ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Pool Committee Urged to Back Tax Hike : Measure R: The group is drafting a resolution of support, according to some who attended the session.

Orange County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy, Sheriff Brad Gates and Irvine Co. Executive Vice President Gary Hunt on Wednesday urged the committee representing participants in the county’s failed investment pool to support Measure R, a proposed half-cent increase in the sales tax.

The seven-member committee of administrators from local government agencies is drafting a resolution in support of the measure and is poised to endorse it within a week, according to several people who attended Wednesday’s session.

“There was general support for the concepts,” said Patrick C. Shea, the committee’s attorney.

“I think they made a persuasive and powerful presentation to us,” added committee chairman Stan Oftelie, chief executive of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

County officials plan to use the added tax income to plug the $1.7-billion hole that sent the county into bankruptcy Dec. 6. They expect the tax measure, which will be on the June 27 ballot, to raise about $130 million a year for 10 years.

In their two-hour presentation to the pool committee Wednesday, Measure R’s biggest boosters argued that without the new revenue, the 200 agencies that had money in the county-run pool would never be fully repaid.

“I think they’re an extremely important, critical leadership group. If there’s anybody that should support Measure R, that’s the group that should do it,” Gates said of the pool committee. “They have a depth of knowledge that I wish we could get in everybody’s hands. It’s extremely important for the public to see people that . . . have all the facts in their hands and can clearly see that we absolutely need Measure R to make that plan work.”

According to a court-approved settlement agreement, pool participants received 77% of their investments back in cash last week. They are scheduled to get another chunk next month, and the rest in IOUs.

County officials plan to use the added sales tax revenue to cover about $500 million of the outstanding debt.

“I don’t see how we can’t [support Measure R] when you consider the large amount of unanswered debt the county has and our interest in getting as close to a 100-cent deal as we can muster,” said committee member Blake Anderson, assistant general manager of the Orange County Sanitation Districts. “I’ve thought it was the only logical way to step up to this problem for two or three months. No one else has come up with a viable way of filling that demand.”

But some committee members remain wary of becoming involved in the hot political fight.

Irvine City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr., for example, said he was uncomfortable endorsing the tax because his City Council has decided not to take a stand. Brady also noted that he is supposed to represent the 31 cities in the county on the committee, and that several have recently passed resolutions opposing Measure R.

“If you take a position it’s going to be perceived as political. We’ve had success so far by staying out of politics,” Brady said.

“A lot of the constituencies don’t believe the county has taken the necessary steps to restructure or sell assets or make layoffs to get to the point that even warrants Measure R support,” he added. “I’m still not totally convinced they’ve done everything they need to do. Unless they can demonstrate that and articulate that, it’s difficult to make that case publicly.”