Changes aplenty since 1977

Elia Powers

When former Costa Mesa City Atty. Roy E. June heard that his former

hometown had done away with its full-time legal staff last year, he

wasn’t surprised.

“It was only a matter of time,” said June, 82.

Much has changed in the political landscape since June last sat

behind his desk at Costa Mesa City Hall.

But he said one thing has remained consistent over the years:

“Costa Mesa has always been a progressive place,” he said from his

home in Joshua Tree. “You had a City Council that was very

forward-thinking and in favor of annexations,” June said. “When I

came, the population was around 40,000. It had doubled by the time I

left.”

Even the city’s initial population must have seemed large to June,

who grew up in a Montana town of 1,500 people.

He moved to Southern California in 1957, after spending time

during the previous decade at Santa Ana Army Air Base.

June was asked to work in the Costa Mesa city attorney’s office,

and, after a prolonged period of personnel shuffling, he became city

prosecutor and then assistant city attorney.

June said he remembered the border battle between Costa Mesa and

Santa Ana as being one of the most contentious issues at the time.

“It was a war between Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, and Sunflower

Avenue was the dividing point,” he said.

June and other Costa Mesa officials wanted Sunflower to be the

dividing line, while he said Santa Ana officials wanted Baker Street

to be the border.

In the end, Costa Mesa got its wish.

“Santa Ana went to sleep at the switch,” June recounted.

When then-City Atty. Don Dungan accepted a municipal court

judgeship, June became city attorney, a position he held from 1966

till 1977.

June said one of the most memorable legal battles he encountered

involved Baby Doll Bar, a topless bar that opened in the late 1960s

between the Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealerships on Harbor Boulevard.

He said it was the first topless bar to open in Orange County. And

neighbors weren’t happy about that.

“[The bar] opened on a Friday, and by Tuesday, I was getting calls

to close it down,” June said. “The City Council was behind me, but I

was still taking heat from people who liked going there.”

June said he went after the bar because of a zoning ordinance

violation, not a moral objection to the establishment.

But some residents didn’t seem to understand.

“I was called names,” he said. “I received anonymous telephone

calls from people telling me I should look out for my safety.”

Jones said even his children heard the name-calling.

Still, after a year of operation, Baby Doll was forced out of

business.

A founder of Citizens Business Bank of Costa Mesa, June also

presided over the establishment of the Cost Mesa Historical Society.

He retired from his private law practice in 1994, and, after more

than 30 years of living in Costa Mesa, moved to the desert.