Sheriff Rides High on County Gift List

Among the ballet and baseball game tickets, the bottles of wine and dinners, the gift to county officials that is most eye-catching--and most expensive--on this year’s list is Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates’ saddle. It cost $6,300.

“On July 28, 1986, 46 members of my management staff presented me with a parade saddle,” Gates explained on the form that top county officials file annually to set out who gave them what in the previous year.

“The saddle was valued at $6,300. The donators each contributed between $75 to $200 each for a total combined contribution of $6,400. The additional $100 beyond the cost of the saddle was maintained by one contributor and later used to purchase refreshments at a social event.”

“It was just a gift of appreciation and congratulations,” Lt. Richard J. Olson, Sheriff’s Department spokesman and one of the contributors to the saddle fund, said Monday. Gates had been reelected sheriff the month before. The saddle now is prominently displayed outside Gates’ office at the Orange County Jail building, and the sheriff used it last month when he rode in the Swallows’ Day parade in San Juan Capistrano.

State law requires top county elected and appointed officials, including supervisors and their aides, to report gifts worth a total of $50 or more that were received in a year.

In many cases, officials say they have no idea how much an item is worth exactly, so they “guesstimate.”

Thus, County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish hung a $100 price tag on a clock from the Shearson Lehman Bros. financial firm. Gates said the clock he got from the firm was worth $110. And Auditor-Controller Robert L. Citron said his clock from the same firm was worth $150.

“We didn’t buy (the clocks) and I don’t know what the value is,” Parrish said. “The funny thing is I got the same (model) clock the previous year from someone, I don’t remember who. They must have a sale on clocks with bond houses. And they come in the mail months after any event, and you say to yourself, ‘What is this for?’ ”

Shearson Lehman won the right last year to market $33 million worth of certificates of participation issued by the county to finance four projects.

Parrish also reported receiving $184 worth of lunches, theater tickets and tickets to baseball and football games from the county’s leading lobbyist, Frank Michelena.

Michelena also figured in the disclosure form of Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, the recipient of a lunch and eight football game tickets, with a total worth of $178.

“These tickets were dropped off at the supervisor’s office without the supervisor’s prior knowledge,” Stanton said in a note on his disclosure form. “These tickets were not used by the supervisor, but are reported on the advice of county counsel.”

Michelena also sprang for $219 worth of concert and football tickets for Ed Mountford, an aide to Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder; $145 worth of lunches, tickets, candy and subscriptions for former Supervisor Ralph B. Clark; $130 for food and tickets for Clark aide Steven E. Malone; two lunches totaling $37 for Supervisor Thomas F. Riley; $120 for food, beverages and tickets for Riley’s former aide Peter Herman; and $218 worth of tickets and lunches for three other Riley aides.

The company most often mentioned on the disclosure lists is one that has occasionally used Michelena as a lobbyist: the Mission Viejo Co.

Parrish reported receiving $100 worth of baseball game tickets and dinners from the company, and Stanton reported accepting $50 worth of lunches.

Stanton aide Scott Morgan received $246 worth of dinners, lunches and baseball, ballet and football tickets from Mission Viejo, while Wieder aide Janice Goss reported accepting ballet tickets and a lunch worth $60 total.

Mountford reported $60 in baseball tickets and a lunch from the company; Clark reported $65 worth of tickets and lunches; Clark aide Thomas F. Daly reported $57 worth of baseball tickets and lunches; and Malone listed $125 for food and tickets received. Clark aide Christine M. Smith listed $115 for tickets and lunch from the company.

Riley valued a lunch purchased by the Mission Viejo Co. at $10; his former aide Herman reported receiving $200 worth of theater tickets, lunches and dinners from the company.