County Supervisors Report Gifts Worth $10,000 in ’84

A typical gift was a pass from Pacific Theaters or an Anaheim Stadium Club membership card.

Supervisor Bruce Nestande’s trip to Austria last July--valued at $3,100 and paid for by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce--was the biggest among gifts worth a total of $10,081.16 received by members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 1984, according to mandatory declarations of economic interests filed with the county earlier this month.

Other gifts and honoraria listed by board members included Supervisor Roger Stanton’s Hawaiian trip, valued at $962.76 and supplied by the Development Assn. of Hawaii, a real estate group. Stanton reported that he took the trip to make a keynote speech about housing. Although each supervisor’s office received a $49.98 box of Red Devil fireworks from lobbyist Frank Michelena on behalf of Anaheim fireworks magnate W. Patrick Moriarty, Stanton was the only supervisor to itemize the gift, the value of which falls below the $50 minimum for mandatory disclosure. Former County Administrative Officer Bob Thomas, who retired in January, also reported receiving fireworks from Michelena. In addition, supervisors reported receiving a large number of free passes to theater events and charity dinners, often provided by developers and industry associations, including the Irvine Co., the Mission Viejo Co. and the Building Industry Assn.

Key elected and appointed officials in the county are required to file such disclosure documents annually. The deadline was April 1.

Typical of the gifts were the $208 annual pass from Pacific Theaters and the $100 Anaheim Stadium Club membership card from California Angels General Manager Buzzy Bavasi that were given to Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks.

Nestande, because of the trip to Austria, led the list, reporting gifts valued at a total of $3,916. He was followed by Board Chairman Thomas F. Riley, at $3,415.90; Stanton, at $1,785; Supervisor Ralph Clark, at $730, and Supervisor Harriett Wieder (who was chairman in 1984), at $296.52. Wieder is not required to list her recent trip to South Africa, paid for by the South African government, until next April.

Wieder listed $196.52 in gifts from Pacific Bell, including $150 for the Olympic torch she carried last summer, $35 for sports apparel she wore during the run, and an $11.52 lunch.

Pacific Bell is bidding to supply the county with a new phone system. Wieder did not list the $3,000 cost of the kilometer run (the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee sold the kilometer runs to raise money for charity) as a gift from Pacific Bell because the state Fair Political Practices Commission ruled that she was not required to do so. Although Wieder carried the torch, the Boy Scouts actually received the $3,000 because they were the charity recipient designated by Pacific Bell. Gifts totaling $250 or more from a single donor disqualify a supervisor from voting on matters affecting that donor.

Nestande’s Austrian trip involved his policy-making role in state transportation matters. This year he is chairman of the California Transportation Commission. Austrian companies design and build mass transit rail systems.

Lobbyist Michelena provided board members with meals and other gifts totaling $605.38, according to the disclosure documents.

Lobbyist Lyle Overby, whose clients include AirCal, provided gifts valued at $415. AirCal and Continental, which is one of Michelena’s clients, supported a controversial plan, recently approved by the board, to expand John Wayne Airport.

Dannemeyer Supported Anti-Homosexual Letter

Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) played a behind-the-scenes role in the recent attempt by the anti-homosexual American Coalition for Traditional Values to persuade California’s U.S. Senate hopefuls to disavow support from homosexuals, Dannemeyer’s campaign manager acknowledged last week.

Bob McAdam, who is running Dannemeyer’s U.S. Senate campaign, said he and Dannemeyer had discussed with American Coalition Chairman Tim LaHaye the possibility of issuing an anti-homosexual challenge and, specifically, the letter that later went to each Senate contender.

“We didn’t solicit the letter per se, but we did encourage Tim LaHaye to get out there and do it,” McAdam said in an interview. “We’ve talked to him on and off for a long time about this issue, and we told him that he needed to get out there on it and do something, because we felt it was important to take a stand.”

LaHaye, whose coalition includes evangelists Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart, did not return repeated telephone calls to his San Diego office.

Dannemeyer has created an “exploratory committee” seeking support for the 1986 GOP U.S. Senate nomination for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, a Democrat.

The American Coalition’s request that candidates disavow support from homosexuals drew an angry response from Republican senatorial candidate and former Los Angeles Police Chief Ed Davis, now a state Senator from Valencia. Davis supports AB 1, the homosexual rights bill.

Davis called the challenge “an idiotic insult.” The California chapter of the national coalition held a press conference in Sacramento last week to announce a $150,000 statewide mailing aimed at defeating the measure. The measure has the support of many legislators, including some conservatives.

The press conference was conducted by longtime Dannemeyer supporter the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, pastor of the Trinity Church of Anaheim, an evangelical organization.

Board Hires New Firm, But Same Lobbyists

The Board of Supervisors has switched lobbying firms, but not lobbyists.

In a little-noticed action earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors ended its arrangement with a Santa Ana-based legal firm and picked the Washington, D.C., law firm of Leff & Mason to represent it there.

That’s because the lawyers who were lobbying for the county--James McConnell and Greg Sanders--have joined Leff & Mason. Leff & Mason also is the employer of former Rep. Jerry Patterson (D-Santa Ana).

Leff & Mason, which also has an office in Beverly Hills, just opened one in Santa Ana.

“We were pleased with the work Jim McConnell and Greg Sanders were doing for us, so we simply changed our contract with them to reflect the name of the law firm they’ve now joined,” said Thomas F. Riley, chairman of the Board of Supervisors.

McConnell had visited each supervisor and congressman to make sure that Patterson’s presence at Leff & Mason would not cause opposition to the switch.

“It doesn’t bother me one bit,” said Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Buena Park) of the new arrangement. “The law firm is basically a conservative Republican one that hires Democrats occasionally to help with particular issues or clients and because some legislative committees are dominated by Democrats.”

Social Service Agencies Hold ‘Budget Hearings’

Representatives of several public and private social service and anti-poverty agencies denounced the Reagan Administration’s proposed budget cuts at a press conference last week in the County Hall of Administration.

The press conference, sponsored by the Alliance for Survival, a volunteer group opposed to nuclear weapons and military spending hikes, was advertised as the fourth annual “citizens’ budget hearing.”

Alliance director Marion Pack said the purpose of the “hearings” is to “add a community aspect” to the issues because “we live in an affluent community where there are women who sleep on the streets . . . . There is poverty here.”

Among those who spoke in opposition to Reagan’s proposals were representatives of Catholic Social Service, the Dale McIntosh Center for the Disabled, the Share Our Selves food distribution and housing assistance organization, and the Disability-Substance Abuse Task Force.