Orange County Elections : Challengers Confront 4 County Incumbents in Less-Known Posts

Collectively, the six candidates earn more than $350,000 a year. They oversee combined assets and expenditures of more than $1 billion. But few voters have heard of them, and on the campaign trail they are questioned about what they do, not whether they do it correctly.

So it goes for the six incumbents who hold the influential but relatively obscure elective posts of Orange County assessor, auditor, treasurer-tax collector, clerk, recorder and public administrator.

Still, four of the officeholders face opposition in the June 3 county election. In two contests, challengers are running against their bosses. And as a result, several of these traditionally low-key races have achieved an unusually high profile.

County Clerk Race

Take the case of Gary Granville, county clerk. Granville, 57, is paid $57,013 a year to oversee Superior Court records and collect fees from those who use the court system.

Normally, Granville could expect an easy reelection, since incumbency is usually a big factor in such nonpartisan elections. But Granville was appointed to the post by the Board of Supervisors to fill a vacancy and thus has not yet had his name before the voters.

“I’m squirming,” Granville said recently. “I’m not used to this. I’m not a politician.”

Granville’s challenger is one of his own deputies, Marshall F. Norris, 59. Norris is a former Sheriff’s Department lieutenant and 21-year veteran of the county clerk’s office. But more unnerving to Granville are Norris’ allegations that Granville obtained the clerk’s post through a “backroom political fix” and that Granville doesn’t know how to run the office.

Norris has had his name before the voters several times, including losing 1970 and 1982 campaigns for sheriff and a 1978 campaign against Granville’s predecessor.

Like Granville, Norris applied to the Board of Supervisors last year for appointment to the vacant clerk’s post. But he received a lower rating from the Board of Supervisors, who screened all the applicants.

At the time he won the appointment, Granville was Board Chairman Ralph B. Clark’s press secretary. To hear Norris tell it, Granville got the job simply because of his ties to the supervisors.

Not so, say board members and County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish. They contend that Granville, a former journalist and college teacher, has proven administrative abilities. And they cite a county study showing that Granville streamlined office operations and boosted employee morale after he took over last January.

The normally low-key contest sparked headlines recently because of Norris’ solicitation of campaign endorsements from California Angels owner Gene Autry.

Autry’s baseball team is locked in a bitter legal battle with the City of Anaheim over proposed developments at Anaheim Stadium. The trial is being held in the courtroom where Norris worked.

Norris’ campaign recently distributed an invitation to a fund-raising event that bore a picture of Norris posing with Autry in the courtroom. In related campaign materials, Norris listed the courtroom phone number, a violation of county rules prohibiting private use of public property.

Superior Court judges, concerned by the appearance of a possible conflict of interest in the case, subsequently ordered Granville to reassign Norris to a task that does not involve public contact.

But the issue did not stop there. After several months of trial, attorneys representing the stadium developers are asking Judge Frank Domenichini to disqualify himself from the case. According to Angels lawyer William Campbell and Norris, Domenichini approved Norris’ endorsement solicitations.

However, the attorneys added that the judge did not know about specific campaign materials bearing the courtroom phone number and the use of a courtroom photograph of Autry standing next to Norris.

Norris said the controversy is “all political,” adding: “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

It is not the first time Norris has been under fire. The county’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission censured him in 1978 for falsely claiming that he had a college degree. He was also censured for falsely implying that he had worked in the county recorder’s office.

Still, Norris says the negative publicity has not adversely affected his current campaign.

“Wherever I go, people seem not to know about it,” he says. “They ask me what the job entails because they don’t really know.”

In the campaign, Norris picked up the endorsement of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs. He is also supported by dozens of lawyers who have known him for years from their dealings at the courthouse.

Meanwhile, Granville is supported by a variety of attorneys, officeholders and political activists.

Each candidate expects to spend about $30,000. Granville said he has raised about $18,000, compared to Norris’ $10,000. Norris has held one fund-raising reception, while Granville has held three, including a Newport Beach event hosted by Supervisor Thomas F. Riley.

Although the clerk’s post is nonpartisan, the Republican Party has been involved in Norris’ campaign behind the scenes. Norris said that he has been getting addresses, phone numbers and speaking engagements through the county GOP Central Committee. Meanwhile, the California Republican Assembly, a conservative GOP volunteer group, has also endorsed Norris. Granville has picked up similar help, but to a far lesser degree, from Democratic Party activists.

County Recorder Race

In the race for county recorder, three candidates are waging a spirited campaign for the $59,425-per-year post.

Lee A. Branch, the county recorder, supervises the filing of real estate documents, such as trust deeds, and birth certificates. The office’s major clients are about 20 title insurance firms, along with a brisk walk-in business from the general public. About eight of the title companies have endorsed Branch, along with the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.

Branch, 49, would normally be a shoo-in for reelection. Last year, however, a consultant’s study strongly criticized Branch’s operations. At the time, he was serving in the combined capacity of clerk-recorder. In a subsequent deal with county supervisors, he agreed to quit the combined post with the understanding that he would be immediately appointed to the newly separated job of county recorder. Branch, who became county recorder when Granville was appointed county clerk, has suggested that the supervisors’ deal carried with it the implication of reelection support. But the support has not materialized.

Indeed, even though they are not publicly endorsing a candidate in the race, a majority of county supervisors are privately supporting Greg Winterbottom, the March of Dimes’ regional director. Winterbottom, a wheelchair athlete, was one of the founders of the Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled. He is a former management consultant and one-time aide to former Supervisor Laurence Schmit and state Sen. Paul Carpenter (D-Cypress).

