Officials Walk at the Law’s Edge : New details of a political dinner involving Orange County planning commissioners and builders emerge.

The June Republican primary was only weeks away when Assembly candidate Peter von Elten’s quest for campaign funds hit what he described as “a stone wall.”

Contributors he had counted on in Huntington Beach, where he lives, were suddenly reluctant to buck his chief opponent, Mayor Thomas F. Mays. So Von Elten turned to a longtime friend: Orange County Planning Commissioner Roger D. Slates.

“I said, Jesus, you know . . . I’ve got to raise--I don’t know what the figure was we projected--close to $300,000 minimum. . . . So I said, ‘Do you have any ideas?’ ” Von Elten later recalled. “I kept bugging Roger and finally one day he said maybe he could introduce me to some people that he knew in the south Orange County building community.”

That conversation, records show, evolved into a controversial political dinner that embroiled Slates and County Planning Commission Chairman Stephen A. Nordeck in a three-month criminal investigation. After questioning more than 14 witnesses, prosecutors concluded last month that there was a lack of evidence to charge the commissioners with soliciting campaign funds from developers in violation of state conflict-of-interest law.

But district attorney interviews and investigative files obtained by The Times under the state public records act provide new details of the days leading up to the dinner.

Together, the documents provide rare details--at times, cynically frank--of political fund raising in Orange County. It is the story of how one candidate, feeling squeezed out by political forces in his hometown, turned to an influential official and eventually became disenchanted upon his defeat.

The story also illustrates how public officials have come to walk a thin line, effectively wielding political clout while standing just beyond reach of state conflict-of-interest law.

According to the records:

* Both Slates and Nordeck, while mindful of appearances and the letter of state law, played active roles in orchestrating the affair.

* The $400 dinner tab was paid in cash by two of the county’s most prominent lobbyists, both of whom represent developers with million-dollar projects pending before the commission.

* Statements that participants gave investigators are, at times, substantially at odds with each other. For example, while Nordeck told them he didn’t invite anyone to the “meet and greet” dinner on Von Elten’s behalf, one of the lobbyists who shared the tab recalled that it was Nordeck who extended his invitation.

* While Slates and Nordeck say no impropriety occurred because they insisted that campaign donations not be made at the dinner, Von Elten said in a lengthy tape-recorded interview that he had always intended to ask for contributions after , rather than during, the affair. Once The Times published an account of the dinner a few days later, Von Elten told investigators, he “never got a penny from any of the people at the deal.”

* Huntington Beach City Councilman John Erskine, a Von Elten friend and former executive director of the Building Industry Assn., contradicts the candidate: Erskine told investigators that he handed Von Elten’s campaign manager a $500 check that night. The contribution is recorded on Von Elten’s campaign disclosure form, however, as having been received two weeks later.

“It might have the appearance of their (Slates and Nordeck) putting themselves in a compromising situation,” Von Elten told investigators. “But I was involved with it, I was the guy pushing Roger and as far as I’m concerned he did everything to diffuse the impression that this was a fund-raiser.”

When Von Elten became a candidate for the 58th District Assembly seat last March, it marked his first attempt to win elective office. It was natural that Von Elten, a Mola Development Corp. vice president and general counsel, would consult a political veteran such as the 61-year-old Slates, a friend who had experience on both the County Planning Commission and the Huntington Beach Planning Commission dating back to the 1970s.

“I asked him to be on my steering committee early on in the political process because of my friendship, his political acumen, for many reasons, and he agreed,” Von Elten said.

At first, Von Elten said, his fund raising went well. But within weeks, he began getting a chilly reception from Huntington Beach builders.

“I was a friend of the building industry,” Von Elten told investigators. “I came from the building community, and I could be an asset to, I thought, the race from the building industry’s standpoint.”

Von Elten blamed the shift on the presence of Mayor Mays, who went on to win the primary.

“I started going to friends of mine in town, builders, people I’d known for a long time in the building community and I was getting a real cold shoulder. In other words, the bottom line was Tom Mays, the other candidate, was going around telling people, ‘If you contribute to Von Elten you better watch it because there are matters coming before the (city) council that you’re involved in.’ And the suggestion was very clearly made. . . .

“All of a sudden these people that had encouraged me over the years to run and said they’d be there weren’t there with the money. . . . It’s, ‘Well, we’d love to help you but . . . if Mays loses, he’s still on the council and we understand how this town works. It works like any other town.’ ”

Even development consultant Richard Harlow, a friend and member of Von Elten’s steering committee, grew reluctant to support him publicly, Von Elten said.

“He said that he had heard that Tom Mays had put the word out,” Von Elten told investigators.

