Champagne Party Is Focus of Probe : Government: Recorder’s office employees say the assistant recorder serve alcohol to underage workers.

Employees in the troubled Orange County recorder’s office have accused Ella M. Murphy, the assistant recorder, of hosting holiday champagne parties inside the office and offering alcohol to underage workers.

County officials are investigating the allegations, Murphy said Friday.

Murphy had little comment, beyond confirming that the matter was the subject of an inquiry by the county administrative office.

“I’m aware that (county officials) are looking at this,” Murphy said. “I don’t want to jeopardize the investigation in any way by commenting about it.”

Murphy, however, did say that the title companies who do business with the recorder’s office provided various gifts for the office during the past Christmas holiday season, and she generally allowed acceptance of those gifts as long as the tokens were directed to the general office staff, rather than to administrators in the office.

The new gift ordinance prohibits top county employees from accepting gifts from those who do business with the county or are seeking government contracts.

One employee in the recorder’s office, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said he was recently interviewed by the district attorney’s office about Murphy’s activities and other issues.

Prosecutors could not be reached for comment Friday.

The allegations involving Murphy surfaced in wake of separate investigations of Recorder Lee A. Branch, who earlier this year was censured by the Board of Supervisors for misconduct in office related to harassment of employees and general office mismanagement.

Employees said they expressed their concerns about Murphy to Branch earlier this year, but the recorder said this week that he was powerless to consider any disciplinary actions against her because of the restrictions placed on him resulting from the board’s censure.

In their January rebuke of Branch, county officials recommended that the county administrative office, county counsel’s office and the personnel director agree on all disciplinary actions against employees of the recorder’s office.

“I was told that it happened,” Branch said this week of the New Year’s Eve champagne party. “I was told that the champagne came from the title companies. I reported it to the CAO’s office when the employees reported it to me. What else could I do? I am restricted from reprimanding anybody, right?”

County officials involved in the Murphy investigation were not available for comment Friday, but Mario Aguirre, a 24-year-old assistant in the recorder’s office, said he was among those who took his concerns about Murphy and last year’s party to officials in the CAO’s office.

Aguirre said he was present during the celebration, which began shortly after the office closed its doors to the public on New Year’s Eve.

When the doors were secured, Aguirre said, Murphy brought out eight to 10 bottles of champagne and began pouring drinks for office staffers and employees of local messenger services who spend much time in the recorder’s office.

Aguirre said workers told Murphy that about “five or 10” people present were not of legal drinking age, “but she just laughed it off.”

“We thought it might be a substantial violation of county policy given that she was serving minors alcohol,” Aguirre said. “I felt she was being very lighthearted about the entire situation. She seemed to be very carefree about serving people who were underage.”

Aguirre, who has worked in the office for four years, and others said a champagne party has been an annual event. During that time, he and others said, the title companies have traditionally supplied the champagne and other refreshments to the office, which is a repository for documents involving real estate and banking transactions.

“I really didn’t think this (the party) would happen given the problems that were going on in the office at the time,” he said.

Within the past few weeks some employees, who expressed their concerns about Murphy’s behavior to higher county authorities, have come to Branch asking about the status of the county inquiry.

“I’m not aware that any disciplinary action has been taken,” Branch said.

Murphy, who has served as the county’s assistant recorder for the past 15 years, had been openly critical of Branch’s management of the office.

During the investigations of her boss, she declared herself a candidate for the office but last month failed to qualify for the November runoff which will pit Branch against County Clerk Gary Granville.