Jones, Once a Sure Bet, Now Fights for His Political Life

“Spit in their eye, Ed!” a supporter bellowed as he shook hands with Ventura County’s embattled Supervisor Edwin A. Jones, who sat behind a card table at a Thousand Oaks shopping mall.

The words were meant as encouragement for Jones, who is facing arraignment on charges of lewd conduct and indecent exposure in connection with an incident at a Studio City motel.

The charges prompted his resignation as chairman of Ventura County’s top governing body, the first time in memory that a person in that job has stepped down, fellow supervisors and county staff said. The case also threatens to end his political and teaching career and could result in a jail sentence.

Jones, a college instructor who quotes Abraham Lincoln, set up the card table on a recent Saturday in a courtyard of The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks. As he has for seven years, Jones was following Lincoln’s admonition to “take public opinion baths,” and the reading on this day was favorable.

Chatting With Constituents

Jones stacked up pamphlets and taped three tattered, hand-lettered signs to the table, announcing his presence to the noontime crowd. Constituents paused to complain about traffic and development problems, to chat about family and friends and to voice their support as Jones prepares to fight the charges in court.

Sam Morris, a retired telecommunications executive, was one of them.

“Don’t let ‘em get you down,” he told Jones. But Morris, who worked on an earlier Jones campaign, said later that the criminal charges have put the 54-year-old Republican’s political future on the line.

“If it goes against him, it’ll kill his career,” Morris said.

Jones, the son of a Presbyterian minister, has been married for 33 years and has five children. He has taught Bible classes and has as a rule projected a straight-laced image as a family man.

Now he is trying to put his personal life in order and refocus public attention on his accomplishments as a supervisor.

“I’m trying to get past this,” Jones, a 10 1/2-year veteran of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, said as shoppers riding an escalator craned their necks to read his signs.

June 12 Incident

Jones’ troubles stem from an incident shortly after 3 p.m. on June 12, when he allegedly exposed himself to a 22-year-old woman at the Charles Motel in Studio City. The police report says he motioned to her while standing naked across the courtyard and then made a lewd gesture.

The woman alerted police who, by chance, were driving through the motel’s parking lot on patrol.

Jones had rented a motel room with a woman other than his wife and was “extremely intoxicated” when police arrived, the police report says. He made a move that was interpreted by police as “threatening” toward a female officer and was subdued with a burst of tear gas fired into his face, the report says.

Jones was taken to the North Hollywood police station, questioned and released after two hours. A week later, on June 20, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed the two criminal misdemeanor charges, which each carry maximum penalties of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

For his part, Jones said he had been drinking but was not drunk. He claims that police overreacted.

Maintains Innocence

He has consistently stressed that he is innocent, although he declined to discuss details of the incident on the advice of his attorney. Jones called his extramarital affair “immoral” but said he did nothing illegal.

An arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 13 at San Fernando Municipal Court.

Under pressure from fellow supervisors, Jones resigned as chairman of the Ventura County board the day after charges were filed against him, but retained his job as supervisor, which pays $31,270 a year.

Jones has previously acknowledged another arrest for indecent exposure, in 1962 in Los Angeles. At the time he was teaching at Washington Irving Junior High School in Eagle Rock. He subsequently pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace.

Jones has called that charge “wrong” and said he pleaded down merely to get the incident behind him.

Republican and Democratic observers said that Jones had been a shoo-in for reelection to the nonpartisan post in 1986. However, they now expect a strong challenge if he runs again.

‘Will Open Door for Sharks’

“It will open the door for the sharks to feast on the wounded sailor in the ocean,” said Thousand Oaks Mayor Lawrence Horner, a Republican.

Horner, like several others interviewed, said he learned of Jones’ record through recent newspaper accounts. Horner conceded that Jones must reconcile public perceptions of his private life with the family-oriented bent to politics in Thousand Oaks, a city with a population of about 94,200 that dominates the 2nd District.

“You have to do your level best to avoid any moral infraction, particularly in a conservative bedroom community like Thousand Oaks,” Horner said. “From my own point of view, you have to be above reproach. You have to maintain an almost spotless image in terms of moral conduct.”

