Santa Ana Turns Down Request for New Vote on Ward Elections

The Santa Ana City Council turned down a request Monday to put on the November ballot a proposition that was narrowly defeated by voters two weeks ago.

Instead, after a lengthy and occasionally rancorous debate, council members indicated that they would wait for direction from a citizens commission formed to discuss possible changes to the city’s charter.

That commission is scheduled to meet Thursday night for the first time since Measure C, the proposition that would have imposed ward elections of council members and direct election of the city’s mayor, was defeated by a scant 282 votes. (The mayor is now selected by the council, whose members represent wards but are elected citywide.)

Memo Distributed

Councilman John Acosta distributed a memo last week that detailed a meeting he had with proponents of Measure C. It appeared to state his belief that the council should vote to put the measure back before the voters in November.

“Otherwise, I believe the proponents of ‘C’ will force the issue on the November ballot and set the stage for dissension and a very negative campaign. Santa Ana deserves better!” the memo said.

However, Acosta stopped short of a full endorsement of that plan Monday, saying his memo reflected what was said during a meeting with the Measure C supporters.

Instead, he said only that the council should meet with a coalition of citizen groups that pushed the measure and then make a decision. Putting it on the ballot, he said, would at least save the city the cost of counting and verifying signatures from a petition drive.

But other council members criticized such a proposal.

Two Opposed Measure C

“This memo’s a joke,” said Mayor Dan Griset. “I think you should have time between now and the next meeting to rewrite it.”

Councilman Wilson Hart noted that Acosta and Councilwoman Patricia McGuigan were the only two council members to take a stand on Measure C before the election--both firmly opposing it. Now that the measure has been defeated, Wilson said, Acosta, a conservative Republican, is “carrying water” for the “radical left” supporting the measure.

“This is not your John Acosta-type of group,” he added.

But Acosta argued that the closeness of the vote indicated “a little bit of hostility in the community relative to how we are operating. . . . I must take my elected position a little more seriously than some of you people.”