Election Memo Spurs Anaheim Investigation

City officials said Thursday they are investigating the possible misuse of city resources by the head of the local firefighters union, who apparently used the Fire Department’s computer system to exhort members to campaign for candidates endorsed by the union.

The memo does not mention any candidate by name, but the union has only endorsed the reelection bids of Mayor Fred Hunter and Councilman William D. Ehrle.

“The concern for the city is whether this (memo) was done on city property on city time,” City Atty. Jack L. White said. “It appears there may have been some type of criminal violation of either state or municipal laws.”

Gary Martin, president of the Anaheim Firefighters Union, could not be reached for comment, and a union spokesman declined to discuss the matter.

City Manager James D. Ruth said he asked the fire chief on Wednesday to investigate the circumstances surrounding the memo, including its exact origin and author. A printout of the memo, purportedly from Martin, has been circulating throughout the city the past two days.

From all preliminary indications, Ruth said, it appears Martin acted improperly.

“At the very least, it was very poor judgment,” Ruth said. “We have to convey that this (action) will not be condoned or tolerated.”

City officials believe that the memo was transmitted via computer to union members on Saturday. It informs members that they must participate in precinct walks for the candidates and criticizes those “who are not pulling their fair share,” according to a transcript of the memo.

Martin threatened to humiliate any union member who refused to walk precincts for the candidates, saying “you leave me no choice but to publish your name as an individual that prefers to let your fellow firefighters do your work.”

“Precinct walking, if you have not figured it out yet, is the only reason that paid leave was reinstated and the only reason that you have received a salary adjustment for 1992,” Martin wrote. “It was not luck. It was walking precincts.”

City officials said “paid leave” referred to a provision included in the union’s last contract that allows firefighters to combine their vacation and sick leave into one account. That allows healthy firefighters to use what had been sick days for vacations.

Ruth said he expected Fire Chief Jeff Bowman to complete his report in the next couple of days. One issue is whether Martin sent the memo over the department’s emergency systems computer, which is normally used to convey messages on emergency calls.

“If it was, that would a much more serious matter,” City Atty. White said.

Bowman could not be reached for comment Thursday. Hunter did not return repeated calls to his office.

Ehrle acknowledged that the firefighters have been walking precincts for him every weekend for a month but said he did not know the union was using city equipment or threats to recruit precinct walkers and said he would not condone either.

“If they violated city guidelines, that is something that needs to be straightened out,” Ehrle said. “But I’m sure (Martin) didn’t mean to do anything against city regulations.”

Other councilmen expressed outrage at Martin’s memo.

“This is definitely wrong,” said Councilman Irv Pickler, who asked the city manager Wednesday to investigate the matter. “I’m furious. . . . It’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. We’ve got to hold them accountable for this.”

Councilman Tom Daly, Hunter’s challenger in the mayoral race, said he will ask the district attorney’s office to investigate Hunter’s campaign tactics to see if the mayor is violating the law by “blackmailing city employees into walking precincts for him.”

“Fred Hunter has turned Anaheim into a Chicago-type machine government, in which workers who receive paychecks from the city are in turn obliged to keep Hunter and his two City Council allies entrenched in office.

Dave Ellis, the mayor’s campaign manager, laughed when told of Daly’s charges.

“Is this the same Tom Daly who two months ago was pandering to the Firemen’s Assn. . . . asking for their endorsement?” Ellis asked. “Sounds like he is a little jealous. He can’t have it both ways by promising the employee associations the sun, the stars and the moon one day and criticizing them the next.”

In addition to precinct walking, the union has contributed to the campaigns of Hunter and Ehrle by giving each $1,000 as of Oct. 17.

The computer memo is not the first of the union’s actions to be questioned.

In the 1990 city elections, Pickler held a press conference charging that union members, who at the time favored Hunter in his mayoral contest with Pickler, were trying to influence candidates unfairly with their contributions and precinct walking.

The firefighters “are determined to get someone (elected) who is beholden to them,” Pickler said at the time.

Hunter defeated Pickler by a 2-to-1 margin. The union also supported former Fire Chief Bob D. Simpson. He defeated incumbent Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood, who was strongly opposed to large-scale raises for city employees.

One month after the election, the city and the firefighters signed a 2 1/2-year contract that provides an 18% raise.