Supporters argue that Jones’ personal problem impinges only slightly on his day-to-day work as supervisor, that the two are separate and unrelated issues. They also emphasize that he has built a large network of personal contacts through his willingness to battle for constituents.

Tony Lamb, a senior activist from Newbury Park, praised Jones’ efforts on behalf of senior citizens, including the launching of a hot-meals program at 15 sites around Ventura County.

“If some guy is the best airplane pilot you have, you want him to fly regardless of what he does at home,” said Lamb, who predicted that Jones “would be elected in a landslide again.”

“Men in general aren’t saints; he just happens to be one who got caught,” Lamb said.

“The consensus is it’s a personal tragedy for him, but the support for his work is unchanged,” state Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) said.

“Most people draw a sharp distinction between his present, personal difficulties and his job as county supervisor. One personal tragedy should not overshadow so many years of steadfast public service.”

Jones’ resignation as chairman relieved pressure that was building on other members of the board.

‘Defused Issue’

“It defused the issue in terms of board meetings,” 3rd District Supervisor Maggie Erickson of Camarillo said. “We, as board members, choose the chairman. He made that issue go away.

“It’s premature to make any political assessment until the trial concludes.”

James Dougherty, 4th District supervisor from Simi Valley, replaced Jones as chairman. Dougherty agreed with other supervisors that Jones’ decision to step down would permit him to spend time with his family and prepare his legal defense.

“He removed himself from the spotlight, which is good for the board, him and the county,” Dougherty said.

Jones’ detractors, however, argue that the supervisor will suffer from a damaging discrepancy between his reputed personal behavior and the conservative image that garners support in most of his district.

Democrats, in particular, were less than sanguine about his political future. Jones is the only Republican on the five-member Board of Supervisors.

‘Can’t Tolerate What He Did’

“A lot of people at this point can’t tolerate what he did,” said George Webb, chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee. “If he runs, it won’t be a pretty election campaign.

“He’s had a second chance. Most people don’t want to kick him while he’s down, so you won’t see a large movement. But people don’t want him to run again.”

The 1962 arrest was used against Jones in his first campaign for supervisor in 1974, including anonymous letters and leaks to the press that Jones describes as a “sleazy affair.”

Anonymous phone calls threatening to disclose the earlier arrest were made to Jones’ family, and unsigned letters were sent to newspapers in the county, Jones and other sources confirmed. Reacting to the threats, Jones publicly disclosed his arrest, disbanded his campaign committee and quit the campaign.

A week later, he resumed his campaign and went on to win the November election by a 3-to-2 margin.

As a result of the episode, Thousand Oaks businessman Joe Leggett, president of Janss Investment Corp., offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification of whoever anonymously released information from the confidential police report. There were no takers for Leggett’s offer.

“I thought it was despicable, rotten and dastardly,” Leggett recalled recently.

Jones said he does not believe the anonymous campaign was orchestrated by his opponent, Ned Chatfield, a Camarillo councilman at the time. Chatfield said a Ventura County district attorney’s investigation cleared him and his campaign committee of any involvement.

Jones has also acknowledged an arrest for drunk driving. Court records show that Jones pleaded guilty to the charge and paid a fine of $340 for the April 7, 1977, incident.

To add to his troubles, Jones also faces a string of legal actions that could end his 28 years as a teacher if he is convicted on either of the current charges.

Jones, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Occidental College in 1957 and a master’s degree in government from California State University, Los Angeles, in 1967, has taught two political science classes at night during the regular school year at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys. He was suspended from that position on June 21 under the Los Angeles Community College District’s policy of automatic suspension for instructors charged with sex-related crimes.

If he is convicted, the district’s Board of Trustees would be required to fire him, and Jones would be subject to an automatic loss of his community-college teaching credential under the California Education Code.

Family Supportive

Jones insists that his troubles are not disturbing his work but said that he and his wife are seeking marriage counseling from their minister. His wife and children, who range in age from 30 to 16, are “very supportive,” he said.

“I think it’s making me work harder,” he said. “My work is therapeutic to me.”

Jones said most of the constituents who contacted him have urged him to stay on as a supervisor, but he recognizes the stir created by the incident.