The third candidate is Larry Bales, 43, a deputy county assessor. Bales was a 1974 grand jury witness against a former county assessor and congressman, Andrew J. Hinshaw, who was convicted of bribery and misuse of public funds. He touts himself as an unsung “whistle blower” but starts the race with a political base confined to personal friends and work-related acquaintences. Bales and his family have posted a multitude of homemade campaign signs along the Orange Freeway and other major thoroughfares.

An unsuccessful 1984 candidate for state controller, Bales says he would establish a “walk-through” program for people who require services from the recorder’s office.

“We would have someone go through the system with them, find out what their needs are, get that done and get them out the door as soon as possible,” he said. This could be done with the help of students at nominal cost, he explained.

Meanwhile, Branch is campaigning on the theme that he has corrected most of the problems that were cited in the 1985 consultant’s report on the recorder’s office.

For example, he said there are no more bags of mail remaining unopened for days, a problem cited in the report. The mail was backed up, he said, because of staff shortages and a freeze on overtime pay--situations that no longer exist.

However, Winterbottom, 38, contends that “Lee Branch is still Lee Branch. . . . He allowed the terrible situation to develop in the first place. The reputation of the office is tarnished because of Branch. . . . I think it’s fair to keep pointing that out to people.”

All three candidates for the nonpartisan office are Republicans and each has raised less than $5,000 so far. Winterbottom, who has been endorsed by the California Republican Assembly and a variety of businessmen and political activists, expects to send campaign mail to targeted audiences. Branch has the support of the deputy sheriffs’ group and most county department chiefs, including Granville. Bales has not sought major endorsements.

County Assessor Race

In another race, county Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs, a 10-year veteran, is running against an employee, Deputy Assessor David Holbert. The post pays $70,907 a year.

Jacobs, 54, suffered some embarrassment last month when Holbert successfully appealed Jacobs’ refusal to grant him a leave of absence to run a full-time campaign. Afterwards, Jacobs admitted he had made a mistake in refusing Holbert’s request.

Also, some county officials have publicly questioned Jacobs’ $1-million legal battle with the Irvine Co. over a disputed 1984 reassessment of the taxable value of the firm’s 68,000-acre holdings, placed by Jacobs at $3.2 billion.

Some officials, for example, have criticized Jacobs’ reliance on costly, specially hired outside counsel for the case instead of using the county counsel’s staff. However, those officials who have raised questions have continued to finance Jacobs’ legal fight.

Moreover, state and county officials credit Jacobs with running one of the most accurate assessor’s office in the state.

Holbert, a 14-year veteran of the assessor’s staff, has retained the Eastbluff Group, a conservative-oriented campaign management firm. He has, during the first three months of the campaign, put $30,000 of his own money into the race and says he plans to increase that amount substantially.

Meanwhile, Jacobs has raised $8,509 but is not sure how much more he will spend on the race.

In campaign brochures, Holbert, 40, charges that the county’s existing staff could have handled the Irvine Co. dispute and that too many homeowners are overcharged because bills are not adjusted to reflect the recent decline in market values.

Holbert also said the office should lobby for a change in state law to permit intrafamily transfers of property without reassessment of taxes. Such transfers are now treated as a commercial sale subject to new, higher property tax values.

Meanwhile, Holbert is employing a novel campaign tactic. In his campaign brochures he urges residents to challenge their property tax assessments and provides voters with information about how to file a tax protest.

Jacobs said he has done little to combat Holbert’s campaign, adding: “I’ve been doing my job, day in and day out, and I think that’s what people want me to do.”

Public Administrator Race

It’s the same story with Public Administrator William A. Baker, who admits he holds the most obscure countywide elective post.

Baker, 44, is paid $58,989 a year to run both the public administrator’s office and the Community Services Agency, but only the administrator’s part of his job is on the ballot. If he loses his reelection bid, he will still serve as director of community services, but with a paycheck cut by about a fourth.

The public administrator oversees the estates and affairs of people declared wards of the county, while the Community Services Agency administers many of the county’s socially oriented aid programs, including public housing and veterans services.

Baker recently won the endorsement of the deputy sheriffs’ organization and other county officials.

“There are no major issues in the public administrator’s office as far as I know,” says Baker, who was appointed to his dual role a year ago after serving in several county agencies. “I know very little about my opponent, so I haven’t done anything (in the campaign) yet.”

Challenger Victor E. Hobbs, 51, is an attorney who ran unsuccessfully against then-incumbent Public Administrator James E. Heim in 1982. He says he is running for the post mostly because he wants to improve veterans services, even though that is not the part of Baker’s job that will be on the June 3 ballot.

Still, Hobbs believes that the public administrator’s office should have a lawyer at the helm, something he says it has never had.

“It’s true that there’s a well-trained legal staff already there,” Hobbs says, “but I still think I would be able to inject fresh thinking as specific cases come up.”

Hobbs, who has the support of veterans’ groups, is a former Marine Corps major who recently handled an unsuccessful lawsuit aimed at stripping Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D--Santa Monica) of his seat, based on Hayden’s controversial anti-war activities.

Both men said that they have done little campaigning outside of friends and colleagues.

Other Races

Finally, two incumbents on the June 3 ballot do not have to campaign at all because they are unopposed. They are county Auditor Steven E. Lewis, 43, and Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, 61. Their names and offices will appear on the ballot in order to allow for write-ins, even though nobody is actively waging a write-in campaign.

FACES TO GO WITH NAMES ON BALLOT