ELECTIONS / VENTURA COUNTY SUPERVISOR : Taxpayer Advocate Robings Carries His Crusade Into Bid for Office

When taxpayer advocate H. Jere Robings announced his candidacy for Ventura County supervisor in November, he said he was doing so because of “unfinished business.”

For Robings, that unfinished business means reducing benefits for county administrators and employees, stopping the formation of benefit assessment districts, cutting back regulations on business and demanding audits of all county departments.

“What I want to do is bring out to the public’s attention the abuses that have taken place at the county,” said Robings, 62. “If people get elected to office and take advantage of the county budget for their own personal gain, that’s money coming out of services to the taxpayer.”

Before he was ousted last year as executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn., Robings was the county’s most outspoken critic of the large financial perks paid annually to county administrators and elected officials.

“They just took care of themselves first and let whatever else come second,” said Robings, who has been endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Assn. in the race for the 2nd Supervisorial District, covering Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and Port Hueneme.

After months of controversy, the supervisors voted in December, 1992, to accept a citizen committee’s recommendation and eliminate many of the financial benefits for board members and other elected leaders. But the panel softened the financial blow by folding some benefits into the supervisors’ base salaries--resulting in a pay increase of $14,300 to $64,543.

Robings said there are still some benefits remaining for administrators and elected officials that should be cut. For example, he said county officials get $4,500 in annual car allowance plus 28 cents per mile. “I think they should take either one, but not both,” he said.

If elected, the candidate said he would also push to eliminate the four-day workweek for county employees. Although they still put in 40 hours a week by working 10 hours a day, Robings says most are gone Fridays, making it difficult for people in need of county services.

“The four-day workweek is an abomination,” Robings said. “The government should be there to serve the people, not vice versa.”

But Robings said his first priority will be to focus on wasteful spending.

For example, Robings said he opposed county firefighters’ demand for a share of money generated from Proposition 172--a sales tax initiative approved by state voters in November to help fund public safety programs. The money is now split among the county’s law enforcement agencies and criminal justice system.

Robings, who campaigned against Proposition 172, pointed out that an audit of the county Fire Department released in October showed that it was top-heavy with managers, spends too much on overtime and is too lax with sick leave.

Robings said he also did not support creation of a county firefighter paramedic program because there is no money for it and because he is not convinced that it is needed.

To help boost the local economy, Robings said he supports a proposal to develop a commercial airport at Point Mugu. The Navy has offered to share its runway with the county to help cut operating costs.

Although Camarillo officials have voiced concerns about noise and flight patterns, Robings said he believes that those concerns can be addressed by requiring the majority of flights to arrive and depart over the ocean.

“You can’t shut down transportation,” he said.

On the issue of waste management, Robings said he supports development of a new west county landfill to keep the Simi Valley Landfill from becoming the county’s only dump.

A proposal to develop a new landfill at Weldon Canyon near Ojai has been successfully opposed by officials and residents there for years. Meanwhile, Bailard Landfill in Oxnard is scheduled to close in 1997.

Robings said the county has always had landfills in both the east and west county, and should continue to maintain two dumps. But he said he is not certain whether Weldon Canyon is the best site for a new landfill.

The candidate’s opponents in the June 7 election include Thousand Oaks City Councilman Frank Schillo, former Ventura County Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer, attorney Trudi Loh and rancher Carter Ward.

Some of his critics question why Robings, who has spent the last five years railing at county officials for some of their spending practices, would want to be part of a government panel for which he has had so much contempt.

But Robings said he believes that he can have more effect working within the system. “I’ve been trying to bring about changes in the county for five years from one side of the table,” he said. “Now it’s time to get around to the other side and bring about changes from the inside.”

Dick Clemence, executive director of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers, another tax watchdog group set up last year, described Robings as a man of action whose managerial background and understanding of county finances set him apart from the other candidates.

“He’s the most informed person I know,” Clemence said. “And he’s a man of integrity. If he thinks he’s right about something, there’s no talking him out of it.”

Others who have known Robings or worked closely with him in the past describe him in more ambiguous terms.

“He is the kind of guy you love, but can hit on the head with a 4-by-4 sometimes,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), for whom Robings once worked.

Robings’ outspoken manner has won him as many friends as it has made him enemies. The Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. fired him for being too confrontational and overzealous in his attacks of county officials over the perks issue.

“I used to think very highly of Jere,” said Lindsay Nielson, president of the association. “But I believe his political ambition has gotten the best of him. His lack of judgment overshadows his good points.”

