$45,000 OKd to Help Group Hold Meeting

Orange County supervisors, saying they were doing so reluctantly, voted to spend $45,000 to help mount a National Assn. of Counties convention that is scheduled to be held in Anaheim in August.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez had sought to kill the proposal, which called for the county to pay for some convention services provided by the Anaheim Convention Center. But other supervisors prevailed, noting that the county had suggested itself as convention host.

“It would be like withdrawing the invitation while the guest is in the driveway,” County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish said Tuesday.

Supervisors went on to approve the contract 3 to 1, with Vasquez dissenting and Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder absent.

Parrish said later that in 1981 the board had invited the National Assn. of Counties to hold its 1988 convention in Orange County. Last year, he said, the supervisors, in an attempt to avoid spending public money on the convention, created a task force to raise money for it.

Vasquez, in remarks before his vote at Tuesday’s regular meeting in Santa Ana, said the task force had not reached its goal of raising $180,000 from individuals and businesses to pay for convention activities and services.

Parrish, a member of the task force, conceded the point. But he said there was no real need to worry, adding that the group hoped to reach the goal by August. “We are not in despair,” he said. “There have been considerable efforts and pledges made.”

He said the county may actually be fully reimbursed for whatever it spends on maintenance, security and electricians’ services.

Orange County, Parrish said, cannot by law spend public money on conventions for such things as speakers’ fees. He said other counties that have hosted NAC conventions have paid for large portions of the convention’s costs, but only because their ordinances allow such expenditures.

The NAC gathering, Parrish said, is expected to bring as many as 5,000 people into the county. Dan Wooldridge, an aide to Supervisor Don R. Roth, whose district includes Anaheim, said conventioneers are expected to spend as much as $5 million while they are in the area.