Roth Leaves Office as His Staff Is Reprimanded : Politics: Aides to the county supervisor, who resigned in wake of influence-peddling probe, are warned against accepting free meals.

Even as Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth brought his political career to an uncharacteristically quiet close Monday, his surviving staff members received a new edict: no more free lunches.

“With the climate in that office the way it is now, I think for them to do anything untoward (in accepting meals or gifts) would be stupid,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, who issued the directive Monday.

State law allows politicians and their staff members to accept meals and gifts within certain limits--no more than $1,000 worth in a single year from a single giver, for instance. All gifts of $50 or more must be reported to the state.

But Roth’s alleged acceptance of thousands of dollars in unreported gifts from local business people, as well as some meals for his staff, has formed the foundation for the Orange County district attorney’s ongoing, 10-month-old influence-peddling investigation of him. Investigators are seeking to determine whether Roth traded political favors for unreported gifts.

The probe led Roth, 71, to announce his resignation from the Board of Supervisors last week, saying he could no longer serve the county. The resignation became effective Monday.

Roth and his attorneys continue to deny that he is guilty of any criminal wrongdoing.

As a result of the scandal, Wieder said, she directed Roth’s staff Monday to end any acceptance of meals from constituents. The order amounts to standards more stringent than either state law or those imposed in Wieder’s own office.

With no replacement for Roth yet named by Gov. Pete Wilson, Wieder now supervises the seven staff members in Roth’s office.

Wieder issued the directive to Roth’s chief of staff, Steven E. Malone, after learning that six of Roth’s aides had let Anaheim businessman John Hundley pay the $112 tab for a lunch in Garden Grove last Tuesday--the very day Roth announced his resignation. The supervisor himself was not there.

“They just don’t get it,” Wieder said. “It has nothing to do with legal limits. It has to do with the fact that if they weren’t on the fifth floor (working for the Board of Supervisors), nobody would even buy them a cup of coffee. . . . It makes everybody look bad.”

“It was a lapse of judgment,” Malone said of the lunch.

Malone said he delivered word of the new policy to staff members on Monday.

From now on, Malone said, “if you want to have a business lunch, you pay for your own lunch. That’s no problem. Nothing free from anyone. . . . We’re tired of seeing our names in a negative context anyway, so if there’s a perception this will help, then we’ll do it.”

The Wieder directive came on Roth’s last day as county supervisor after a two-decade career in public service that made him a political fixture in Anaheim. A Navy veteran, he served as Anaheim mayor before being elected to the Board of Supervisors from his North County district in 1986.

Roth was at the office Monday, dressed in a casual sweater instead of his traditional suit and tie. He chatted with staff members, and Malone said the supervisor also gathered up more personal belongings, a process started last week after the announcement of his resignation.

But many of Roth’s links to government were already gone.

The huge portrait of him that once welcomed visitors to his office was taken down. So too was his photo in the Hall of Administration lobby, leaving a bare wall between photos of Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Thomas F. Riley. The 4th District slot on copies of the week’s county agenda reads simply “vacant.”

Roth didn’t speak with many county officials Monday. Most, in fact, assumed that he had already made his final appearance last week.

It was a markedly quiet exit for a man who earned a reputation as being fiery and confrontational, an official who once publicly taunted the county sheriff during their infamous run-ins over jail and law enforcement issues.

“Bye-bye, Rio!” Roth once said in helping to kill Sheriff Brad Gates’ plan to convert a South County property called Rancho del Rio into a drug training center.

Last April, Roth reacted angrily in an interview to any suggestion of wrongdoing over his failure to report his acceptance of three trips to Santa Catalina Island and what amounted to an $8,500 interest-free loan from a family of political supporters.

“To try to paint me as a dishonest guy--to me that is ridiculous,” Roth said at the time.

As allegations have multiplied since then, however, the former realtor has maintained a virtual wall of silence, deflecting all questions on the case and referring any requests for comment to his criminal defense lawyers. He also declined to comment Monday on his thoughts on his final day as supervisor.

Even Roth’s plan for a farewell address, to be shown on a weekly cable show in Anaheim that he has hosted, is in limbo. Malone said the supervisor was unhappy with the way the taping turned out and may not air it at all.

Roth’s silence has been noticeable, Malone said.

“Don is a very open guy,” the aide said. “He was always a maverick. All of a sudden now, he’s being advised (by his lawyers) not to talk. It’s certainly not consistent with his nature.”

Malone said he is uncertain of Roth’s plans for the future. As for himself, Malone said, he hopes to carry on Roth’s work, at least temporarily, in one area: as a member of the governing board overseeing the $2-billion construction of two proposed toll roads in eastern and southern Orange County.

“There’s important work to be done,” he said.

Unlike other panels on which county officials hold posts, the Transportation Corridor Agencies allows supervisors to appoint staff members to represent them in their absence. Malone attended last week’s board meeting and said Monday that he has asked the county counsel to determine whether he can hold the seat even after Roth’s resignation, until a successor is named.

The idea has prompted some grumbling from county officials. County Counsel Terry C. Andrus said that his office is researching the matter.