Statements Attacking Jacobs Called False : Panel Rules Against Challenger to Assessor

A candidate trying to defeat his boss in Tuesday’s balloting for county assessor has distributed false and misleading statements, the county’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission ruled Saturday.

In a unanimous vote, the five-member panel said David Holbert, an appraiser in the county assessor’s office, had claimed falsely in his campaign mail that Assessor Brad Jacobs had not supported Proposition 13, the tax-reform measure approved by voters in 1978.

The accusation is the centerpiece of Holbert’s campaign against Jacobs. Holbert has mailed thousands of brochures to voters countywide, including a new mailing on Saturday, that repeat the Proposition 13 allegation.

The campaign has achieved notoriety because Holbert has financed the mass mailings with $210,000 from his deceased mother’s estate. Jacobs has spent less than $14,000.

Other Statements ‘Misleading’

In a related 4-1 vote, the commission also declared other Holbert statements to be “misleading,” including a claim that “the assessor’s office has become top-heavy with unproductive and often absent administrators and managers with little or no knowledge of proper appraisal methods. . . .”

The issue was raised by Ed Ramirez, an assessor’s office employee who said the charges angered him and many of his colleagues.

Holbert was unable to substantiate the charges to the panel’s satisfaction. Commission members denied his request for a postponement that he said he needed to produce documentation.

But member John Stoffel said he thought the commission should not bother to take up the dispute because the charges appeared in a pamphlet produced by the League of Women Voters, not in campaign literature.

Questions and Answers

The league had questioned candidates and published their responses, including Jacobs’ response. The pamphlet also contained a disclaimer stating that the league was not supporting or opposing any candidate.

Meanwhile, the commission postponed until 4 p.m. Monday a hearing on Jacobs’ complaint that Holbert has failed to file samples of campaign mail with the registrar’s office within three hours of public dissemination, as required by county ordinance.

At the same time, the commission will hear a similar complaint from Holbert about a slate mailer that listed Jacobs and other candidates and ballot measures.

Finally, the commission said it will ask supervisorial candidate James Beam, the mayor of Orange, to supply the panel with proof that he had obtained written permission from the Rev. Robert Schuller of Crystal Cathedral for use of Schuller’s name in a list of alleged supporters.

No Endorsement

Some commission members said they had heard Schuller was not endorsing any candidate in the race, which involves former Rep. Jerry M. Patterson, Anaheim Mayor Don Roth and architect Manuel P. Mendez.

Schuller and Beam were unavailable Saturday.

Beam campaign coordinator Michael Schroeder said Schuller had publicly endorsed Beam while speaking at a Beam campaign fund-raiser earlier this year.

After Saturday’s session, Holbert said members were “partial to Mr. Jacobs” because “he’s the incumbent. . . . They’re part of the same club.”

Defended Allegation

Holbert had tried to support his claim that Jacobs had not supported Proposition 13 by presenting the panel with copies of a May, 1978, newspaper article in which Jacobs said his office was not taking a position on the measure.

Commission members agreed with Jacobs that the newspaper article referred only to the assessor’s decision not to tell people how to vote. It did not, they said, refer to Jacobs’ personal opinion about Proposition 13.

Jacobs argued that he voted for the measure and was the first assessor in the state to roll back property taxes after passage.

The panel’s only enforcement power is to publicize its findings or, in rare cases, refer matters to the district attorney’s office for further investigation.