Coalition Planning Battle Over Jail Site

Angry and alarmed that a new county jail has been proposed for their neighborhood, about 75 members of a new coalition gathered Thursday at what one called “the scene of the crime”--the corner of Katella Avenue and Douglass Road.

With an empty wooden orange crate serving as their soap box, the residents and business owners took turns expressing fears, evaluating their options and berating Orange County supervisors for designating the county-owned land for the new jail.

“I’m a widow. I’m 91 years old. And I would be terribly scared,” said Jeannie Gill, who lives in Orange Tree mobile home park.

Orange Tree residents, including a large number of senior citizens, owners of nearby businesses and members of a German club directly across from the jail site, are forming a group called JAIL (Join Anaheim in Legal) Action Coalition.

Next week, the coalition plans “an all-out effort” to gain support from people in Anaheim and adjoining Orange to fight “this ludicrous action on the part of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which reeks with the smell of political chicanery and back-room politics,” organizer William Ehrle told the cheering group Thursday morning.

The coalition has hired an attorney, James P. Barone, who said he is reviewing aspects of the site selection. For example, Barone said, the supervisors may have violated the Brown Act and decided on the Katella-Douglass site outside of public earshot. Barone also suggested that the residents could sue the county based on the concept of inverse condemnation--that is, the county is not taking away the nearby properties for its own use through the power of condemnation but is lowering property values.

Environmental Question

Barone said he will also investigate whether the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires an environmental review. The supervisors on Tuesday did ask for an environmental impact report, but both Barone and Anaheim City Atty. Jack White said they questioned whether the county officials already have made up their minds on the site before the environmental review is even presented.

Barone said he will recommend to the coalition that it hire its own environmental specialists to oversee the county’s review and ensure that other sites are studied in addition to the one Ehrle called “the scene of the crime.”

Meanwhile, residents of Orange Tree plan to meet Wednesday “to quell the fears of the people in our park--especially the elderly,” said resident Beverly Ravlin. And in the nearby Phoenix Club, a German club claiming more than 15,000 members in Orange County, officials said they will continue to gather signatures. So far, they have collected more than 900.

‘Hide It in Deepest Canyon’

“We expect to get a pat on the shoulder from the supervisors” for the club’s nonprofit social and recreational activities, Phoenix Club co-founder Hans Klein said when he took his turn on the soapbox. “And what do we get?

“(They should) hide it in the deepest canyon that they can find,” Klein said of the proposed jail for 1,500 inmates.

Walter Cunningham, 66, a retired university professor who said he taught city management and local government, said the supervisors’ decision “stinks.”

“Rarely in Southern California have I seen anything like that,” said Cunningham, an Orange Tree resident. Cunningham and his fiancee, Eleanor Pate, said a jail near their homes would “make our homes a jail.”

Resident Thelma Park said she was afraid of security problems and possible escapes and called the idea of a jail within walking distance frightening. “It will ruin our neighborhood,” Park said. “We always wished something would come in here--but it sure wasn’t a jail.”