Advocate for Billboard Firms Doesn’t Take ‘No’ as Answer

Floyd L. Farano describes himself as a “nice, little, lovable, quiet old man.”

Those who work with Farano, an attorney who represents developers and other corporate clients, call him “tenacious” and “effective.” But a few say he is too aggressive.

Farano, 58, a common sight around Anaheim City Hall, “has the tenacity of a bull. He just will not take no for an answer sometimes,” said Charlene LaClaire, chairwoman of the Anaheim Planning Commission. “I think it’s because he’s a good attorney and fights real hard for his clients.”

A partner in the firm of Farano and Kieviet, Farano knows many city officials, including some of the old-timers, and he contributes to their campaigns. He is not a lobbyist, he says, but an attorney who deals with government and government officials.

He is the most visible attorney before the Anaheim Planning Commission and City Council.

Last week, he was before the council once again representing Regency Outdoor Advertising Inc. and several other billboard companies.

After participating in 10 months of reviews before a council whose majority leaned toward lifting a 20-year ban on freeway billboards, Farano said he wasn’t prepared for the blow he received. Mayor pro tem Irv Pickler, who had leaned toward the proposal along with Mayor Don Roth and Councilman Ben Bay, changed his position and tipped the scale against it.

Farano said he’s not used to losing. And he doesn’t like it. He said he has a good batting average in cases he presents to city officials in Santa Ana, Orange, Buena Park, Placentia, Fullerton, Norwalk, Los Alamitos, Cerritos, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Westminster and others.

“I don’t like lawyers who are losers. I could never get used to being a loser. We’re winners. I like to win. We go out and work very hard to win,” Farano said.

An example of Farano’s success was his work on a proposed $200-million project, including a 17-story hotel, two 14-story office complexes and two condominium towers near the Anaheim Convention Center. In an move unprecedented in the city’s history, the council agreed last October to lend the city’s power of condemnation to the developer. With its vote, the council set off a process that will allow Farano’s clients, Hong Kong-based Alexandra Ltd. and Becker Ltd., to acquire part of a strawberry farm for the project by condemnation, if the farmer and developer continue to disagree on a price.

Farano attributes his success to “doing my homework” and cutting through red tape by knowing where to go and what to do.

Firm Has Seven Attorneys

“We’re one of the few law offices that know something about land planning,” said Farano, a former member of the Anaheim and county planning commissions. His firm has seven attorneys, including former Anaheim Assistant City Attorney Frank A. Lowry Jr. and two of Farano’s three sons.

“We save our clients a great deal of money. Not because we get any preferential treatment, (but because) we go where we’ll get answers. We don’t just go up to the City Council and say ‘You have to buy my product because my client is a nice guy and I am Floyd Farano . . . “ he said. “We do a good job. . . . We will not take one that is a dead-bang loser.”

Everyone who was asked about Farano used the word “aggressive.”

“Floyd’s only drawback--and he knows that--is that he talks too much,” said Planning Commissioner Glenn Fry. “He’s very tenacious, and I think sometimes we get irritated at it. Sometimes, he speaks three paragraphs when one sentence would suffice,” Fry said. “We have been known on occasion to say, ‘Hey, Floyd, cool it.’ ”

But Councilman E. Llewellyn Overholt Jr., echoing his colleagues, said, “There’s no question that someone who’s been involved with city government has a definite advantage.” Occasionally, Overholt said, Farano has used his familiarity to send materials directly to officials’ homes.

‘A Clever Tactic’

“It’s calculated to develop an intimate relationship with council people. That’s a clever tactic,” Overholt said.

During the billboard proposal, such a move backfired on Farano. Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood publicly criticized him when, she said, she received a packet of information at home from Farano marked “confidential” but not identified by its sender.

“I have to tell you, Mr. Farano, I will never again plow through 50 pages without knowing who sent it,” Kaywood said. Farano apologized and said, “It was never meant to be secretive.” He said he mails material to homes when he misses the Friday deadline at the city clerk’s office.

Last spring, Kaywood complained again when Farano’s written presentation to the council proposing freeway billboards was identical to the city attorney’s format for ordinances. Kaywood accused Farano of trying to deceive the council by letting them assume it came from the city attorney.

“There was no way that we could tell whether it came from the staff or Farano. The confusion was massive,” Kaywood said. “I thought it was the staff’s because he deliberately didn’t identify it.”

Farano said he has never meant to deceive. Presenting the proposal in that format, he said, “saves them (the city) the trouble.”

To Head Anaheim Chamber

Farano, slated as the next president of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, not only knows city officials, he contributes to campaigns.

Records show that in 1985, he contributed $3,250 to Roth, $2,250 to Bay and $1,000 to Pickler. In the past, he also has contributed $1,625 to Supervisor Ralph Clark, $6,450 to state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) and $300 to Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Fullerton), according to registrar of voters records and Legi-Tech, a Sacramento-based campaign finance reporting service.

Farano is listed as a “major campaign contributor” in the county because he contributed more than $1,622 in 24 months, Registrar of Voters Al Olson said.

Farano said his contributions are a means of getting involved.

“If you get good government, then it’s worth it. . . . (You should) work for the candidate of your choice,” said Farano, who is working on Roth’s campaign for a supervisor’s seat.

Prefers ‘Known Quantities’

He said he makes his donations to incumbents “because I would rather see known quantities reelected . . . than someone that we don’t know.”

Although Farano did not contribute to Kaywood in 1985, he has in the past. And at least twice he has invited himself to her fund-raising parties, she said.

“He would call and say, ‘Do you mind if I come to your party?’ And then I say, ‘As long as you know it won’t influence me.’ He says, ‘You know me better than that.’ Then I say, ‘Then why are you calling,’ ” Kaywood said.

The former general counsel for Global Van Lines Inc., Farano went into private practice in February, 1977.

“It was kind of a retirement. I wanted to get out of the hustle and bustle of the corporate world and the rat race. Get a nice little office to practice land use and land development, zoning and public utilities,” he said. But it didn’t quite work out that way, Farano said, “I’m back in it.”