Judge Carter Should Bench-Slap South OC Mayors for Silverado Scheme

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[AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story has been revised due to a correction in the address of the site in question. The site address was taken off of Google Maps and Thursday night and used to create all of the earlier maps; someone reported the error to Google on Friday, they revised it, and this post now contains revised maps and somewhat revised analysis. — GAD]

“We South OC Mayors have the jurisdiction to put the homeless in any of our cities?  Well, today, our jurisdiction ends here!  Let’s put them in Silverado, a not-actually South OC community — in fact, quite a distant one, politically weak and governed by the county!”

(1) “South County’s Contribution”

Federal District Court Judge David Carter is turning up the heat on all levels of Orange County government to find a place where the homeless can live both short-term and long.  So when the Mayors of South Orange County met yesterday in San Clemente — as described in this Voice of OC story, from which we’ll quote at length — what is the most dastardly proposal that you can imagine they could make in response?

How about proposing that South County’s contribution be a “South County” site that doesn’t have a Mayor — an unincorporated community!  Good start — a place without a Mayor!  But it’s not nearly dastardly enough: keep going.

Well, if it’s going to be an unincorporated community, how about making sure that it’s not one with a lot of actual or potential big donors — a Coto, a Newport Coast, a Three Arch Bay (or one of the others with a Community Services District along the coast)?  Or maybe choose one that’s a step or so down, like a Ladera Ranch or a Las Flores?  Well, yes, they did do that — but their no doubt amply rewarded evil genius advisors had something much better in mind.

“South County’s contribution” was to propose a homeless shelter in isolated, middle-class, politically powerless Silverado — in a former elementary school that currently houses a library and pre-school serving the community and environs.

Well, what’s so bad about that?  A library and a preschool can be moved, after all.  And it may be class discrimination to suggest that the least influential and least affluent unincorporated community around be the one to absorb what the rest of the region doesn’t want — but that’s normal politics, right?

Right, but we haven’t gotten to the best part, the part that makes this a genius masterstroke of callow and disingenuous NIMBYism.  Ready for it?

The proposed site, Silverado Elementary School, isn’t functionally in South County at all!

Here — look at a map!

Silverado is the northernmost of OC’s east-of-the-55 canyons.  We often speak of “the canyons” as being within South OC — and further to the south, they clearly are.  But South OC is generally considered to be Lisa Bartlett’s Supervisorial District 5  — whence almost all of the cities represented at the meeting were located — and maybe some of the southern half of Todd Spitzer’s Supervisorial District 3  and maybe maybe the southernmost part of Michelle Steele’s District 2.  But Silverado is in the northern half of Spitzer’s district — definitely not South OC.  Here are the boundaries of the Supervisorial districts for your reference:

From the OC Registrar of Voters website — so you know that (unlike some maps online) it’s current!

Silverado Canyon is a bit northeast of where that big “3” is.

(I was just kidding when I said you could imagine anyone doing this.  For most of us, this level of gall-saturated perfidy would be beyond imagining.)

We’re going to lovingly review the details in what follows, to make the case that “South County’s contribution” would functionally be placed on the tab of Tustin, Orange, Anaheim Hills, and Villa Park.  (It is not that far from the northernmost South OC cities — Irvine, Lake Forest, and Rancho Santa Margarita — but only if one takes the toll roads, which it’s a safe bet that the homeless do not.)   That’s simply not South County’s own “contribution” to offer, not much more than if they had proposed a site in San Diego or Riverside Counties.

Now, I’ll readily admit: I enjoy the prospect of a huge fight between two of the wealthiest and NIMBYest parts of the county — the wealthy communities from Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills, Villa Park, and the hills of unincorporated Orange and Tustin, on the one hand, and the coast south of Laguna Beach to San Clemente, on the other — as much as the next person does.  (Probably more.)  But given that NIMBYism is the enemy here — and it is — no part of the county should be able to get away with shunting their share of the obligation onto another one — at least without paying a HUUUUGE price for it .  (After all, I know where that game of “hot potato” ends: with indesirable obligations being dumped in North, Central, and maybe part of West County.)  This tactic must be nipped in the bud.

But IS this so unfair of South County?  Tell you what, in the section just after the one that follows, we’ll look at a lot more maps.  I can’t resist the urge to “bury the lede” here, so delicious it is, but I’ll put it in big bold orange text below so that you if you’re willing to at least skim downward you can’t miss it.  But first, let’s review that Voice of OC article.

