Countywide : Steiner Serves Notice of Brown Bag Era

Supervisor William G. Steiner’s answer to the lavish lobbyist lunches and perks that led to his predecessor’s downfall: brown-bag it.

The newly appointed county supervisor, who replaced the embattled Don R. Roth last week after allegations of influence-peddling prompted Roth’s resignation, held an informal outdoor get-together with more than 70 community members Tuesday to share sandwiches and thoughts on the county.

It was an unusual mix, as suit-clad lobbyists and politicians munched side by side outside the Hall of Administration with civic activists and county employees on lunch breaks. Even a few homeless people wandered by.

The aim of the event was clear. Steiner, who brought a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, said he wanted to make people in his North County district understand that “access to a county supervisor doesn’t have to be an expensive proposition.”

The district attorney’s office has been investigating allegations that Roth, 71, traded political favors for thousands of dollars in unreported gifts from people with business before the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The allegations have included a wide range of unreported gifts--from home improvements and landscaping work to stock, airline flight upgrades, and trips. But Steiner, formerly an Orange city councilman and head of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, has keyed in on the issue of free lunches from lobbyists to symbolize the potential for government abuse.

Steiner has voiced support for a measure--being drafted for the board--that would ban virtually all gifts to elected officials, appointees, and staff members from people with government interests.

And in a short talk during Tuesday’s event, Steiner said the brown-bag lunch was intended to “make some sort of a statement” about a new attitude toward government access.

“This is the better for the pocketbook anyway--to not have the lobbyists pay for these expensive lunches,” he said.

Brown-bagging it at the lunch Tuesday were such prominent county lobbyists as Frank Michelena, Lyle Overby, Bert Ashland, Dave Ellis and Scott Hart, along with several business people who have county projects.

But Hart said references to lobbyists and the influence they wield through the lunches they host--a frequent topic among county officials in recent weeks--”don’t bother me. . . . It’s just public perception. This lunch thing is completely blown out of proportion. . . . A lunch has never swung a vote.”

Steiner passed out forms to the crowd, asking people to list problems in their communities, and he then spoke individually with those who attended. Among the most frequently mentioned issues, he said, were crime, graffiti, traffic, illegal immigration and Disneyland’s $3-billion expansion.

Tricia Harrigan, a past president and current director of the League of Women Voters of Orange County, was intrigued by the brown-bag idea and the promise it holds for citizen access.

“I’ve never been to something like this before. It’s an innovative idea--an opportunity just for casual mixing,” she said as she surveyed the crowd.

Most people have little idea of the sway that county government--with an annual budget of $3.6 billion--holds in their lives, Harrigan said. “We’ve got to get people more access to government. . . . It might be amusing if an event like this turns into a challenge for the other supervisors,” she said.