Supervisor Did Not Pay Firm for Work, Records Show

A major development company spent nearly $2,000 to landscape the Anaheim Hills home of Supervisor Don R. Roth two years ago, installing sprinklers and plants in the front yard without receiving payment from the supervisor, interviews and documents show.

Confirmation of the landscaping work came Friday afternoon from Roth’s lawyer, hours after a top executive with the firm--Baldwin Co.--appeared before the Orange County Grand Jury as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of influence peddling involving Roth.

Roth voted at least five times on Baldwin Co. matters that came before the Board of Supervisors in the year after the job was completed in late 1990. The votes could pose conflict of interest problems under state law for Roth if it is determined that the landscaping represented a gift from Baldwin.

The job was performed by Southern Counties Landscape of Brea, which is owned by members of the Baldwin family, and which billed the Baldwin Co. for the work.

Roth’s lawyer, Dana Reed, acknowledged that Roth did not pay for the landscaping work, but blamed Roth’s former wife for not paying the bill. The lawyer added that Baldwin officials sent Reed a new bill this week and that Roth intends to pay for “his fair share” of the work.

“We are all very upset about this, and we will take care of it immediately,” Reed said.

Since May, the Orange County district attorney’s office has been investigating whether Roth traded political favors for gifts. Disclosure of the landscaping work marks the supervisor’s latest legal predicament.

Friday was the first time that prosecutors have brought witnesses before the grand jury to give testimony in the Roth case. Appearing before the grand jury was Geoffrey S. Fearns, 34, who is president of Baldwin’s Orange County division. Also testifying separately were lobbyist Frank Michelena, as well as a Los Angeles businessman who bought Roth and his staff a $520 lunch in 1991.

Leaving the Orange County courthouse after his secret testimony, Fearns, who was subpoenaed to appear, said: “It was an interesting experience, but I can’t say anything more.”

His attorney, Dennis M. McNerney, said that “the Baldwin Co. and Mr. Fearns are in no way a target” of the investigation.

Although neither Fearns nor his attorney would discuss the purpose of the appearance, Reed said he assumed that the grand jury wanted to question the Baldwin official about the landscaping of the front yard of the Roth home.

Company documents obtained by The Times show that Southern Counties Landscape received approval from the Baldwin Co. in October, 1990, to perform the landscaping work. The documents indicate that Southern Counties put in an automatic irrigation system, two birch trees, a three-foot carrot-wood tree, 2,000 square feet of sod and assorted plants.

As recently as Monday night, Fearns said in an interview that he could deny that the Baldwin Co. had any part in paying for the landscaping.

But Reed acknowledged that Baldwin did pay Southern Counties for the work, and an invoice dated November 20, 1990, shows that the $1,950 job was billed to the firm’s Hale Avenue address in Irvine. The invoice also shows that the work was ordered “per Geoff Fearns.”

Reed said Roth did not know that the work went unpaid until just recently when Baldwin officials--who had been questioned by The Times--notified him. He noted that Roth separated from his wife and moved out of their new house in mid-1990, and maintained that it was Jackie Roth who ignored the bill from Baldwin.

However, Jackie Roth showed reporters a handwritten letter from her estranged husband dated Sept. 6, 1990, in which Roth wrote that he had spoken to Fearns about the landscaping. “Told him to go ahead with the landscaping and mail the total bill to me, which I will pay--no problems,” Roth wrote.

“I’m sick and tired of him blaming me for everything. He better stand up and start facing his own music,” Jackie Roth said.

She said although she sent the bill to her then-husband, she assumed that he would not have to pay it because of his friendship with the Baldwins. “I thought it was a gift. . . . I just thought they were putting in our front yard,” she said.

The landscaping issue could pose more conflict of interest problems for Roth, a two-term supervisor whose political career has been threatened by recent allegations of influence peddling. The FBI has said it is probing similar issues, but Roth has not been charged with a crime. He has maintained that he will be exonerated.

Times staff writer Kevin Johnson contributed to this story.