Sheriff Must Face Musick Report

IRVINE — The county’s controversial plans to expand the James A. Musick Branch Jail here suffered a setback after a judge found that portions of the environmental impact report were flawed.

“In our minds, we scored a victory,” Lake Forest City Manager Robert C. Dunek said. “They failed to adequately address the impacts” of the proposed jail expansion.

Irvine and Lake Forest brought the lawsuit against the county.

On Thursday retired San Luis Obispo County Judge Warren Conklin, made final a tentative ruling issued in November that found the report inadequately disclosed how the expansion would affect air quality and surrounding agricultural land.

Both sides differed on exactly what the ruling means. While one side considered it a victory, a spokesman for Sheriff Brad Gates said he did not consider the judge’s findings insurmountable.

Dunek said the ruling affects the entire project, including construction of a sheriff’s substation at the proposed maximum security facility. The judge also turned down a request by the county to start construction of a laundry and cooking facility, Dunek said.

Gates has said he needs to expand the facility from a 1,000-bed honor farm into a maximum-security jail that can house 7,500 inmates.

For Gates, it is simply a matter of modifying the environmental plan to satisfy the judge, said Undersheriff Raul Ramos. Ramos acknowledged the judge’s findings but said he didn’t think they would halt the project.

“We feel we have to go back to the court and re-argue several points,” Ramos said, “but first, we have to sit down and talk with our county counsel.”

Jack Golden, a deputy county counsel assigned to the case, was off Friday and could not be reached.

Meanwhile, county Supervisor Todd Spitzer said the entire “EIR should be shelved,” and the project scuttled in favor of completing expansion of Theo Lacy jail in Orange.

“Why are we pursuing Musick?” he asked.

In addition, funds seem unavailable to pay for the $40-million expansion of the Musick jail. At a retreat last week for supervisors to discuss spending priorities in the next five and 10 years, Musick was not discussed, Spitzer said.

He presumes the board will get a report on the ruling from county counsel in the next two weeks and will decide how to proceed then.

The judge’s final ruling was slightly different from his November one, said Gregory Diaz, Lake Forest city attorney. The county asked to begin construction on the laundry and cooking facilities, and also wanted to add some additional prison beds.

But the judge “was very clear” in denying both, Diaz said.

Times correspondent Frank Messina contributed to this article.