Partly Stormy Forecast for O.C. in 2005

In 2005, voters may approve plans for Orange County’s tallest building to rise in the center of Santa Ana -- or they may not. The sheriff’s political career will continue to shine, or be muddied by the stain of controversy. A long-envisioned light-rail line may chug ahead, or be derailed. And Anaheim will either find itself in the running for an NFL team, or be thrown for a loss.

Uncertainty beats at the heart of many of the county’s ongoing news stories in 2005.

How does the Roman Catholic Church in Orange County recover in the wake of its multimillion-dollar settlement of a priest sexual abuse lawsuit? Will justice be meted out nearly three years after 5-year-old Samantha Runnion was kidnapped and slain? Who will lead the county’s largest university? How will new owners change the appearance of the county’s only local television station? Will the Great Park be built?

And what will eccentric Orange school trustee Steve Rocco do next?

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Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, shadowed by controversy in 2004, awaits the outcome of several probes involving his administration as he weighs his political future, which some believe includes a run for lieutenant governor.

Potential stumbling block No. 1: George Jaramillo, his friend and former assistant sheriff, who faces corruption charges for allegedly misusing county equipment and sheriff’s deputies to demonstrate a law enforcement tool from a company for which he was a paid consultant. Jaramillo has said Carona was aware of his financial arrangement with the company, which the sheriff denies.

Meanwhile, other investigations involving Carona are pending. The nonprofit Mike Carona Foundation was ordered in 2004 to turn over various financial documents to a federal grand jury. Carona says the charity, which seeks to curb juvenile delinquency, is not a target of the investigation.

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After three years of revelations and a record $100-million settlement, the sex scandal roiling the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange won’t fade away.

As part of the agreement reached Dec. 2 with 87 plaintiffs, Bishop of Orange Tod D. Brown vowed not to fight the release of files that show how the church handled those allegations through the years. Attorneys who crafted the settlement say they expect the case files to be released this year.

Those who have seen the files say they show that Orange County church leaders quietly moved molesting priests to new parishes and other dioceses, ignored or downplayed testimony by victims and their parents and rarely reported the crimes to police.

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Among those standing trial this year in Orange County criminal courts is Alejandro Avila, accused of kidnapping and killing Samantha Runnion.

Samantha was abducted July 15, 2002, as she played outside her family’s Stanton condo. Her body was found the next day in the Santa Ana Mountains. Avila, 29, could face the death penalty if convicted.

Gregory Haidl -- son of a former Orange County assistant sheriff -- is expected to be retried this month on charges that he and two friends raped an unconscious 16-year-old girl in his father’s Corona del Mar garage in 2002. Jurors in Haidl’s first trial deadlocked in June, favoring acquittal on nearly every count.

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Voters in Santa Ana will decide April 5 whether to overturn the City Council’s approval of One Broadway Plaza, the $86-million, 37-story office tower proposed for 10th Street and Broadway by developer Mike Harrah.

The council approved the project in July, triggering a referendum petition drive by opponents who said the building -- which would be Orange County’s largest -- would create excessive traffic, be a hazard to nearby schools and ruin the character of the neighborhood better known for its low-slung buildings and older homes.

City staff and the City Council said the building, which would accommodate 2,000 office workers, would reinvigorate the city’s downtown.

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CenterLine, a proposed $1-billion light-rail system that would connect John Wayne Airport and downtown Santa Ana, could be canceled this year for lack of congressional support.

The Orange County Transportation Authority needs at least $500 million from the Federal Transit Administration to build the 9.3-mile line by 2010.

In 2004, the project failed to win just $40 million in federal funding for final design work. OCTA officials had hoped Congress would give CenterLine at least $10 million of the total requested, but they did not get even that.

Officials say the lack of federal support could force a reevaluation of the project by the authority’s new board of directors after it meets for the first time this month.

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Anaheim appears headed to court with the Angels over owner Arte Moreno’s proposal to change the team’s name to the Los Angeles Angels -- causing him to lose much of the goodwill he garnered by lowering beer prices and building a winning team after buying it in 2003.

Meanwhile, the National Football League has approached Anaheim officials about possibly building a football-only stadium next to Angel Stadium, where the Rams played before moving to St. Louis. Also in the running to play host to a team are Carson, Pasadena and Los Angeles.

Orange County fans didn’t exactly embrace the Los Angeles Rams, especially in the franchise’s final years. But with the Anaheim site’s freeway access, the relative wealth of the Orange County market and the city’s environmental-impact report approved for a 70,500-seat stadium, Orange County football fans could get a second chance.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue appears to be moving back the timeline for announcing the winner of the stadium derby to the fall.

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With KOCE-TV, Orange County’s only PBS-affiliated television station, now owned by the foundation that had conducted its fundraising, viewers can expect more local programming this year.

The KOCE-TV Foundation, controlled by business and civic leaders, must raise enough money to pay off a $10-million bank loan and support the station’s $6-million annual budget.

Foundation officials have said they will focus on local coverage of the arts, education and environment, with reporters broadcasting live from events at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and UC Irvine. Mel Rogers, who has continued as the station’s president, said some programming changes will begin in the spring, but most won’t take place until July.

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UC Irvine will be looking for a new chancellor if Ralph Cicerone leaves his job at the end of the school year, as expected. Cicerone, an expert on global warming, is all but certain to become president of the National Academy of Sciences when the results of his election are announced in coming weeks.

If the UC Regents follow form, they will choose a chancellor from outside the nine-campus system. Last year they looked out of state to fill the top campus posts at Berkeley, Santa Cruz and San Diego.

The new chancellor will face a tight state budget. Still, UCI will be looking to continue its march up the ranks of the nation’s top schools by increasing the number of students, attracting star professors, establishing more research centers and bolstering current programs. First on the agenda: raising $25 million to pay for its new medical center.

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The coming year should mark the first chapter in the extreme makeover of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into Irvine’s Great Park. The Navy is set to start auctioning the land Wednesday, a process expected to last about two months.

After of the property is transferred to civilian hands, redevelopment of the base will begin. Irvine officials say the runways will be among the first vestiges of the military base to be demolished.

For a decade, Orange County debated -- and voted and litigated -- over a proposal to build a commercial airport at the closed base. Barring any last-minute twists, the future should see El Toro’s transformation into a master-planned community.

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Now that Steve Rocco, the eccentric, newly elected trustee for the Orange Unified School District, has a few meetings under his belt, he and the rest of the board enter a new year filled with challenges. Rocco, 53, unexpectedly defeated a heavily favored candidate after running a nearly invisible campaign. At his first board meeting in December, he said Orange County is controlled by a cabal of corrupt officials trying to silence him.

Going forward, Rocco and his colleagues will need to address an array of issues facing the 50,000-student district, including renovating deteriorated campuses while dealing with shrinking budgets and the threat of program cuts.

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Times Staff Writers Jeff Gottlieb, Christine Hanley, William Lobdell, Claire Luna, Dave McKibben, Jennifer Mena, Joel Rubin, Dan Weikel and Daniel Yi contributed to this report.