says. “I’m a little irked, of course, but on city councils you have to count to three, and in Irvine, we don’t have three. . . . I’m disappointed our key partner has now decided to go off on its own, without having its partner involved.”

Not to worry, says big brother.

“Without question, I think we’re on the right track,” Mears says. “I’m a lawyer, and I’ve been negotiating various deals and issues for 20 years. You would have a very short career of negotiating if you made a habit of giving your opponents 100 cents on the dollar every time they asked for it. But that’s exactly what Irvine and Lake Forest did.”

Musick will never expand to 8,000 beds, Mears says, a contention he says is borne out by Carona’s subsequent pledge to hold the line at 4,400.

Therefore, he says, the two cities need not lock themselves into adding the 3,100 beds allowed for in the compromise.

Mears says it’s more likely that for various reasons, the county’s jail population will shrink in the years ahead. Nor is he as pessimistic as Dixon that the county won’t be able to build a new jail at a remote site.

“The risk we’re taking is absolutely negligible and it’s definable,” Mears says of the new council majority’s position. “And it’s not 8,000 [beds at Musick].”

He disagrees that Irvine abandoned Lake Forest, but concedes that the newly elected majority decided “to think outside the box” on strategy. “Part of the problem is the box on Musick has been too rigidly defined. We were trying to bring a fresh perspective. To do that, we were trying to do some independent thinking.”

Translated, that means big brother knows better than little brother how to handle these things. As they explore possible jail sites, Mears says, Irvine will be “reaching out” to keep all interested parties informed.

That’s assuming, I guess, that Lake Forest will take big brother’s call.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.