Q & A

Edward J. Cooper, Santa Ana city attorney

After 20 years as Santa Ana’s city attorney, Edward J. Cooper announced earlier this year that he will retire effective May 18. Cooper, 56, joined the city staff in 1976 as a police legal advisor with the city attorney’s office. He later became assistant city attorney, and was appointed city attorney in 1980. One of the most high-profile issues during Cooper’s tenure was the city’s anti-camping ordinance. The law, which prohibits camping on public land or storing personal property there, was challenged by homeless activists as unconstitutional. The ordinance withstood a challenge in the California Supreme Court, however, which effectively evicted large numbers of homeless people who had been camping out in the area of the downtown government center. Cooper spoke with Times correspondent Jeff Kass about his tenure with the city.

Q: What is the role of a city attorney?

A: It’s more than just advice. We create the legal documents that are necessary to run the city; the resolutions, ordinances and contracts. We defend the city against lawsuits. We prosecute criminal violations of the municipal code, and we prosecute civil cases.

Q: How has Santa Ana changed over the years?

A: We have nearly twice the population [now an estimated 310,000]. We have MainPlace [the city’s upscale shopping mall]. We’ve had a revitalization of the downtown. When I first came here, the downtown was full of flophouses, dingy bars and derelicts. They’re all gone. We have shoppers there now.

Q: In 1989, four of seven City Council members were apparently dissatisfied with your work and voted to place you on a leave of absence. You never left, and you kept your job. How do you remember that time?

A: That was eight years ago. [Councilman John Acosta] got a little upset with me, and he got three others to go along with him. But it takes five to fire. They couldn’t count.

Q: What is your proudest accomplishment?

A: Negotiating the redevelopment agreement to create MainPlace in the early 1980s, myself and real estate officer Thomas Hammil. We now have a beautiful shopping center there.

Q: What is your response to critics such as the Legal Aid Society of Orange County who called the anti-camping ordinance cruel?

A: The effect has been to bring some order back to the public areas. We had public disorder before.