(Mays dismissed the allegation that he applied any political quid pro quo, noting last week in an interview with The Times that he and Von Elten each raised about $100,000 in the campaign.)

“Roger (Slates) had more guts to be open about it, if you will,” Von Elten continued. “Roger said, ‘Screw it.’ He’s always been a blunt guy, a very candid guy, a guy of the highest integrity.”

Von Elten recalled Slates telling him, “ ‘Well, maybe if we introduce you to some people outside of town that aren’t going to be influenced by the Mays pressure, that might have some effect.’ ”

“So I said, ‘Well, OK, you know, think about it. And we’d talk. . . . And I’d bug Roger. I’d say, ‘Roger, how’s that coming? Are you going to try to help?’ He goes, ‘Peter, just give me some time. I’ve got to think about it.’ ”

Slates, appointed to the commission by Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, ultimately suggested the dinner with South County builders, Von Elten said.

In Slates’ interview with investigators, the issue of Von Elten’s fund-raising troubles does not come up. But Slates acknowledges that he set up a lunch sometime in late April or early May to introduce the candidate to commission chairman Nordeck, owner of the Trabuco Oaks Steak House, a well-known South County gathering place. Slates said he wanted Nordeck and Von Elten to meet because they were “both dynamic guys.”

Indeed, Nordeck, 48, was so impressed with the candidate, Slates continued, that he immediately volunteered his restaurant as the dinner site.

In Nordeck’s interview with investigators, they did not discuss when he met Von Elten and made no mention of the lunch meeting described by Slates.

Nordeck acknowledged to investigators that he discussed the dinner with Slates. He said he endorsed the idea but advised caution:

“ ‘Hey, Rog,’ ” Nordeck recalled saying, “ ‘That’s a great idea, but you know, we can’t have any type of a fund-raiser or anything that looks like a fund-raiser, because that’s just not the way you do things.’ I have been involved in politics long enough to know what the rules are.”

State conflict-of-interest law bars appointed members of public commissions or boards from soliciting campaign contributions of $250 or more on anyone’s behalf from individuals who have matters pending before them.

Nordeck said Slates quickly assured him: “He said, ‘No . . . this is going to be like a coffee’ ” to meet the candidate.

Von Elten said he was so busy being “the exuberant candidate” that Slates had to occasionally remind him that it would not be a “fund-raiser.”

“I wasn’t thinking of code sections. . . . I wanted it to be a fund-raiser,” Von Elten said. “I wanted the people to bring checks. And I said several times to Roger, like I said before, I said, ‘Hey, Rog, how much can we expect to get out of this?’ . . . I do remember pressing Roger because I wanted a commitment, I wanted a commitment from everybody on that list. . . .”

“Roger was very careful, though, from the very beginning. And you guys got to realize this,” Von Elten told investigators. “He said that is not--and, you guys, I know you’re sick of hearing it and you think it’s bull----, but it was ‘You’re going to meet the people and then you follow it up, and if you impress them and they like you, you’re on your own.’ ”

The “list” to which Von Elten referred is a May 12 memo from his campaign manager, political consultant Dave Ellis, district attorney files show. It was written to former Supervisor Bruce Nestande, now an executive with Arnel Development Co., who had inquired about contributing to Von Elten’s campaign. “Per your request,” Ellis wrote Nestande, “here is the list of scheduled Von Elten fund-raisers.” The first event listed is “Steve Nordeck/Roger Slates, 5/15, Trabuco Oaks, 7:30 p.m., $1,000.”

When investigators interviewed Ellis, he told them he had engaged in “wishful thinking” when he wrote down the $1,000 amount. Ellis said he had always understood that the dinner would be a political get-together at which no specific funds would be raised or solicited.

Both Slates and Nordeck told investigators that they had no prior knowledge of the memo. Ellis said that he had also planned to circulate a similar letter but that Slates ordered it stopped.

Nordeck told investigators: “I feel honored that someone thinks that I can have something (where) I could raise $1,000 a head. I mean, I couldn’t do it when I was running for office. And I was mayor of the city” of Manhattan Beach during the late 1970s.

“It’s not easy, that’s heavy duty,” continued Nordeck, who serves on the Planning Commission as an appointee of Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez. “There’s not too many guys that they let loose with that kind of money. I mean, if I had found him, I might have pursued my political career, but you can’t do it without money. That’s why I got out of it (elective office).”

None of the people questioned by investigators acknowledged making the dinner arrangements or knowing who made them. For example:

* Slates said it was his understanding that Ellis, the campaign manager, contacted the developers and lobbyists who attended.

* Ellis said that he invited no one and that was invited to the dinner by Von Elten. * Von Elten said it was Ellis who told him about the affair and that he didn’t have “the faintest idea” who invited the guests.

