Jail Plan Could Be Key on Measure F

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona’s plan to solve jail overcrowding will have an impact on the heated campaign for Measure F, the ballot initiative intended to derail an international airport at El Toro.

Specifically, the timing of the sheriff’s announcement Tuesday came as bad news to airport proponents.

Here’s why: Jail beds and the airport issue are inextricably joined under Measure F because it would require two-thirds approval of countywide voters before such projects could move ahead.

Airport proponents had set up an anti-Measure F campaign based largely on the argument that the measure, if passed, could prevent the county from dealing effectively with its long-standing jail shortage.

As a result, if Carona’s proposal to solve the county’s jail overcrowding problem is accepted before the March 7 election, it could undercut the cornerstone of the pro-airport campaign.

On Tuesday--even as airport supporters found themselves responding to the results of a Times poll showing that for the first time in years a majority of county voters disapproved of the proposed airport--they blasted a move to force the jail issue before the Orange County Board of Supervisors just days before voters go to the polls.

“If it’s a good plan today, then it should be a good plan tomorrow,” argued Bruce Nestande, chairman of Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, a group formed in 1994 that successfully pushed for voter approval of the El Toro airport. “You can’t make good public policy with a gun to your head.”

Political observers suggested that South County cities that had previously opposed the expansion of the James A. Musick branch jail--which is at the heart of Carona’s jail compromise--had now craftily agreed to the expansion. That move allows them to avoid the possibility of a larger jail being built there, but also neutralize the anti-Measure F stance, they said.

Measure F supporter Len Kranser said Carona’s plan deflates the argument that the measure would hobble the county’s ability to build new jail beds. In fact, fliers that landed in mailboxes last week warned voters that Measure F’s passage could hamper jail construction efforts and lead to convicted criminals gaining early release from overcrowded jail cells.

“Opponents of Measure F apparently have concluded that they cannot win against the measure without attacking its jail provisions,” Kranser said. “Their entire campaign is focused on bogus claims that the initiative will turn criminals loose on the streets for lack of jail space. The Musick agreement eliminates this argument.”

Kranser added that it was the prospect of Measure F’s passage that forced the parties to the negotiating table to end the long legal impasse over Musick and jail expansion. “There’s a solution on the table,” he said.

Supervisors have pledged to decide the jail issue before the election, but Kranser said the three-member pro-airport faction on the board may stall implementation of the agreement until after the March 7 balloting.

Then, he said, “the onus of failing to provide needed jail beds will then fall on them.”

Carona and Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas, who endorsed the jail compromise, were quick to say that it didn’t change their position on Measure F. Both Carona and Rackauckas, top signer on the ballot argument against Measure F, said Tuesday they still had unresolved concerns about it.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who has recorded phone messages to voters opposing Measure F, said both sides in the El Toro airport debate are taking a “calculated risk” in seeking an agreement on the jail expansion before March 7.

“The outcome of Measure F is unclear,” Spitzer said. “If the South County cities can [use that] and get a guarantee that there will be no maximum-security inmates at Musick, that’s a huge win. Because of Measure F, this is a moment-in-time opportunity where political stars have aligned.”

* For more information about the airport debate, click onto The Times’ newly expanded Web site at https://www.latimes.com/eltoro. The site includes a comprehensive Measure F voter guide, special research sections, interactive bulletin boards, an insider column and the latest news.

* CARONA RECALCULATES

Sheriff says plunging crime rates mean Irvine jail compromise will meet county need. A1

* NAVY BACKS COUNTY PLAN

After reviewing competing plans for El Toro, the Navy supports airport proposal. B7