(2) The Meeting of the Mayors

(I’m quoting liberally from the Voice of OC story, so please click one of my links to it so that they don’t get mad at me, although the following contains some of my own observations not found therein.)

  • Judge David Carter had pressured Mayors of the 12 cities in South Orange County to meet yesterday to find a site for a new homeless shelter.  Carter had told the Mayors that if they could not come up with a site, he was inclined to “follow the law” and strike down their anti-camping ordinances.
  • Those 12 cities are Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, and San Juan Capistrano.
  • Also attending the meeting in San Clemente were Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, a representative of South County state Sen. Pat Bates, OC’s CEO Frank Kim and homelessness czar Susan Price, and retired Superior Court Judge James L. Smith and two law clerks representing Judge Carter’s court.
  • The Mayors chose the county-owned former Silverado Elementary School, which now houses the Library of the Canyons and the Silverado Children’s Center, a preschool.
  • The site is in unincorporated (i.e., county-governed) territory, 2-1/2 miles west of Silverado itself, roughly bordering unincorporated North Tustin and unincorporated Orange.
  • According to Irvine Mayor Don Wagner, if the Silverado site was first adopted and Judge Carter wanted more beds, three of south county mayors might accept smaller sites for 10 to 20 people each.
  • The Mayors will jointly propose the Silverado Elementary School site to the county today, seeking help to work out the details.
  • Lake Forest Mayor Jim Gardner was the only one to oppose the proposal in a 10-1 vote, with Mission Viejo Mayor Ed Sachs having left the meeting early, due to its proximity to a preschool and remote location.  “It’s in the middle of nowhere and it’s on a dangerously fast road that already has a history of accidents.”
  •  Irvine Mayor Wagner said that the remoteness of the site was not a problem — implying that it might even be a plus: “A number of the south county cities might be willing to help with the transportation aspect if that’s a viable site. And I’m sure my constituents would be much happier with us helping transport to a site that isn’t in Irvine, as opposed to saying, ‘Hey let’s do it at the Great Park.’  I think that’s true of most of the communities, if not all of them, in south county. So that remote [location] issue, a lot can be done to alleviate that concern.”
  • Gardner also noted that he proposed shelter site is within the district of Supervisor Todd Spitzer’s district, who either was not invited to or did not attend the meeting, rather than Bartlett’s, which he described as “a funny little twist on things.”.  The Voice says that Spitzer didn’t reply to a message seeking comment, perhaps as to how funny he found this twist.
  • Spitzer’s having the site shunted into his own district may have resulted from his own actions, which seem related to his campaign for a countywide position as District Attorney.  Spitzer, who had spearheaded the removal of homeless from the Santa Ana River sites, was criticized by his colleagues for having gone into other districts to foment opposition to emergency shelter sites in Laguna Niguel (Bartlett’s district) and Costa Mesa (Steel’s.)
  • Gardner, a clinical psychology Ph.D., said that he wanted to see the sites split up into smaller ones throughout south county.  “I think the problem … is that they are trying to create a large site, a large shelter, rather than distribute the population evenly throughout the county in small numbers where they wouldn’t be noticed,” Gardner said, adding that the large grouping approach “was already discarded 50 years ago.
  • Gardner also stated: “This is just the mayors and their opinion. That honestly holds no weight. The mayors have to go back to their cities and get the support [from the councils].  It’s very exploratory at this point,” Gardner added. “So there’s no reason to assume that this is the final outcome, but this is what’s being advocated now.”
  • However, shunting the problem to the eastern edges of Central County near the border of North County would likely be a popular choice among South County City Council members — if they are allowed to get away with it.

(3) But Is This Really Shunting the Obligation Out of South County?

I realize that there may be some skepticism out there.  Sure, Silverado is in Todd Spitzer’s district rather than Lisa Bartlett’s, but it’s still a canyon, so why shouldn’t canyon-crammed South OC get credit for “doing its part” by proposing a homeless shelter there?  Fair question.  I do have an answer — but you’re going to have to look at a lot of maps!

Let’s start with exactly where the proposed site — which I’ll still call “Silverado Elementary” is:

 

Not much in Silverado makes it onto the maps, but there is the Silverado Cafe, at the right of the above map, which more or less let’s you know where the community is.  And the small number or streets give you a hint as to its size, while the green surrounding it indicates its rural character.

The former Silverado Elementary School contains the Library of the Canyons and — if Google can now be trusted on this — is about 100 yards south of the Silverado Children’s Center.  As you may imagine, the proximity of both a library and a nursery school to Silverado is not exactly something to sneeze at.  Taking them away will significantly undercut the social services provided to at least residents there with children.

