Countywide : Roth Skips 2 Votes Involving Anaheim

County Supervisor Don R. Roth, under investigation for alleged influence-peddling, abstained Tuesday from two votes affecting the city of Anaheim because of questions over unreported gifts.

These were the seventh and eighth times since December that Roth, 71, has recused himself from government business because of potential legal problems.

Since last May, the district attorney’s office has been investigating whether Roth violated state law by effectively exchanging political favors for thousands of dollars in meals, trips, flight upgrades, home improvements, an $8,500 housing loan and other unreported gifts from local business people.

State law requires local politicians to report all gifts valued above $50 and bans them from taking part in decisions affecting anyone who has given gifts worth $250 or more in the previous year.

Roth has denied any wrongdoing and vowed that he will be exonerated.

As has become his policy in such matters, Roth read unemotionally from a prepared statement in abstaining from Tuesday’s votes, but did not elaborate on the reasoning behind his decision.

While his lawyers are still researching the question of potential conflicts of interest, Roth told his four colleagues on the board, “I would rather err on the side of caution and abstain from these two votes.”

Both votes dealt with government business in Anaheim, which is Roth’s political base.

Roth abstained from a decision on county licensing of construction work on a parking project at the Anaheim Arena, and on a measure to approve bylaws for the Orange County Child Care and Development Council and appoint an Anaheim resident to the council. Both measures passed 4 to 0 without Roth’s vote.

Roth has drawn scrutiny over his acceptance and use of a lifetime pass to Anaheim-owned golf courses after he left office as mayor in 1987, as well as other possible gifts from the city that were not reported to the state. Roth is awaiting a ruling from the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission on whether the golf pass constitutes a legally reportable gift.

The supervisor had abstained from a total of four county votes in December. One dealt with the city of Anaheim. Another centered on the approval of a project on land owned by a business family that hosted him on three trips to Santa Catalina Island and gave him what amounted to an $8,500 loan. And two more votes concerned the Baldwin Co., a major developer that paid $1,950 for the landscaping of the front yard of Roth’s Anaheim Hills home in 1990.

On Monday, Roth also abstained from two votes as a member of the Orange County Transportation Authority--one affecting the city of Anaheim and the other a contract for a telephone company that has given him gifts.