* Nordeck said he invited no one and learned the dinner had been arranged only after an unidentified woman called from Von Elten’s campaign to reserve a private room at his restaurant.

* Lyle A. Overby, a lobbyist who represents the Santa Margarita Co. and picked up half the dinner tab, said it was his recollection that Nordeck invited him.

* Irwin Schatzman, a consultant who represents the Arvida Corp. and picked up the other half of the dinner tab, said his invitation “could have” come from either Slates or Nordeck.

As the date of the dinner neared, Von Elten was too busy to pay attention to the details, he told investigators. “I was going to three and four events a day,” and many left him disappointed.

“I’d start off with a coffee, and two old ladies would be there, maybe 10 people would be there. I was going to fund-raisers. A lot of what were supposed to be fund-raisers turned out to be deals where people weren’t bringing checks.

“I’m in hock to the tune of 150 grand myself because I don’t like to ask friends for money. . . . I found it very distasteful to have to go up to total strangers similarly situated as I was and say, ‘Would you give me money?’ ”

On May 15--the day of the political dinner, campaign manager Ellis drove with Von Elten to Trabuco Canyon, down a winding road lined by 100-year-old oaks until they reached the rustic Trabuco Oaks Steak House.

The restaurant, bought by Nordeck in late 1986, is an Orange County landmark famous for its massive steaks and iron-clad no-necktie dress code. Hundreds of ties that have been snipped off good-natured violators dangle colorfully from the rafters. A display case holds a pair from former President Richard M. Nixon and his friend, Bebe Rebozo.

Von Elten told investigators he felt a little uncomfortable. “Builders as a group are rather tightfisted when it comes to money,” he told them. “So even if you met them and even if they liked you, an assemblyman, there’s not that many things that an assemblyman does that affects the life of a builder.”

Slates arrived with Huntington Beach council members Erskine and Don MacAllister and planning consultant Harlow. The four had rented a white chauffeured limousine, Slates told investigators, so no one would have to worry about drinking and driving.

Others filling seats at the room’s banquet table, according to district attorney records, were:

* Lobbyist Overby, who is representing the Santa Margarita Co. in efforts to get Planning Commission approval for a 2,500-unit housing development known as the Las Flores Planned Community.

* Consultant Schatzman and Kevin A. Canning, director of governmental relations for Arvida, which is seeking Planning Commission approval for an expansion of Coto de Caza.

* Alan Cummins, an executive with Shapell Industries Inc., which is building Country Village--expected to be the largest housing development in Laguna Niguel. Cummins told investigators he attended at the suggestion of Overby.

* Victor Boyd, a partner in QB Management Co. Boyd told investigators that he had been invited by Randy G. Smith, a lobbyist for several firms that hold major county contracts. Smith told The Times that he didn’t attend because of a scheduling conflict, although two weeks after the dinner he gave Von Elten $1,000.

* Frank Bauman, president of InterAmerican Builders.

* Frank Foster, an executive with the Fieldstone Co.

Nordeck was working as host in the restaurant that night. But at the start of the dinner, he came into the private room and formally introduced Von Elten.

“I welcomed them to the Oaks, as I do anybody back there,” Nordeck told investigators. “I did tell them I was supporting Peter von Elten. I said I, you know, I liked the individual and I like what he stands for.

“And it was in that same breath that I mentioned point-blank--because of the, you know, political sensitivity of the thing--that it was in no way a fund-raiser. In no way. In no way.”

Nordeck then left to resume his restaurant duties, he said, returning only now and then to check on the private room guests.

Slates also emphasized to investigators that he was in the room only briefly, long enough to tell the guests they “were lucky to have a guy like this (Von Elten) who wants to run for the Assembly.”

Immediately afterward, Slates left to eat dinner in the main dining room with Nordeck’s wife and a friend of hers. He told investigators that he had felt “very uncomfortable” about the setting for the political dinner.

“Probably if we weren’t in that so-called back room, and they didn’t have to get to it through the kitchen, it would have been nothing to it,” Slates explained. “So, possibly where it was located might have been, you know, like I said, I did not stay there. Hey, I’m not going to sit in that room.”

After both commissioners stepped out, Von Elten rose and asked the businessmen for their support. His campaign manager passed out brochures, and there was general conversation about the difficulty of raising campaign funds.

Then, Von Elten said, “we had wine, we had drinks, we had dinner.”

When investigators asked why Von Elten didn’t seek money on the spot, the candidate replied: “You don’t do it that way.