But the bigger question — which you can’t answer from the above maps — is this: what’s it near?  If you’re a NIMBY, you don’t want the homeless to be near you (although their being near other people’s children far away is fine.)  This is based on the widespread belief — fanned by some local officials, as discussed below, that the homeless are especially dangerous, which doesn’t seem to be the case.

Here’s how to get from Silverado Elementary to the cities around it — and not so close to it, in the case of much of South County.

Villa Park  — ~ 12 miles, 16 minutes (in clear traffic)

The site is 12 miles, or 16 minutes (in clear traffic) from Villa Park City Hall.  (Note that the time measurements for all of these maps were taken in the wee hours after midnight, so they would be greater to everywhere during the day.  The distance measurements, less so.)  [NOTE: the error in Google Maps had it about 4 miles and 4 minutes closer to this site.]

While one might reasonably locate Silverado Elementary in proximity to Santiago Canyon College — a 10 minute drive away and not a bad place for panhandling, I’m guessing (at least probably better than the Silverado Grill) — and unincorporated Orange Park Acres, the nearest City Hall (which I’m using a proxy for distance to a city center) is that celebrated center of South Orange County … Villa Park.  (If you’re not already laughing at this, consult the top map at you’ll see that the latitude of Villa Park is south of the 91 but north of most of Anaheim.)

So IF you’re a NIMBY, and IF you (wrongly) think that the homeless are inherently or even especially predatory, then it’s Santiago Canyon College, Orange Park Acres, maybe North Tustin, and maybe Villa Park that would have to worry about their sheltering at the Silverado Elementary site.  These are all VERY FAR AWAY from South County.

I could probably stop right there — SILVERADO ELEMENTARY IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO SOUTH COUNTY AND SOUTH COUNTY MAYORS PROPOSING IT AS A SHELTER SITE IS SIMPLY A MATTER OF DISPLACING THEIR OBLIGATIONS ONTO NORTH AND CENTRAL COUNTY, YET AGAIN — but since we’re here anyway, before you skip down to the last section, let’s beat this horse not only to death, but into the glue jar.  I promise there’s a treat in it for you at the end.

In clear traffic, Silverado Elementary is … and let’s do North County first …

… 17 miles (the southern route, the caption for which doesn’t appear in this resolution), and 22 minutes in clear traffic, from what passes for Yorba Linda City Hall.

… under 23 miles, and 28 minutes, from Brea City Hall (etc.)

 

… under 32 miles, and 33 minutes, to far-flung La Habra City Hall.

OK, what about other places in Central County?  Silverado Elementary is …

… 13 miles and 20 minutes to Tustin City Hall.

… under 15 miles and about 20 minutes to Orange City Hall.

… about 20 miles, and 27 minutes, from Anaheim City Hall.

… about 18 and 23 minutes from Santa Ana City Hall.

OK, OK … but maybe it’s still close to SOUTH County, right?  Let’s start with the relatively close, but not typical of South County, Irvine

… it’s about 15 miles, and 19 minutes, by toll road — which, again, the homeless seem unlikely to take, given their poverty — and (not shown) 16.4 miles and 22 minutes by free roads (Santiago Canyon to Jamboree.)  (Note that Irvine is unusual among South OC cities in that one can get there readily from this site on free roads.)

 

How about Lake Forest?  Not bad — under 10 miles and 14 minutes.

… under 11 miles and 13 minutes from Rancho Santa Margarita, — but that’s if they use the Toll Road, as most homeless people likely do not.  Otherwise — well, my mapping program refused to provide a non-toll-road path even on the “avoid tolls” setting.  I had to plot a map to RSM’s In ‘n’ Out Burger — a plausible destination for the homeless — to get a non-toll route of 11 miles and 15 minutes.

Let’s look at Mission Viejo: 12.4 miles, 18 minutes

 

What about Capistrano?

… whew!  It’s 20 miles and 26 minutes!

Finally, what about the City Hall in the city where the Mayors met, San Clemente?  It’s 27.2 miles away at best, and 33 minutes at best.  Further than Yorba Linda or Brea — although, as one would expect from a South OC city proposing a site as its South OC contribution to a countywide problem, at least it’s slightly closer than La Habra!

 

 

Funny thing about this: I tested a few other OC cities that I thought might be further away from the proposed site than San Clemente and Capistrano — and La Habra is the only one I could fine.  San Clemente is about as far away from the proposed site by road as you can get in Orange County.

