ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : 200 Attend Meeting to Back O.C. Recalls

Talk of recall efforts drew more than 200 angry residents Wednesday to a meeting of a taxpayer advocacy group, where informal votes supported ousting several elected Orange County officials, including Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez and Auditor-Controller Steve E. Lewis.

A surprise appearance from Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, also a potential target, did little to quell the discussions aimed at the remaining supervisors and even Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, all of whom drew some blame for the county’s bankruptcy from those at the meeting.

But leaders of the group, the Committees of Correspondence, warned that recall efforts are expensive and involve the gathering of thousands of signatures.

“It will take nearly a year to get a recall,” said Fullerton resident Bruce Whitaker, one of the group’s leaders. “Since some (supervisors) will be due for reelection soon, we have been acting on an assumption that working with them to get rid of corrupt people at the county was better.”

Whitaker also said recall drives can cost up to $35,000 for each district.

The Committees of Correspondence, which includes members from Ross Perot’s United We Stand, has been threatening to recall top county officials since December, when it demanded that supervisors cut their staffs and perquisites in the wake of the bankruptcy.

At that time, the group also asked that then-County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider be fired and that board meetings be held at night. Schneider was demoted in late January, and the board held its first night meeting on Tuesday.

Following these successes, members now are taking aim at other elected officials. A straw poll held in January found support for recalling all supervisors, especially Marian Bergeson, a who took office after the bankruptcy debacle, and Vasquez.

Stanton was greeted with light applause and granted several minutes to address the meeting.

“Thank you very much. This is the hottest room I’ve ever been in,” he began to a roar of laughter. “I wanted to show up to show you there are human beings on the board,” he continued.

Stanton started by charging that the media was disseminating “incorrect” information, but did not elaborate. He also tried to show how board members were misled by former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, by reading from an April, 1994, report in which Citron emphasized the relative safety of the county’s investment pool at that time.

“As a supervisor, I now know this is not true,” Stanton said.

Stanton refused to critique Lewis, however, noting that he had a policy of never criticizing fellow elected officials.