It is a complaint that comes up repeatedly with former friends and associates of the candidate. But Robings himself insists that he never even thought of running for public office until last year.

“If I was politically ambitious, I would not have waited until I was 61 to get into politics,” he said.

But if his ambition was not political, it nevertheless has had an effect on his working relationship with others.

After retiring from Southern California Edison in 1988, Robings went to work for Gallegly as a field representative. A year later, he resigned as part of a mutual agreement.

“Jere’s style is different than mine,” Gallegly said. “I have a lower profile. I like to get as much done without making a lot of noise. It was a situation where the shoe didn’t fit.”

On occasion, Gallegly said Robings’ strong personality left constituents with the wrong impression.

“I had some people come to me who said, ‘You know, Jere thinks he’s the congressman,’ ” Gallegly said. “He never gave me that impression. But I think it would be fair to say I heard that from a lot of folks.”

Robings said he never knew of any such complaints. He said he and Gallegly did have disagreements on how his job should be conducted, but that he resigned only after receiving an offer from the taxpayers association.

After 3 1/2 years in that position, Robings was fired. Nielson said members of the taxpayer group thought that he had become too vocal about the perks issue and they feared that he might be using his position to launch a political campaign.

“My personal opinion is that he was always running from the day he had that office,” Nielson said. “He’s always had political ambitions.”

Robings disputed this contention after announcing his candidacy in November. “I’m sure some will feel that way,” he said, referring to Nielson’s remarks. “But they’re in error. The (perks issue) was something that had to be brought out in the open.”

In early 1993, Robings joined the newly formed Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers as president.

And in November, he made headlines again when he came under fire from county officials and associates of the alliance for arranging for four newspaper ads attacking a proposal to expand Ventura County Medical Center by adding a $30-million outpatient wing.

The alliance was identified as sponsor of the ads. But it was later revealed that the ads had been paid for by an Orange County consulting firm that had been working for Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.

The private hospital was running its own campaign opposing expansion of the public hospital, which it considers an emerging competitor for private patients. Community Memorial’s campaign included joint sponsorship of the $6,000 newspaper ads.

Although the hospital later withdrew its sponsorship, the ads ran anyway because the consulting firm hired by Community Memorial had mistakenly placed them too soon. As a result, the firm agreed to pick up the cost.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk publicly criticized Robings and Community Memorial for their connection with the ads, which she said was part of an underhanded, behind-the-scenes campaign to squelch the expansion project.

When the ads appeared, Robings declined to identify who paid for them, saying only that they were “people who supported the alliance.”

Fred Gage, then chairman of the taxpayer alliance, told reporters that Robings ran the ads without the backing of the group’s board of directors.

“Jere just got out of hand,” said Gage, who resigned from the alliance over the dispute.

Robings said he did not need to consult with Gage about the ads because “I was in charge of running the alliance. I did everything.” He said Gage and Gage’s son-in-law, Dr. Mike Bailey, resigned because Bailey worked for the county hospital.

Gage said he resigned because Robings was willing to take a large sum of money from a special-interest group to campaign against the county project, a move that Gage believed compromised the reputation of the taxpayer organization.

“The guy is flying into the sun,” said Gage, who put up several thousand dollars of his own money to form the alliance. “He’s off balance and uncontrollable.”

Robings makes no apologies for his actions. He said the county has yet to produce any financial analysis of the hospital project that would convince him that it should go forward. County supervisors have approved the expansion in concept, but will not consider a funding package until 1995.

“If those ads hadn’t run,” Robings said, “I’m convinced that the hospital expansion would have been approved and zipped through, and the public never would have known what was happening.”

Profile of H. Jere Robings

Jere Robings is one of five candidates competing for the seat being vacated by Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk. Her 2nd District seat includes Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and Port Hueneme.

Born: Jan. 1, 1932.

Occupation: Retired area manager for Southern California Edison.

Education: Bachelor of science degree in police science from Cal State Los Angeles.

Background: A resident of Ventura County for 31 years; retired from Southern California Edison in 1988 after a 38-year career in which he began as a meter reader and worked his way up to area manager; field representative for Rep. Elton Gallegly for one year; director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. for 3 1/2 years; served as chairman of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers before announcing his candidacy.

Quote: “I’ve been trying to bring about changes in the county for five years from one side of the table. Now it’s time to get around to the other side and bring about changes from the inside.”