A memorial honoring crime victims in Orange County will no longer be placed at Irvine’s Mason Regional Park, and will be moved to the District Attorney’s office in Santa Ana.

On Tuesday, April 13, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer asked the county Board of Supervisors to approve his request to move the memorial to a new location at 300 North Flower Street in Santa Ana, to a courtyard outside of the District Attorney’s office.

Originally approved to be placed in Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park in 2013, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved the relocation of the soon-to-be-built Orange County Crime Victims memorial.

During his term on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Spitzer claimed the project would be privately funded and says he wants to maintain his promise — but has encountered financial restrictions.

Yet, Spitzer admits to underestimating the costs of the Orange County Victims Crime Memorial, which if placed at Irvine’s Mason Regional Park, would cost at least $1 million.

As of Tuesday, April 13, Spitzer said the project has raised $58,000.

“We have now put together a design that we can do within our budget,” he said. “One of the commitments I made when I was county supervisor – and received unanimous support at that time – was that I was going to do it with private funds.”

Spitzer said he takes full responsibility for underestimating the cost to the crime victims memorial, but hopes the new location will fit in with the Orange County Sheriff’s headquarters, which creates a Santa Ana-based “law enforcement center,” with the Civic Center’s recent redesign.

“The design we had originally cost out with all the engineering firms, and everybody put together was $1 million,” Spitzer explained. “Even though I had the vision to put it in the Third Supervisorial District at Mason — now I have hindsight, but it wasn’t practical.”

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