That’s right: San Clemente is the second-furthest City Hall within Orange County from Silverado Elementary.

I’ve made you a nice chart to summarize these results:

Distance from South County’s proposed Silverado Elementary site:

  1. Lake Forest: 10 miles, 14 minutes
  2. Rancho Santa Margarita:  11 miles, 15 minutes (avoiding tolls)
  3. Villa Park: 12 miles, 16 minutes (in clear traffic, as is true of all cities)
  4. Mission Viejo: 12 miles, 18 minutes
  5. Tustin: 13 miles, 20 minutes
  6. Orange: 15 miles, 20 minutes
  7. Irvine: 16 miles, 22 minutes (avoiding tolls)
  8. Yorba Linda: 17 miles, 22 minutes
  9. Santa Ana: 18 miles, 23 minutes
  10. San Juan Capistrano: 20 miles, 26 minutes
  11. Anaheim: 20 miles, 27 minutes
  12. Brea: 23 miles, 28 minutes
  13. San Clemente 27 miles, 33 minutes
  14. La Habra: 32 miles, 33 minutes

Admittedly, this is a crude measure for many reason — not including all cities, using the City Hall rather than population center, using travel times in clear traffic rather than when the homeless are likely to be traveling, factoring in the desirability of each city for the homeless, and more — and most of all we need the caution that it looks only at the effect of this one site, where others (especially in Fullerton, Anaheim, and Santa Ana) to some extent discharge those cities’ and regions’ “anti-NIMBY” obligations even without this proposal.  This sort of study should be done more formally and by, ahem, someone other than a volunteer. But if the findings by and large hold up, as seems likely, we can reach a few conclusions:

First, to the extent that proximity to a homeless shelter, encampment, or whatnot imparts a burden on a community — and that’s certainly how the NIMBYs in the county see it! — this proposal doesn’t do much to discharge the communal obligation faced by South County.  It should be credited to Irvine (especially its northern section) and Lake Forest, and to lesser extents to RSM and Mission Viejo, but not far beyond that.

Second, to give any anti-NIMBY credit to San Juan Capistrano and especially to San Clemente is downright obscene.  This discharges essentially nothing of their anti-NIMBY obligations.

Third, the eastern portions of Central County — Villa Park, Orange, and Tustin — and Yorba Linda get more anti-NIMBY credit than the South OC average.

Fourth, the county owes Silverado itself a whole lot of needed services if this goes through.  Pass the bill on to San Clemente.

(4) MOST Every Mayor Except Mayor Gardner Deserves a “Bench Slap”

The former Silverado Elementary School may well be a good site — or it may just be a cynical way to dump the problem on one of the least politically powerful communities in the county — but there’s no way in the world (or at least in the county) that South County should get credit for it being its contribution to alleviating county homelessness.  For South County Mayors to propose it as their contribution is a particularly pernicious act of NIMBYism.  (I don’t say that because I think that cities should be competing to shunt the homeless off to others, but simply that they are doing so — and the South County Mayors yesterday did so in one of the most pernicious and deceitful ways imaginable.)

I don’t know exactly what Judge Carter’s specific instructions were (presuming that there were any) to the South County Mayors — but I presume that they were something along the lines of “inform the court what you propose to do to help alleviate this countywide problem.”  If so, then for South County to propose Silverado Elementary School as their offering to pay off their NIMBYism bill approaches being a carefully plotted fraud on the court — and Judge Carter should respond to it with something called a “bench slap.”  This might include fining the cities proposing this sham and putting the proceeds into a fund to actually address the issue — and then require each of the city making the proposal to come up with space within its own borders as its proposal.

Problem solved!

But there’s another problem, and this is that — by proposing an at least largely Central-County based solution in response to the court’s request for solutions  in their area, rather than NIMBYism — every South County Mayor but Jim Gardner of Lake Forest acted in  bad faith.  Unless the Court wants to see more of that — because there’s more in store — Judge Carter should sanction those Mayors and impose a suspension of their cities’ anti-camping ordinances until they present a good-faith plan.  (With summer weather upon us, I think that San Clemente and SJC have already crossed that line.)

From the perspective of the rest of Orange County, what the South OC Mayors have done here — delighting their NIMBYs by choosing the furthest site away from most of their population that could even arguably be depicted as close enough to constitute “their contribution” — is unacceptable.  (I’m not backing off entirely from calling it “atrocious.”)  While other regions of the county have — however grudgingly at times — operated in good faith, they have tried to play the Court for a fool.

But Judge Carter is no fool.  I hope that he lowers the boom on them.


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)