Newly Found Tape Clears Amburgey of Illegal Vote : Courts: Prosecutors drop conflict charge when review of 1987 council discussion is inconclusive.

Former Costa Mesa City Councilman Orville Amburgey was cleared of conflict-of-interest charges Wednesday after prosecutors reviewed a newly disclosed audiotape of a 1987 City Council meeting.

Amburgey had been charged with violating state conflict-of-interest laws by voting to approve an agreement with Copley-Colony Cablevision of Costa Mesa Inc. even though his electrical firm had done about $900 worth of business with the cable company in the preceding year.

But after reviewing an audiotape of the meeting provided by a community activist, prosecutors determined that Amburgey may not have understood what he was voting on and that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the case.

“It appears that the June 1, 1987, vote could have been construed by Amburgey and other council members as a purely (administrative) vote,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosanne Froeberg said at a Harbor Municipal Court hearing Wednesday that was to have marked the start of Amburgey’s trial.

Instead, Froeberg asked that the misdemeanor criminal complaint be dismissed and Judge Selim S. Franklin granted the motion.

Froeberg also said that the review of the tape raised doubts that Amburgey stood to make a financial gain as a result of the vote.

After the hearing, Amburgey released a statement reiterating charges that the prosecution was politically motivated. He charged that the inquiry was orchestrated by then-Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Mary Hornbuckle--a frequent council foe of Amburgey who is now mayor--and City Atty. Thomas Kathe, who originally had referred the case to prosecutors.

Amburgey said he will consider bringing a lawsuit against the city and called for Kathe’s resignation or dismissal.

“This ordeal damaged my reputation and caused my family to endure the agony of this public witch hunt,” Amburgey said. “Now it is time to right this wrong.”

Kathe publicly alleged that Amburgey may have violated conflict-of-interest statutes last October, about a week before City Council elections in which he was thought to be in the lead. Amburgey ended up being defeated by a wide margin and blamed the result on Kathe’s statements. Kathe could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Hornbuckle denied any involvement in a political plot and supported Kathe’s handling of the case.

“The facts are that Tom unearthed what he believed to be violations of the law which he was duty-bound to reveal to the proper authorities,” Hornbuckle said. “The materials were turned over to an outside investigator, in this case the district attorney. I think he acted properly.”

During the meeting in question, the council received a three-year performance evaluation of the cable company. Kathe gave prosecutors minutes of the meeting indicating that Amburgey voted in favor of accepting the evaluation and making several technical changes to the company’s contract.

But on the audiotape, City Manager Allan L. Roeder is heard telling council members that accepting the evaluation would not mean approving changes in the contract.

The case hinged on whether Amburgey cast his vote believing that he would gain financially from it, Froeberg said. As it turns out, the discussion before the vote does not make it clear whether the council was agreeing simply to accept the evaluation, or to accept it and also amend the contract, Froeberg said.

“The evidence that we had at the time of filing (charges), we felt, very strongly corroborated the case against him,” Froeberg said. “We were ready for trial until the tape surfaced.”

Roeder said Wednesday that he could not recall what instructions he gave the council. He said the case was referred to prosecutors because he and Kathe concluded that any vote by Amburgey dealing with Copley may have constituted a conflict of interest.

Roeder had no comment about a possible lawsuit against the city.

Amburgey’s eleventh--hour exoneration came about unexpectedly. Under city policy, tapes of council meetings are destroyed after a year. But about three weeks ago, Amburgey recalled that a council regular, Ernie Feeney, frequently made tapes of council meetings for her personal use.

The former councilman called Feeney, an acquaintance, who was able to locate the audiotape and made a copy.

Amburgey, who is still raising money to pay off last year’s campaign debts, does not rule out running for the council in 1992. The majority of voters who decided against him last November, he said, had based their decision on “innuendoes and misstatements” relating to his case.