Looking Out for County Is His Job : Lobbyist: Roger Honberger wins praise from local officials. But two area congressmen say they seldom see him.

Roger Honberger is the closest thing Ventura County has to a full-time lobbyist in the nation’s capital.

While San Diego County is his largest, most time-consuming client, Honberger manages to look out for the interests of Ventura County.

Over the past eight years, Honberger has tracked new federal rules and legislation for county officials, tipping them to developments that would affect the county. He has knocked on doors in the capital and federal agencies to make a personal pitch for Ventura County, when a long-distance phone call will not do.

And, perhaps most important, when a delegation of county officials ventures to the nation’s capital, he routinely meets them at the airport and spends days shepherding them to prearranged meetings from Capitol Hill to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Honberger said it’s difficult to pinpoint his specific accomplishments, saying most success cases are accomplished by team effort. “There’s seldom a time where somebody alone is a hero,” Honberger said. “Most of the things we do are committee efforts.”

Yet Ventura County officials are thrilled with him, saying he is worth far more than the $30,000 a year retainer as the county’s part-time lobbyist.

“I was real impressed with him because he knows everybody,” said Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, who made her first official trip to Washington in February. Honberger met her at the airport and escorted about town during her stay. “He gets you in to see people who really have some effect.”

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), however, questions the county’s need for a lobbyist, and the value of Honberger’s service. Gallegly and his staff say that Honberger rarely visits their office, even though Gallegly now represents most of Ventura County.

“I’ve had very, very little contact with him,” Gallegly said, emphasizing that he is the county’s best representative in the nation’s capital.

“I am the county and the city spokesperson in Washington for the 23rd District,” he said, referring to the congressional district that encompasses all of Ventura County except for most of Thousand Oaks. “My door is always open, my telephone is always available. All they (the supervisors) have to do is pick up the phone and call.”

But county officials said they prefer having their own contact in Washington hired specifically to do their bidding.

Del Tompkins, the county’s principal legislative analyst, said she was puzzled by Gallegly’s insistence that he could serve all the county’s needs. “I question what level of service he wants to provide,” she said. “Do he and his staff really want to do all the nitty-gritty things we have Roger for?

“We could give him a whole lot of stuff to do, but I’m sure that the answer coming back would be that they don’t have the staff,” Tompkins said.

In past months, for example, Honberger has spent a considerable amount of time arranging federal money to build flood controls in Camarillo near the site for a long-planned Cal State University campus. The project is needed to prevent flooding of the road that would provide the main access to campus.

Working with Penny Bohannon, a Ventura County employee and a Sacramento lobbyist, the two orchestrated a campaign to get funds for a Camarillo flood control project slipped into President Clinton’s proposed economic stimulus package.

While Bohannon persuaded state lawmakers to place strategic calls to Washington, Honberger pressed the county’s case at the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Soil Conservation Service and testified at a congressional hearing.

When the conservation service assembled its list of projects for funding, flood controls along Camarillo’s Beardsley Wash was at the top of the list.

Unfortunately, the President’s stimulus package failed, and Honberger is searching for another way to include the funding in next year’s budget.

Honberger acknowledges he has never worked so closely with Gallegly as he did with his old fraternity brother, former Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), who was defeated in last year’s primary election.

“I run quite a bit of written correspondence through Gallegly’s office,” he said. “But mainly, whether or not I work with a given legislator is a matter of committee assignments, their influence and their seniority.”

If Gallegly has not been at the top of Honberger’s list, neither has Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills). Since Beilenson began representing most of Thousand Oaks last fall, Honberger has stopped by the office only once, to introduce himself, according to office staff.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, congressional aides are the least enthusiastic of Honberger’s professional acquaintances.

“Comparatively speaking, he’s fine,” said a former aide to then-Sen. Pete Wilson. “He’s not a high-powered lobbyist, but he gets the job done.”

Honberger, who has been working for San Diego for 23 years and picked up Riverside a decade ago as a client and Ventura eight years ago, has some recognition among his peers.

“I haven’t heard a bad thing about him in 17 years, and that’s unusual,” said Jim Seeley, the lobbyist for Los Angeles. “He’s a cut above.”

Other lobbyists cite Honberger’s honesty, his no-nonsense attitude, and his effectiveness for his clients.

“When you are dealing with the changing political whims of local government,” John O’Donnell, Port Hueneme’s lobbyist, said, “two decades (with the same client) is testimony to good work.”

Lobbying for local governments has become a growth industry in Washington. As federal officials devise complicated regulations and attach more restrictions on money doled out to local governments, a growing number of cities, counties and other public entities have recognized the need for a representative in Washington.

More than a half a dozen lobbyists represent interests in Ventura County. The city of Port Hueneme has its own lobbyist, Del Smith. O’Donnell represents the commercial Port of Hueneme and Ed Hamberger lobbies for the Ventura Port District. The county’s avocado growers are represented by a lobbyist, as are local citrus ranchers.

Honberger and his staff work out of the National Assn. of Counties Building, a few blocks from the Capitol. Honberger’s own office is decorated in the browns and tans of the Old West, and peppered with the cowboy and American Indian memorabilia which he collects. On his desk is displayed the motto of San Diego County: “The noblest motive is the public good.”

“Now that sounds rah-rah, but I sincerely believe that,” he said.

On a daily basis, Honberger’s staff combs the Federal Register for new regulations or other matters relevant to Ventura County.

When the county’s paperwork runs into bureaucratic red tape--as did a recent application for a community block grant--he or his staff attempt to intervene and smooth out any wrinkles.

Richard Wittenberg, the county’s chief administrative officer, said Honberger seems so plugged in that he often alerts county officials to issues or bills of interest rather than the other way around. He said these tips make Honberger extremely valuable to the county.

County officials also praise Honberger for dogging federal money for various local projects.

“He’s been very helpful on issues I’ve been involved with,” said Supervisor John K. Flynn. “He helped us get a loan from the Bureau of Reclamation for our water conservation district.”

As lawmakers and their staffs come and go, county officials say they like the stability of having their own lobbyist who continues to build his contacts for the benefits of his clients.

“I thought so highly of Roger and thought we were so lucky,” said former county Supervisor Madge Schaefer, reflecting on her years in public office. “He is a gem.”