ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Keeping Local Politics Clean

After Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth resigned last week, Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi served notice that Roth’s departure did not mark the end of his office’s investigation of the supervisor. As Capizzi put it: “If there is sufficient evidence for criminal charges, the penalty is fines and/or jail, and the penal statutes are not satisfied by (Roth) stepping down from office. There’s more to this case than that.”

Right on. Whatever the outcome of the Roth case, Capizzi will want to make clear that prosecutors will aggressively pursue investigations of public officials who they believe may have stepped over the line. A clear stand by the district attorney’s office that no one--even a member of the Board of Supervisors--is exempt from scrutiny is essential to keeping politics clean in Orange County.

The district attorney’s probe of Roth originally took its cue from Times articles last April. The series outlined Roth’s acceptance of trips to Santa Catalina Island and a $8,500 interest-free loan from a Laguna Beach family that wanted a zoning change from the Board of Supervisors.

The D.A.’s investigation, under the direction of Asst. Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade, has been vigorous. Just how serious the probe has become was indicated by an affidavit filed in January to gain access to Roth’s bank records. It laid out suspicions that Roth had engaged in perjury, theft of public funds, campaign money laundering, obstruction of justice and possibly other felonies.

In resigning, Roth, a former Anaheim mayor, said only that the multiple investigations he is facing rendered him unable to fulfill his official duties in the Fourth Supervisorial District. Roth’s attorney has repeatedly said Roth made only minor “technical” violations of campaign reporting laws.

Roth this week cleaned out his office to make way for Gov. Pete Wilson’s new appointee, William G. Steiner, executive director of Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange. Steiner will fill Roth’s unexpired term, which runs until November, 1994.

Meanwhile, the word around the district attorney’s office is that, for Capizzi, there are no sacred cows. Not even, he has joked, his own mother. That’s as it should be.