Ely Tops List of Campaign Issues : Supervisors: The race has been dominated by news of gambling debts and a suit by a bank against the community college trustee, who’s running in the 4th District.

Traffic congestion, water supplies and the county budget are among the leading issues in the race for the 4th District seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, but they have been overshadowed by a controversy surrounding the financial woes of candidate Tom Ely.

Ely, a trustee with the Ventura County Community College District, has dominated news coverage recently because of gambling debts incurred at Las Vegas casinos and an investigation by the district attorney’s office into possible misappropriation of district funds.

Ely’s troubles were compounded this week when a Municipal Court commissioner ordered him and his wife, Ingrid, to pay $17,156 to Simi Valley Bank for outstanding debts. The bank filed a lawsuit against the Elys because the couple had not made a payment on more than $16,500 in credit card bills and a personal loan since September.

Ely was in Burlingame to attend a convention of the California Community College Assn. and did not appear in court. His request for the trial to be continued so that he could attend the convention was denied.

Ely has since admitted that he owes the bank money. However, he said he had informed the bank about his inability to pay at the present time because of financial troubles stemming from an automobile accident he and his wife were injured in last year.

Ely said he had to pay about $40,000 of his own money in medical bills because the insurance company has refused to pay.

“We were economically hurt by the accident, and it has put us behind,” Ely said, vowing to appeal the judgment. “I mean there is not anything anybody can look at and say we’re morally corrupt because we’re suffering from economic hardship.”

As for the supervisor’s race, Ely said he is certain that his personal affairs have diverted attention from district issues and the campaign in general, and he hopes that will change soon.

“We’re getting within 30 days of an election and we’re still not talking about the issues that are important,” he said.

Only one of the other four candidates in the race has spoken out about Ely’s troubles. Harold Fick, a Simi Valley businessman, was quoted in one newspaper as saying that Ely should drop out of the race and devote more time to his personal affairs. Fick has refused further comment on the subject.

The remaining candidates, Vicky Howard and Bill Davis, are Simi Valley City Council members, and Glen Schmidt is a Moorpark planning commissioner. They have said Ely’s problems are of a personal nature and should not become a campaign issue.

“I’m not running against anybody, I’m running for an office,” Davis said. “I think the voters will have to decide what’s wrong, right or indifferent.”

Meanwhile, residents and community leaders in the 4th District --which includes Simi Valley, Moorpark, Somis and Santa Rosa Valley--are divided about the overall effect the controversy surrounding Ely has had on the June 5 race.

Jerry Straughan, a professor of political science at Moorpark Community College, said that Ely’s troubles have probably “increased awareness about the race” because of the coverage he has received in the media.

On the other hand, Straughan said, the majority of attention has been on the “juicy morsels of Mr. Ely’s difficulties” and not on the issues.

“The bottom line is that most of us are gossip mongers,” Straughan said. “I think that’s to be expected given the nature of the human animal.”

Joyce Loegel, a member of a Simi Valley neighborhood group, said she feels the publicity surrounding Ely has had a negative effect on voters.

“What we need to focus on is the issues, the things that affect the voters,” Loegel said. “I think there’s too much focus on personal affairs. It’s gotten to the point where it turns off voters. We can’t afford to turn off more voters.

“If we’re going to have any pretense of a democratic system, we’ve got to get more people involved,” Loegel said. “It’s getting more difficult to get a candidate to run for anything. It’s gone too far, and I’m convinced that I’m not the only who believes that it’s gone too far.”

John Etter, another Simi Valley activist, disagreed, saying that public figures are always going to be held up to close scrutiny.

“If you’re a public figure, that’s the risk you take,” Etter said. “If you don’t like it, get out.”

But Schmidt and other candidates predicted that as the campaign continues, more attention will be paid to the issues confronting the district and less on Ely’s personal troubles.

“I think it will have its end here in the next week or two, and then we can get on with the business of campaigning,” Schmidt said. “I think the public has had its appetite satisfied with the publicity of Mr. Ely.”

It was revealed last month that Ely had gambling debts at various casinos in Nevada. In February, he was sued by the Golden Nugget casino for $8,000 in gambling debts.

In addition, the 54-year-old Simi Valley resident recently became the subject of an investigation by the district attorney’s office for possible misappropriation of district funds after investigators received a copy of an audit of his district expense records.

The Board of Trustees commissioned the audit after learning about Ely’s gambling activities and after a disclosure that he had used his district telephone to call casinos and hotels in Nevada.

Ely has denied that he charged more than $8,400 in questionable expenses, as the audit indicated. He said the audit was flawed because it did not follow district travel policies. He claimed that the district actually owed him $600 for business-related calls he made on his home and car phones.

The Board of Trustees will discuss the issue at a special meeting Tuesday.

Ely said he owes less than $20,000 to Nevada casinos and is in the process of repaying them, with the exception of the Golden Nugget. He said he and that casino are involved in a dispute over the amount he owes.