Nestande Quits as Orange County Supervisor, Denies Link to Probe

Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande, whose departure had been rumored for weeks, resigned Wednesday midway through his second four-year term. A former GOP assemblyman and one-time aide to then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, Nestande said he will leave office Tuesday to pursue an unspecified career in the private sector.

Nestande, who has been under investigation by federal and local authorities in connection with the political corruption probe involving Anaheim fireworks manufacturer W. Patrick Moriarty, unsuccessfully sought to unseat Secretary of State March Fong Eu in last November’s election. He joined the Board of Supervisors in 1981 after defeating controversial former Vietnam prisoner of war Edison Miller.

Gov. George Deukmejian will appoint a successor.

Nestande, 48, said he timed his resignation announcement to come one day after the Board of Supervisors passed a measure he had worked on for nine months to link all development in his district to the building of roads, a measure he said “translates into no new roads, no new development.”

Moriarty Link

Nestande’s statement did not mention the criminal investigations into his ties with Moriarty, who is serving a federal prison sentence on mail fraud charges related to political corruption. Asked afterward if his resignation had anything to do with investigations of Moriarty’s dealings, Nestande said, “No.”

Though the timing of Nestande’s announcement was a surprise, the content of his statement was not. For months Nestande had been telling friends and colleagues on the board that he was thinking of leaving the $55,000-a-year job.

Wednesday morning he told his staff and fellow supervisors that the day had come: He was stepping down. He announced his decision in a prepared statement at the close of the public agenda portion of the board’s meeting Wednesday morning.

Challenge of Job

“When a job begins to lose its challenge and becomes routine, then before long boredom sets in and you lose the cutting edge,” Nestande said. “I sense that beginning to occur and want to leave before the challenge is lost.”

Nestande’s relationship with Moriarty has been the subject of both state and federal investigations, according to people interviewed by law enforcement agents.

Early last summer, according to those interviewed, investigators from the Orange County district attorney’s office and the FBI began asking specific questions about Nestande’s relationship to Kansas City construction company owner R. E. Wolfe and Moriarty. Wolfe and Moriarty had teamed up to form a company to seek a possible county landfill contract that was being considered by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.