Dale Poe Avoids Ban by Filing Lobbying Report : Ethics: Developer still faces $2,000 fine for missing original deadline. County officials concede that paperwork was late due to death of company’s founder.

A major development firm avoided a ban on doing business with Los Angeles County on Monday by finally filing a quarterly report on its lobbying activity.

The Dale Poe Development Corp. of Agoura listed no activity in the report, filed two months late and one day before the county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider a $2,000 fine against the firm.

The proposed sanction would be the first under the new, tough ordinance on lobbying, according to Larry Monteilh, executive officer of the Board of Supervisors.

County officials do not suspect any wrongdoing and attribute the delay to a shake-up in the firm following the death of founder Dale Poe last May. County officials say they are proceeding with action against the firm--which last November also paid a $250 fine for registering late as a lobbyist employer--because the ordinance does not provide for an indefinite deadline extension.

“I prefer not to do this,” said Monteilh. “But these are the rules.”

Jeff Stevenson, vice president of Dale Poe, acknowledged that the company has been tardy in complying with the county ordinance, but said the past several months have been an especially trying time.

“Our company is going through some changes now,” said Stevenson. “We’re in a transition period.”

Last May, company owners Poe, 61, and his wife, Margaret, 54, died in an auto accident. Since then, the company has been reorganizing and some paperwork has fallen through the cracks, said Stevenson. He said that the county paperwork is confusing and difficult.

The Dale Poe firm, best known for building Stevenson Ranch, a master-planned housing community in Santa Clarita, has contributed along with its principals more than $80,000 in campaign funds to county supervisors.

And the company has in the past enlisted the aid of some of the more successful and visible lobbyists that work the Hall of Administration.

Robert Simms, a registered lobbyist who has represented Poe to the county, said: “It’s probably just an oversight because of a death in the family.”

Kathleen Crow, another registered lobbyist who has done work for Poe, said the proposed county sanctions seem unduly severe.

“This is so minor, I can’t believe it,” said Crow. “I was astonished” to hear of the county’s potential sanction against the firm.

Both Simms and Crow are properly registered with the county, and neither are involved in the action against Dale Poe.

Since the county’s lobbyist registration ordinance was strengthened last April, 219 lobbyists and companies employing lobbyists have registered, according to John McKibben, deputy executive officer to the Board of Supervisors. The law was an attempt by the county to get tough on ethics violations after its previous lobbyist registration ordinance was roundly ignored because it carried no serious sanctions. Just 13 lobbyists and employers filed under the previous law.

The tougher ordinance requires lobbyists and the companies that hire them to submit quarterly reports on all money spent on lobbying activities, including campaign contributions. Companies and special interest groups that spend more than $5,000 on public relations campaigns to influence county officials also have to report their expenses, even if they do not hire a lobbyist. The law also prohibits lobbyists from giving a gift with a value of more than $50 to public officials.

Violators face fines of up $2,000, and late registration fines of $250. Firms that fail to comply with the law could have county contracts canceled or denied, and may be cut off from any county dealings, such as building permits, until the company complies with the law.