Tape of Meeting Fails to Support Roth Assertion : Inquiry: Record shows political donor was present when O.C. board OKd project affecting his property.

Tape-recorded minutes of a Board of Supervisors meeting four months ago appear to contradict Supervisor Don R. Roth’s assertion that he never knew that a close friend and political donor had business before the county board.

Roth, now one of the subjects of an FBI inquiry into allegations of political corruption, has maintained that he did not report on state-required filings three trips and an $8,500 loan from the friend and his family, in part because they “never had anything to do with county government.”

The county tapes show, however, that the friend, Gerard J. (Gerald) Dougher of Laguna Beach, was identified by name as a participant in a controversial Midway City development that came before the board Dec. 10, and was present at the meeting.

The supervisors unanimously approved the project, which is to be built by Newport Pacific Development Corp. of Newport Beach. That decision overrode an earlier vote by the County Planning Commission, which rejected the proposal because of density and traffic concerns.

Dougher’s attendance at the supervisors’ meeting was only one of several disclosures Thursday that stirred new questions about Roth’s relationship with the developers of the condominium project:

- Roth’s appointee to the Planning Commission, Chuck McBurney, said the supervisor took a “very unusual” interest in the project, telephoning him about it last year after the commission’s rejection. McBurney said it was the only time in his 15 months on the panel that Roth ever inquired about a project.

- Jackie Roth, the supervisor’s ex-wife, said she and the supervisor vacationed at least five times at a Palm Springs-area condominium that was owned by Newport Pacific owner Magdy Hanna. Representatives of Newport Pacific were at the Dec. 10 meeting, along with Dougher, and asked the board to reverse the Planning Commission’s decision.

- And, two more people told the Times that they were interviewed Thursday by the FBI. They said they were asked about their concerns over the way county officials handled the approval process for the project.

The FBI has opened an inquiry to determine whether Roth traded undisclosed gifts for political favors. The FBI declined comment Thursday, as did Roth.

The Times reported last week that Roth failed to report in his annual state-required economic disclosure statement that the Doughers hosted him on three trips to Santa Catalina Island and gave him what amounted to an interest-free, $8,500 loan through a rental agreement.

Elected officials are required by state law to disclose all gifts from constituents above set amounts, and are restricted from voting on issues affecting constituents who have given them more than $250 in gifts within a year.

In defending his failure to report the trips and the rental arrangement, Roth last week said that the Doughers did not have any business before the county that could pose a conflict.

He made that statement just four months after voting to approve the 42-unit, $5-million condominium project.

The Doughers had agreed to sell the two-acre site for the condominiums to Newport Pacific for $1 million; that transaction is still in escrow. Newport Pacific plans to spend an additional $4 million to develop the project.

While Roth has maintained that he never knew of the Doughers’ involvement in the project, a county tape of the Dec. 10 hearing before the supervisors shows that the Doughers’ involvement was openly discussed.

On the tape, the first speaker to address Roth and the other four board members mentions Gerard Dougher by name. Al Marshall identifies himself to the board as president of Newport Pacific and an “agent for Mr. Gerald Dougher--D-O-U-G-H-E-R--who is present in the audience today.”

Dougher-owned companies have made four donations and a loan totaling $6,350 to Roth’s campaigns since he became supervisor in 1986. Associates say Roth and Gerard Dougher were close friends dating back to Roth’s days on the Anaheim City Council in the 1970s.

At the December meeting, the board overruled the Planning Commission 5 to 0 in approving the development. Roth cited the need for more affordable housing in voicing his support for the plan.

Roth’s vote jibed with the vote cast on the Planning Commission by McBurney, whom Roth appointed to the panel in January, 1991.

McBurney said in an interview that Roth called him at his office about the Midway City project in November, 1991, a few days after the commission deadlocked, 2-2, and effectively blocked the project. The project is not in Roth’s district.

The call itself was “very unusual,” McBurney said, since it was the only time he could recall that Roth talked to him about a pending issue.

“I never speak with the supervisor on any issues,” McBurney said. “Mr. Roth has given me free reign.”

McBurney said he did not know what prompted Roth to call him about the project, but said, “Maybe (it was) because the property owner contacted him . . . to get some sympathy.”

McBurney said Roth appeared surprised that the proposal had not passed the Planning Commission. “Mr. Roth called me up and wanted to know what happened at the Planning Commission. . . . He said when it got up to him (on the Board of Supervisors), he wanted to take a serious look at it.”

When the issue reached the Board of Supervisors on Dec. 10, no one on the board voiced any strong reservations about the project, but opponents were shocked.

Linda Pooley of Huntington Beach, who along with her husband, Joe, owns an apartment building next to the proposed condominiums, and who appeared before the supervisors to oppose the project, recalled Thursday that she was chagrined by the tenor of the meeting.

“It was just kind of a cut and dry thing,” she said in an interview. The supervisors “all seemed to have made their minds up before the meeting.”

Joe Pooley said he and his wife were interviewed Thursday by the FBI about the Midway City project.

The other four supervisors said earlier this week that Roth never contacted them about the issue. And Al Marshall, the Newport Pacific president, said it would have made little sense for Roth to endanger his own reputation over the deal because the project probably would have passed without his vote.

While his company tried to contact Roth about the project, Marshall said, Roth was not singled out for lobbying. “I talked to everyone I could,” he said.

“What Roth has got to do with all this is beyond me,” he said.

Marshall acknowledged, however, that the supervisors’ rejection of the condominium project would have killed the Doughers’ $1-million sale. The sale was conditioned on county approval of the project, he said, adding that “we would not take that kind of a risk” without such assurance.

Newport Pacific owner Hanna could not be reached for comment Thursday.

But Marshall described Hanna as a friend of Roth since the late 1970s, when Roth was an Anaheim councilman and later the city’s mayor.

When asked Thursday about Hanna, Jackie Roth recalled that while she and Don Roth were married, Hanna had let them use his vacation condominium in Cathedral City, outside Palm Springs, at least five times between 1986 and 1989.

Like the Catalina trips given to Roth by the Doughers, none of the Cathedral City trips were listed on Roth’s recent economic disclosure statements. Political finance experts say that by law, hosted trips to any site except a constituent’s primary residence are considered gifts, and their fair-market value is supposed to be reported to the government.