Steiner Plans to Step Down at End of Term : Bankruptcy: O.C. supervisor, who had resisted calls to resign, cites ‘pressure’ as he says he will not seek reelection in 1998.

William G. Steiner, the last Orange County supervisor to succumb to political fallout of the county’s financial disaster, said Saturday that he will not seek reelection and is shopping around for a new career.

For almost nine months, Steiner, 58, had resisted calls that he either resign, as former Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez did in August, or announce that he would not seek reelection, as Supervisor Roger R. Stanton did seven weeks ago.

But amid persistent reports that Orange County leaders may soon be hit with civil complaints by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and civil or criminal charges by the county grand jury, Steiner said he seriously considered quitting outright this week. But he decided he has an obligation to voters to serve out his term, which runs through December, 1998.

Explaining his decision to step down, Steiner said it had reached the point where “I just hate coming to work . . . the pressure.”

“I love public service,” he said. “But the bankruptcy has just cast a cloud over everything. I came to the board with the best of intentions. This has been a huge disappointment, obviously.”

In the wake of the county’s bankruptcy declaration Dec. 6, the three supervisors who remained on the board became the targets of relentless criticism for their failure to detect problems in the county-run investment pool that lost nearly $1.7 billion last year. Two other supervisors had the good fortune to be leaving office only three weeks after the scandal broke, and escaped most of the public wrath that was directed at the three who remained.

With the departure of Vasquez in mid-September and Stanton’s announcement later that month that he too would step down when his term expires in 1996, Steiner was left as the sole supervisor still resisting public calls for political reprisals.

His decision completes the kind of clean sweep that many civic leaders said was needed to put the bankruptcy behind the county--albeit only symbolically.

“I think this is an important part of the overall healing process that we need to go through in this county,” Garden Grove City Councilman Mark Leyes said. “He was the last piece of the puzzle, the last sitting supervisor.”

Steiner’s decision could leave Orange County with as many as five new supervisors in 1999: Supervisor Don Saltarelli, who is serving out the remainder of Vasquez’s term, is not running for reelection. Of the board newcomers, Marian Bergeson has long said she doesn’t intend to seek a second term, and Jim Silva will be up for reelection.

The housecleaning has also extended beyond the board. Former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, whose risky investment strategy caused the investment losses and plunged the county into bankruptcy, has been replaced along with many others who were seen as playing a role in the largest municipal bankruptcy in U. S. history.

Mark Baldassare, a professor of urban planning at UC Irvine, said the turmoil is going to usher in “a period of political instability in terms of county leadership.”

But William J. Popejoy, the county’s former chief executive officer, said Steiner’s decision ultimately will benefit the public.

“It’s in the best interest of the county to regain credibility, and that’s [what will come] with a turnover of the people who were there when the county went bankrupt,” said Popejoy, a harsh critic of the board in the past. “But I feel sad that Bill was one of the people caught up in this thing. He’s a fine person.”

As criticism of the board intensified in recent months, Steiner had repeatedly said he would fight off any attempts to run him out of office. He defended himself in part by saying he had been on the board less than two years when disaster struck, and saying he had raised questions privately about Citron’s investment practices.

But his opponents say that excuse is a poor one, and intend to revive a once-failed recall effort to seek Steiner’s ouster. They point out that Steiner never followed through on his plans to send a letter demanding details about the county’s financial dealings, in part because of pressure from Citron’s office and others. Steiner admits he erred.

“Too much happened on Steiner’s watch for him to turn around and say that he was a newcomer to the board and didn’t know what was happening,” said Fullerton activist W. Snow Hume, whose first effort to recall Steiner foundered. “If he says he didn’t have enough information as a supervisor, then he was derelict in his duty and he should be gone.”

Steiner also gained enemies when he publicly embraced Measure R--a proposed sales tax increase that was the linchpin of the county’s first plan to emerge from bankruptcy--after earlier stating that he would not support a tax hike. The measure was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls June 27, and county officials are now planning to resolve the bankruptcy by reallocating existing tax revenue, instead of imposing new taxes.

Steiner continued to say Saturday that he will never bow to a recall effort. While he refused to rule out the possibility that he may leave office earlier than 1998, Steiner said it is his intention to complete his four-year term.

But he is already putting out feelers for the future, reaching out to contacts in Sacramento, Washington and even in Orange County.

“There is life after this,” said Steiner, former executive director of the Orangewood Children’s Home for abused and neglected children. “I’m going to go back to what I love doing--and that’s working with children.”

Some were caught off guard by Steiner’s decision, while others wondered whether Steiner was belatedly acknowledging what others have said for many months--that the bankruptcy doomed the political careers of the supervisors who presided over the fiasco.

“I was very surprised to hear it,” said Bruce Whitaker, spokesman for the Committees of Correspondence, an anti-tax group that often takes the board to task. “He showed all the signs of trying to weather this thing.”

“I think this was inevitable,” said prominent developer and Republican activist Buck Johns. “The size and scope of the debacle is a lot of baggage to carry into an election.”

Many, however, say the loss will be the county’s.

“It’s really a shame,” said Reed Royalty of the Orange County Taxpayers Assn., who like many others says Steiner is unfairly being held accountable for something he could hardly have prevented. “He has a lot of personal integrity and intelligence and an earnest desire to do good for his constituents.

Supervisor Stanton said he sympathizes with his colleague.

“There are a lot mean-spirited people with an ax to grind, and I think Bill is a victim of that,” Stanton said.

While the decision relieves some of the stress and anxiety, Steiner is still facing a probe into the bankruptcy by the Orange County district attorney’s office and the Orange County Grand Jury. Steiner said he recently hired a private defense attorney to represent him in case the worst comes to pass.

While some strategists may see Steiner’s announcement as an attempt to defuse the investigation, prosecutors and others say that is unlikely.

“I don’t think this is going to go away merely because he’s not running for reelection,” said one official close to the probe.

Steiner said he just wants to be treated fairly by the authorities.

“I need to rely on the sense of fairness of this grand jury,” he said. “I didn’t do anything wrong, I was a newer board member when Citron’s situation began to unravel. I’m hoping that the district attorney’s office and the grand jury maintain some perspective on this and they’re not just out for blood.”

Steiner said he had no ulterior motives, just a desire to make a decision about the future and make way for individuals who want to position themselves for the job.

“I think I’ve done a lot of good for the county,” Steiner said. “Now, it’s time for something else.”

* BROKEN DREAMS: Steiner’s plans to push children’s issues were dashed. A46