EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : County’s Top Bookkeeper Expects Tough Fight in June Election : Politics: Two possible challengers may oppose Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon, who would rather balance books than court votes.

Thomas O. Mahon is an unlikely politician.

A quiet man with a shy smile, Mahon would much rather spend his time combing through Ventura County’s complicated accounting books than schmoozing with constituents.

But he is also a man who wants to keep his job as the county’s head bookkeeper. And he knows he will have to fight for it.

For the first time in nearly 20 years, the election for the county auditor-controller post, which pays nearly $115,000 annually in salary and benefits, is expected to be hotly contested.

Mahon, who was appointed by the Board of Supervisors last January to complete Norman R. Hawkes’ term after Hawkes retired, faces possible challenges from Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton and Ventura accountant Scott A. Weiss in the June election.

Stratton--a shrewd politician who has held office on Simi Valley’s City Council for 14 years--already has pledged to spend $100,000 on the campaign, an unheard-of amount in most county races.

Mahon, who labored for 17 years as the county’s assistant auditor-controller, says he will try to match that amount in the June election. And at an age when most county officials have long since retired, Mahon, 70, said he is hoping his accounting experience will help carry him through the election.

But one county supervisor said Mahon could be vulnerable.

“He still has to put his own personal stamp on the position,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said. “He is kind of second in command, still trying to make that transition to the top job.”

Nevertheless, the core of his supporters includes an array of the county’s top officials, who say the accountant is one of the main reasons the government has stayed solvent through the worst financial downturn in decades.

“He is independent-minded but at the same time very concerned about the taxpayer,” Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg said.

Stratton, however, says the auditor-controller is not free-thinking enough. He said he believes Mahon, as the county’s top financial watchdog, should be taking a tougher look at internal operations and proposing drastic changes.

“He has been an accountant for the county but not an independent accountant,” Stratton said. “Yeah, you can count the money, but you don’t think independently and you don’t rock the boat. Mahon thinks that’s his job and frankly, that’s the problem.”

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Mahon agrees that his first priority is to make sure the county is fiscally sound. But he says he is not afraid of a fight and will take on the county’s department heads if it means making operations more efficient.

Last year, Mahon conducted a variety of audits of county departments plagued with financial problems. His most notable report was on the county’s Fire Department.

Mahon found that the Fire Department was top-heavy with managers, spends too much on overtime and is lax with sick leave.

“If anything is getting out of line, we make sure that we are taking steps to correct the situation,” Mahon said. “The idea is to be a change agent. It’s not to go in there and yell at someone who is doing something wrong, but to go in there and improve the department.”

Fire officials complained that Mahon did not have a clear understanding of the department’s emergency functions. They said he was trying to run the Fire Department as if it were a regular county office. But the supervisors praised Mahon’s efforts.

After Mahon’s audit of the Fire Department, the Board of Supervisors agreed to form a citizens committee to recommend ways to fix the problems.

“He knows what he is talking about,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said. “He gets things done accurately. . . . The biggest thing about Tom is he does the job he has to do and he doesn’t have to be a flashy kind of person.”

Yet he could be showy--if he wanted to, Kildee said.

“Just look at his track record,” she said.

Mahon, who has an MBA from New York University, joined the county in 1970 as an accountant but was quickly promoted to the assistant auditor-controller’s position under Hawkes.

“Within a week or two it was very obvious that he had a lot more talent than just a bookkeeper,” said Hawkes, who retired in December, 1992, halfway through his fourth term. “Tom had an insight into financial matters.”

Mahon said he was simply glad to find a job he liked.

Before taking a position with the county, Mahon had been running a Chevrolet dealership in Ojai, where he and his wife, Mary, were rearing their 11 children.

Lured by the warm climate, Mahon--who grew up in Illinois--had moved his family to Ojai in 1957 after working for two years as a manager in Mexico City for Mobil Oil Co.

“I just wasn’t suited to selling automobiles,” Mahon said. “Selling is an art, a technique. I just wasn’t good at it.”

But accounting came easily.

“It was fun,” said Mahon, who received his undergraduate education at West Point before serving in World War II. “There’s a great sense of accomplishment. You enjoy coming to work.”

From the start, Mahon would often stay late at work to figure out ways the county could make the most of its money.

“I’ve never known if he would be home for dinner,” said Mahon’s wife, to whom he has been married for 47 years. “Years and years ago I learned we could be sitting here waiting until 10 p.m. “Now I just leave a plate for him in the refrigerator. He just microwaves it when he gets home.”

Noticing Mahon’s determination to work, Hawkes expanded Mahon’s authority as assistant auditor-controller. Mahon was put in charge of overseeing the staff and giving financial updates to the Board of Supervisors.

“I was really a politician,” Hawkes said. “I liked to get out and talk to people. Tom was the one that ran the office.”

Administrators say Mahon is largely the reason the county has maintained high marks with national credit-rating companies, despite state funding cuts and a downturn in the economy.

“I got a lot of accolades over the years,” Hawkes said. “I was on state and national boards, where a lot of things we did in Ventura County were used as models. But Tom was the one who really made that office.”

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Although Mahon always remained loyal to Hawkes, he hoped someday to have his job. When Hawkes decided to step down as auditor-controller in 1992, Mahon was anxious to take the position.

“It’s everyone’s goal to go to the top of their profession,” Mahon said.

The board voted unanimously to allow Mahon to complete Hawkes’ term, which ends in December.

Unlike Hawkes, Mahon has not embraced the political aspects of the office--which some officials say could prove to be a detriment to his campaign.

Mahon said he would much rather make sure the office is running smoothly than get embroiled in heated debates and shaking up the establishment, as Stratton suggests.

He shrugs and adds: “Maybe this is the way you do it in politics, but it’s not the way I run an office. Maybe I’m too much of an auditor and not enough of a politician.”