“I found out a lot of things real quick,” Von Elten explained. “I mean, I’d never run for office before, but there are opportunities, there are ways to do things. And I found out that although you expected, hopefully, everybody you met from every one of these events to be contributors down the line, you just didn’t go in and say, ‘Hi, I’m Peter von Elten, give me some money.’ ”

When the meal was over, Overby and Schatzman split the tab, leaving a total of $400 cash on the table, according to their interviews with investigators.

Sandra Michioku, a spokeswoman for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said last week that dinners on behalf of candidates are generally considered contributions to be reported on state-required campaign disclosure forms.

Von Elten did not report such a contribution, records show.

Ellis, who oversaw Von Elten’s financial reports, said last week that he had thought that dinner expenses under $500 did not have to be reported.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade noted last week that even if the dinner tab is viewed as a contribution, neither lobbyist’s share reached the $250 threshold required by state law, and both denied being solicited by the planning commissioners.

According to an interview summary, Overby told investigators that Nordeck had specifically pointed out that the affair was not a fund-raiser “to make him feel like he was not being imposed upon.” Overby said he paid a share of the dinner tab, according to the interview summary, because he wanted to be “a nice guy.”

Investigators could not immediately locate their recording of Overby’s interview. No tape of the investigators’ interview with Schatzman is available because the recorder malfunctioned, officials said.

“It is not infrequent that I pay,” Schatzman told The Times last week when ask why he picked up half the bill. “That’s part of my life as a consultant.”

Von Elten said that as he and Ellis drove away from the restaurant, they were were chagrined when they realized that neither had remembered to get business cards from the guests for follow-up phone calls.

Von Elten said his hopes of raising much money from the guests were dashed anyway a few days later, when the Times published an account of the gathering.

“After this thing hit the papers,” the candidate told investigators, “it was like pulling eyeteeth to approach anybody to make a contribution because all of the sudden I’m the tainted guy. . . .

“This whole incident hurt me a hell of a lot more than it’s going to hurt Nordeck or Slates.”

Councilman Erskine defended Slates and Nordeck in his interview with investigators:

“Both Gaddi Vasquez, who I know very well, and several other people who’ve had their name dragged through the paper on this are kind of puzzled about it,” Erskine said, “because it was a very typical event in Orange County. . . .

“I think they (Slates and Nordeck) were both very experienced guys and smart enough to know you don’t ask for, you don’t directly solicit any amount, whether it’s $250 or less. I mean, you don’t even ask for $100 bucks. That’s just not something you do.”

Von Elten Fund-Raiser List This memo from Peter von Elten’s campaign manager was sent to Arnel Development Co. executive Bruce Nestande. The list includes Trabuco Oaks dinner. TOM MAYS

Winner of the Assembly race nomination dismissed the allegation by Peter von Elten that he applied any political quid pro quo.

LYLE A. OVERBY

Lobbyist said he paid a share of the $400 dinner tab, according to the interview summary, because he wanted to be “a nice guy.”

JOHN ERSKINE

The Huntington Beach councilman said “(some people) are kind of puzzled about it, because it was a very typical event in Orange County.”

BRUCE NESTANDE

Former supervisor and executive with Arnel Development Co. was given a list of von Elten fund-raisers that included Trabuco Oaks dinner.

THE DINNER WITH DEVELOPERS

Date

May 15, 1990.

Place

Trabuco Oaks Steak House, owned by Orange County Planning Commission Chairman Stephen A. Nordeck.

Occasion

A political gathering on behalf of then-58th District Assembly candidate Peter von Elten, of Huntington Beach.

Guest List

Peter von Elten, the candidate.

Dave Ellis, the campaign manager.

John Erskine, a Huntington Beach Councilman and development lawyer formerly with the Building Industry Assn.

Don MacAllister, a Huntington Beach City Councilman and director of the Huntington National Bank.

Richard Harlow, a Huntington Beach planning consultant.

Kevin A. Canning, an Arvida Co. director of governmental relations.

Victor Boyd, a partner in QB Management Co.

Alan Cummins, a vice president of Shapell Industries Inc.

Lyle A. Overby, a lobbyist for Shapell, the Santa Margarita Co. and Hon Development Co.

Edwin Schatzman, a lobbyist for Arvida Co.

Frank Bauman, president of InterAmerican Builders.

Frank Foster, an executive with Fieldstone Co.

Speakers

Roger D. Slates, Orange County Planning Commission, urged support for von Elten.

Stephen A. Nordeck, Chairman, Orange County Planning Commission, urged support for von Elten.

Result

After a 3-month criminal investigation, the Orange County district attorney concluded last month there was insufficient evidence to charge Slates and Nordeck with soliciting campaign funds from developers in violation of state conflict-of-interest law. Von Elten was defeated in the June Republican primary.