Legislation to Create O.C.'s First Veterans Cemetery Headed to Governor's Desk

Legislation was on its way to the governor’s desk today that could eventually lead to the only cemetery for veterans in Orange County at the site of the old El Toro military base that is now home to the Orange County Great Park in Irvine.

The state Senate today approved the bill introduced by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton. It appropriates $500,000 for the Department of Veterans Affairs as “start-up” costs for a study on planning for the cemetery, Quirk-Silva said.

“The actual official next step, if the governor signs it, would be to create a study and plan that needs to be submitted to the federal government in a formal application process,” Quirk-Silva told City News Service.

State officials will be counting on the federal government to pay for the cemetery with grants that are awarded annually, Quirk-Silva said.

There’s urgency to build a cemetery in Orange County because the one in Los Angeles is at capacity and there’s a “long wait” for veterans to be buried in the one in Riverside County, Quirk-Silva said.

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, who spoke out in April at a county board meeting against the way the push for a cemetery has been handled, said he supports having one in Orange County, but the political leaders advocating for it ought to be honest with veterans and their supporters that it is a long shot.

Moorlach said he hasn’t changed his mind.

“What I have real trouble with is you’re manipulating veterans with such a low likelihood of getting the funding,” Moorlach said.

“When you kind of give out hope -- when the chance of getting funding is so remote -- and then use it in campaign mail pieces to say, ‘Hey, I’m doing this for veterans,’ then you’re manipulating a group of people I’m very sensitive to.”

Two other counties in California are vying for new cemeteries, so any Orange County bid would be third in line, Moorlach added.

Moorlach also noted that the Veterans Administration has a balance sheet that’s “upside down $1.2 trillion and they can’t even run their hospitals right.”

With veterans, “This is one group I don’t want to over promise and under deliver,” Moorlach said.

Quirk-Silva said the county has no shot whatsoever without passing the bill she introduced.

“We can’t apply to the federal government without the legislation,” Quirk-Silva said.

Quirk-Silva pointed out the bill has been supported by 19 Orange County cities and more than 3,000 people have contacted her office to back it.

In July, the Irvine City Council designated up to 125 acres of the Great Park, once home to the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, for use as a cemetery.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.