Tustin Marine Base Fight Proves to Be a Learn-Learn Situation

I vowed (privately) not to return from vacation until Tustin and Santa Ana officials settled their argument over the former Tustin Marine base. Sly as a fox, I figured to be vacationing a long, long time.

Given the cities’ rhetoric over the years, I expected a Sharon-Arafat brunch before Tustin and Santa Ana ever broke bread.

Just my luck, Tustin City Hall and Santa Ana Unified School District officials announced an end last week to what had become an increasingly unpleasant dispute between neighboring cities.

To recap, Tustin was the lucky beneficiary of the 1999 closure of the base. The city came up with a development plan that didn’t include land for a new school for Santa Ana--something the federal government had led the district a few years earlier to believe it would get when the base closed.

The battle was on.

Over time, Santa Ana school officials filed a federal lawsuit. They got a state legislator to introduce a bill on their behalf. Tustin, offended by charges it was discriminating against Santa Ana’s Latino students, in effect told Santa Ana officials to bring it on. It also filed suit.

In the end, the solution wasn’t all that complex, which meant it was there all the time. Santa Ana got 22 acres (it originally wanted about 100) for an elementary-middle school. The district also received $38 million to buy land for a new high school elsewhere. If the 22 acres prove too contaminated for a school site, Tustin will pay the school district another $22 million.

Now that everyone is all kissy-face, what better time to ask the parties what they might have done differently? That is, did the combatants learn anything during the protracted, contentious fight?

Interviewed separately, Santa Ana school board president John Palacio and Tustin City Manager Bill Huston gave remarkably similar and nondefensive answers. Both say the rancor is gone and that each side made mistakes and learned something during the dispute.

“I think both sides were very passionate about their position, and rightfully so,” Palacio said. “Both parties came to the realization that the longer we took in making closure, there weren’t going to be winners and losers, because the loser would always have an appeal.... Had we come to that realization years ago, perhaps we could have settled much sooner.”

However, Palacio then used almost exactly the same language as Huston would later: “It was a process we had to go through,” Palacio said, “as difficult as it was.”

Palacio said he doesn’t mistrust Tustin’s motives. While not apologizing for anything said from Santa Ana’s side, he said the racial element became “part of the negotiation process. I think both boards will say that each party had to do what it had to do in order to represent its position.”

I asked Palacio, as a school board member for four years, what lesson was learned. “Listening,” he said. “When you’re in the heat of battle, you’ve been fighting for eight years, you’re passionate about your position, sometimes from the inside maybe you don’t see that you’re not listening to each other.”

Huston was equally upbeat and conciliatory, without pulling punches. I asked him the same questions I’d asked Palacio. He began by saying, “I’m going to ramble a bit.”

Over the next several minutes, he replayed the contentious and multilayered history of the matter and said its resolution might serve as a guide for future disputes--especially in a demographically changing California when racial elements get tossed into the mix.

Offended by charges of discrimination--partly because its own city is so ethnically diverse--Tustin hunkered down in the face of the allegation. “We underestimated the passion of the Santa Ana school district,” Huston said. “I think both sides misread each other a lot.”

Like families that fight, Huston said, when it’s over, “you regret that you were having the fight, you step back and say that you’re all part of the family and you’ve got to make it work. We’re all part of the same community.”

I asked about lingering resentment. “Obviously, there have been hard feelings and harsh words,” Huston said. “But the resentment is not there because we’re all so elated with moving on. If there was any resentment, it lasted five seconds. It’s time now to move on.”

In the end, Huston said, “it got down to classic communication, trying to understand the other party’s point of view.”

Agreed, Palacio said.

He told me he’d met earlier in the day with Tustin Mayor Jeffery Thomas. One of the things on the table was a proposed joint-use library on the site.

“As of this morning,” Palacio said, “we’re talking about doing a deal together.”

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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.