First Family Lunches With Library Givers

The President and Mrs. Reagan flew to the brownish green hills of Coto de Caza in south Orange County on Monday to attend a $100,000-per-couple fund-raiser for his proposed $60-million presidential library in Ventura County.

The event, in a covered outdoor area at the new home of developer William Lyon, attracted about 15 paying couples and another 20 to 30 guests for a lunch of iced tomato and orange soup, roast loin of veal and chocolate raspberry terrine. Wine was included.

The President talked about the library and joked and chatted with the guests, but made no mention of any affairs of state, according to some of those who attended. He and the First Lady interrupted an Easter vacation at their Santa Barbara ranch to be flown by helicopter to the fund-raiser.

Reporters’ Questions Unanswered

As Reagan disembarked from the aircraft and followed Nancy into a limousine, several reporters shouted questions about Central America, their voices competing with the roar of the helicopter’s blades.

“What about Jesse and Noriega?” one yelled, referring to Monday’s news that Democratic presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson had received a letter from Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega.

Reagan, in a dark suit, just smiled and touched his ear as if to signal he could not hear. The motorcade then pulled onto Coto de Caza Road for the three-quarter-mile trip to the Lyon home.

Lyon’s rambling estate is situated on 20 acres. The home’s 22,000 square feet include a 15,000-square-foot garage where Lyon keeps his collection of vintage cars. There are three fish ponds, a separate service entrance, stables and a separate 1,700-square-foot guest house for Lyon’s children and grandchildren.

‘Lots of Good Russian Jokes’

The Reagans arrived during a champagne reception and chatted with guests before sitting down to lunch. One of the President’s table mates, Janice Johnson of Laguna Beach, said afterward that Reagan “told lots of good Russian jokes--jokes he told to the Russians.”

“It was a very low key, social, nice event,” said developer Kathryn Thompson, one of the guests. Another guest, Gus Owen, said the President “was very comfortable and among friends.”

Reagan reportedly enjoyed the event so much that he stayed longer than planned. The helicopter in which he departed was scheduled to leave at 1:40 p.m. but did not lift off until 2:35.

Also on the guest list were philanthropist Armand Hammer and his wife, Frances; Charles Wick, head of the U.S. Information Agency, and his wife, Mary Jane; fast-food magnate Carl Karcher; Irvine’s Anvil Corp. Chairman Earl Rippee and his wife, Barbara; Johnson and her husband, Roger, chief executive officer of Western Digital Corp. of Irvine; film producer Jerry Weintraub; developer George Argyros and his wife, Judie; developer Don Koll and his wife, Dorothy; Geoffrey L. Stack, president of Regis Homes of Newport Beach, and former U.S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith of San Marino.

According to one of the guests, Reagan spoke briefly about the library, saying that the facility will be “more than just a library for Ronald Reagan. It will be a library to preserve the history of our country.”

The Ventura County site for the library, and a proposed Reagan Center for Public Affairs, was decided upon after plans to house the facilities at Stanford University collapsed under the protest of some Stanford faculty members and nearby property owners.

The 153,000-square-foot library, on unincorporated land between Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, is to be the largest of eight presidential libraries. It will include an exhibit area, a 120-seat theater, an auditorium, seminar rooms and overnight accommodations for the President and Mrs. Reagan.

The facility, to be built with private funds and then turned over to the federal government to run, is expected to draw between 100,000 and 300,000 visitors a year.

While the Reagans lunched with their guests in the luxurious home, dozens of law enforcement and security personnel waited and watched outside. Even miles away, at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, the staff was on “standby” from 11 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. to handle any medical emergencies that might have arisen during the President’s visit.

Deputies Comb Hillsides

In Coto de Caza, security was extremely tight.

A Little League baseball field about a mile inside the gated community served as a makeshift landing pad for Reagan’s helicopter and two other choppers, carrying White House staff and national press corps members.

On hilltops surrounding the field, sheriff’s deputies, equipped with high-powered rifles and binoculars, were positioned every few hundred yards. Deputies on horseback or on foot with attack dogs combed the hillsides. Before the President’s arrival, houses in the surrounding area also had been searched with dogs, after residents voluntarily evacuated them.

On the baseball field, a special unit of Orange County firefighters, wearing metallic fire suits, was on standby in event of an emergency. An estimated two dozen security service agents were also present to secure the landing area.

Coto de Caza is a private community with restricted access, but one White House official said the visit presented problems from a security standpoint because of the rural setting.

“There are hundreds of acres of wildlands surrounding this area,” the official said. “You can’t take anything for granted.”

A squad of California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers led the procession to Lyon’s home, followed by Reagan’s limousine and a van full of Secret Service agents.

Along the route and across the street from the Lyon estate, local residents had waited for the Reagans to pass, in some cases for several hours.

Most of the guests apparently arrived by 10:30 a.m., according to those who watched from across the street. However, one guest, driving a Mercedes Benz, reportedly arrived after the President.

“I think I’d be a bit embarrassed,” said Tom Cole, referring to the late arrival. Cole and his daughter, Jennifer, stood with about 50 people across from the Lyon residence.

When the President’s limousine motored past, Jennifer said, Nancy Reagan lowered her window half way.

“She was smiling and waving,” she said, a pair of binoculars on her shoulder. “I was having trouble seeing the President, then he leaned forward and I saw that profile. It was him.”

For Jean Laughren, another Coto de Caza resident, the brief glimpse of the chief executive was a thrill.

“It’s the biggest event since the Olympics,” she said. “I’ve got my two grandchildren here. . . . I wanted them to see a little history.”

But her 5-year-old grandson, Rob, seemed more interested in lunch, complaining that he was tired and thirsty and wanted to go home. “Come on Grandma, we’ve seen enough.”

Many of those who showed up to catch a glimpse of the Reagans were amazed by the $100,000-a-couple cost of the luncheon.

“It’s a bit extravagant, don’t you think?” said construction worker Cliff Ortiz of Huntington Beach, a roof specialist who took an early lunch break to watch the President’s limo roll past. Wearing a T-shirt and smoking a cigarette, he added: “That’s enough money to keep me and my buddies happy for a long, long time.”

Down the road a bit, Wally Wilson, a carpenter, took a bite of his $1.69 hamburger and pondered the Reagans’ luncheon price tag. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense, what with all the homeless,” Wilson said. “It’s kind of obscene.”

But Cole, a former military man now retired and living in Coto de Caza, disagreed. He said the money raised is going for an appropriate cause.

“It is supporting a library that will have untold historical value for hundreds if not thousands of years to come,” he said.

Said Telly Jenkins, who was sitting along the motorcade route in a lawn chair: “I just hope they got their money’s worth. I’m not sure it would be worth it even if Ollie North were the guest speaker.”