O.C. Planner Targeted in Inquiries Quits

Supervisor Don R. Roth has asked for and received the resignation of Orange County Planning Commissioner C. Douglas Leavenworth, who was investigated by state and local authorities last fall for taking gifts from the Mission Viejo Co. while voting on its projects.

Leavenworth, who has served on the commission since 1982, said Thursday that Roth asked him to resign after the state Fair Political Practices Commission announced last month that it was accepting Leavenworth’s revised estimate of the value of the gifts. The Orange County district attorney had previously announced that no criminal charges would be filed in the matter.

But Leavenworth insisted that his resignation was not related to either investigation.

“No, it had nothing to do with that, not to my understanding,” Leavenworth said, adding, “You should talk to Don Roth.”

Roth, who said last August that he was “shocked” to learn from a Times article that Leavenworth had reported gifts in excess of the $250 state limit, was traveling to a meeting in Las Vegas on Thursday and could not be reached for comment, a spokesman said.

Roth’s executive assistant, Dan Wooldridge, however, agreed that the timing of Leavenworth’s resignation had nothing to do with the development company’s gifts. Wooldridge said Roth merely wanted to make a change in light of his being reelected to a new four-year term last fall.

The five planning commissioners serve at the pleasure of the supervisors who appoint them, and Leavenworth was chosen in 1982 by Roth’s predecessor, retired Supervisor Ralph B. Clark. Roth, like Clark, represents the 4th District, which includes the city of Anaheim.

“Don felt this was an appropriate time to give someone else a chance on the commission,” Wooldridge said.

While Leavenworth tendered his resignation last month, he will continue to serve on the board until a replacement is named. At the Feb. 26 meeting, Roth is expected to name E. Chuck McBurney, a former Anaheim city planning commissioner, to fill Leavenworth’s post.

“Mr. Roth called me last November and said that Mr. Leavenworth’s turn would be up after the first of the year, and that he would consider changing him,” McBurney, 61, said Thursday. “He said he wanted to appoint me and I was quite honored.”

McBurney is a land surveyor who served on the Buena Park Planning Commission before moving to Anaheim in 1978 and served on the commission there from 1980 until last July.

In February, 1989, three Anaheim council members, including Mayor Fred Hunter, voted to remove him from the post, saying he had served too long. They later changed their minds and allowed McBurney to finish his term but he was not reappointed.

McBurney is currently serving on the city’s growth management citizens committee. He was employed as a site development manager for Carl Karcher Enterprises, owners of Carl’s Jr. restaurants, from 1983 until 1990 but now works for a surveying firm in Orange.

“I am neither pro-development nor anti-development,” McBurney said.

If appointed, McBurney will join a commission that is often criticized by environmentalists and slow-growth advocates as being weighted with pro-development officials. Two other commissioners, Chairman Stephen A. Nordeck and Roger D. Slates, were also the focus of conflict-of-interest investigations last year, amid allegations that they hosted a fund-raising dinner with some developers who had projects pending before the commission. The district attorney investigated those allegations as well, saying there was insufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges.

While Roth has said that all public officials should be aware of state contribution limits, he has never publicly criticized Leavenworth in relation to the gift investigation. And he maintained that he would only consider replacing Leavenworth after the matter had been reviewed by authorities.

Wooldridge said Roth has nothing but praise for the outgoing commissioner and even plans to honor Leavenworth with a resolution at a future Board of Supervisors meeting.

“Those allegations ultimately turned out to be just that,” Wooldridge said about the FPPC and district attorney’s reviews. “That’s last year’s news as far as we’re concerned. . . . We’re obviously pleased that those allegations that have been raised are over with.

“We’re certainly pleased that (Leavenworth) is at the point where he’s able to leave the commission having proven what we think is an excellent level of service,” he added.

Shirley Grindle, a former planning commissioner and frequent critic of regulators who appear to be cozy with developers, said Thursday she was surprised to hear of Leavenworth’s resignation.

While she did not want to criticize his actions, she said the controversy stands as an object lesson in why commissioners should only be appointed to serve one four-year term.

“Each year the commissioners serve, the flattery and all the rest that the development industry gives them becomes more an accepted way of life,” she said. “I think their effectiveness--their ability to not be swayed by developers--is jeopardized the longer they stay on.”

At issue in the gift investigations was whether Leavenworth violated a conflict-of-interest law in 1988 by voting on matters affecting the Mission Viejo Co. after he had accepted golfing privileges, event tickets and meals that he had valued at $365 on state-required disclosure forms for the previous year.

State law prohibits officials from participating in decisions affecting a gift-giver when the value of the gifts over the 12 months is $250 or more. The FPPC is empowered to impose maximum fines of $2,000 per violation.

The investigations began shortly after The Times reported that Leavenworth had cast 14 votes in 1987 and eight votes in 1988 that favored the Mission Viejo Co.’s position on various projects, despite having received the gifts.

In a letter to prosecutors, Leavenworth insisted that the gifts had not swayed his votes, but he offered to stop the practice of accepting such gifts if he had to.

“I like to play golf, I appreciate those invitations,” Leavenworth wrote. “There’s no way I’d be able to play at the Mission Viejo Country Club, otherwise. But I’m willing to give that up, if . . . the public’s perception of it” is negative.

Leavenworth also revised his financial disclosure form and told the FPPC that he misstated the worth of this gifts in 1987 by counting theater and baseball tickets intended for his wife. His revised form placed the value of the gifts at $242.50--$7.50 below the state limit.

Leavenworth, a retired aerospace engineer, said on Thursday that it did not bother him that others might speculate that he was asked to resign because of the investigations.

“I expected it to happen (to be asked to resign) four years ago,” he said. “I was an appointee of the previous supervisor.”

To show that he has no animosity, he said he is even having lunch with McBurney next week to brief him on Planning Commission matters.

“I thought that that was an appropriate thing to do,” Leavenworth said.