“I don’t delude myself into thinking these are the only opinions,” Jones said.

Measuring his words carefully, Jones avoided predicting his political course, saying, “There’s still a lot to do.”

The low-key, three-term supervisor is a skilled politician with a quick wit and a reputation for championing the concerns of his district, according to fellow politicians, county staff and constituents.

Jones’ district stretches west from Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and south Camarillo in the Conejo Valley to just south of Oxnard along the Pacific Ocean.

He recently filed news reports for two Thousand Oaks radio stations from the scene of a brush fire in Carlisle Canyon--an illustration of service to voters that observers believe will help keep public opinion on his side during his legal challenge.

Jones ran unopposed during his last campaign, in 1982, yet he knocked on doors in all the precincts in his district of about 125,000 people. Savvy to the personal touch of local politics, he is said to rarely forget a name, a birthday or an anniversary, nor miss a ground breaking or opening.

His projected image as a straight-laced family man has been one that matches the conservative character of Thousand Oaks, a community dominated by well-to-do professionals. He has served as both councilman and mayor there.

The 2nd District is the wealthiest of the five supervisorial regions in Ventura County, according to county planning staff, and the population is nearly 90% white.

Voter participation is strong--turnouts of 70% to 80% are considered typical--and registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the 2nd District, 31,079 to 21,047. The district backed President Reagan over Democratic challenger Walter Mondale last year by an almost 3-to-1 margin.

Jones’ centerpiece of community involvement is a citizens advisory committee he created in 1975 that meets monthly to discuss local problems. Jones is the only Ventura supervisor to have such an advisory group.

He credits the group with developing several major proposals he has taken to the board. Among those he lists are:

Establishing paramedic service to Thousand Oaks in 1976 and Camarillo in 1979 through county funding of a system run by Pruner Ambulance Co.

Persuading doctors and lawyers to donate time to a community clinic in Thousand Oaks that provides services to needy residents.

Creating a county bus system to transport workers and senior citizens between Ventura and Oxnard, in the western part of Ventura County, and Thousand Oaks and Camarillo, in the east. Jones says the service generates enough revenue to be considered the most successful line in the county.

Jones also fought a 1983 plan by Dayton Development Co. to urbanize the scenic Lake Sherwood area--a move that scored points for Jones among environmentalists and residents of that area.

“Ed was instrumental in publicizing the value of the resource at the lake,” said Keith Emerson, former president of the Lake Sherwood Community Assn. “He carried the flag on the lake before the board.

“He’s very laid back, the kind of guy who likes to speak with people behind the scenes and see that things get done.”

Jones also lobbied against a bill before the California Legislature in 1981 that would have allowed a few private developers owning 1,000 or more acres to free themselves of city zoning restrictions--the so-called “New Towns” bill. Jones used a $1,000 campaign contribution from one such developer to pay for a trip to Sacramento by seven activists who lobbied against the bill. It was vetoed by Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Freeway Call Boxes

Jones’ current projects include securing a system of freeway call boxes in Ventura County, modeled after the one in Los Angeles County; lobbying for a bill before the state Legislature that would limit the financial liability of local governments in personal-injury lawsuits, and coordinating plans for handling hazardous-waste accidents in Ventura County.

On Monday, he plans to ask the Board of Supervisors to approve a $142,000 study of county salary policy--the first in 20 years, he said--to determine whether female employees are being paid less than male counterparts doing comparable work.

“The sad fact is that women have traditionally been considered a source of cheap labor in our country,” Jones said. “I think it’s because government and industry have gotten away with paying low wages. I want to be sure that areas dominated by women are fairly paid.”

Observers note that his liberal views are unconventional for a Republican in the Reagan era, to which Jones says: “Most local problems cannot be dealt with on a philosophical basis. You have to be pragmatic.

“Lincoln said our American system is an ongoing experiment in self-government. I’m just trying to make that experiment work.”

Jones said that he expects to prove his innocence on the exposure and lewdness charges in time to return to the classroom for the fall semester at Valley College.

“It’s a place I can recharge my batteries,” he said of teaching. “I love working with students, Plus, whenever the voters get tired of me, I’ll have something to do.”