Anti-Project Lobbyist Suggests Donations to Silva

An Irvine lobbyist fighting a housing project up for approval by county supervisors next Tuesday helped organize a big fund-raiser for one board member that same day and asked invitees to shower the supervisor with $200 checks and notes urging him to vote against the Trabuco Canyon development.

“One of the most important things you could do between now and Oct. 22 [when the crucial zoning vote takes place] is to evidence your support for Supervisor Jim Silva,” lobbyist VerLyn N. Jensen wrote to some opposed to the project and others on Oct. 9.

“If you could send in a contribution [to Silva’s campaign committee] of at least $200, it would be very helpful,” Jensen continued. “Of course, you may also want to put a note in the envelope urging Supervisor Silva to oppose ‘Saddleback Meadows.’ ”

The disclosure of Jensen’s attempt to sway Silva’s vote with campaign donations is the latest twist in the highly charged campaign to block the supervisors’ approval of Saddleback Meadows, a development that would put 318 pricey houses on 232 hillside acres sandwiched between the St. Michael’s Abbey and the Ramakrishna Monastery in Trabuco Canyon.

Earlier this week, questions were raised about the relationship between Supervisor William G. Steiner and Newport Beach lobbyist Franklyn R. Elfend, who is promoting the project for the developer.

A complaint was made to the Orange County district attorney that Steiner, who supports the project, may have improperly accepted $5,500 from a Santa Ana restaurant in which Elfend has an interest.

But on Thursday, Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maurice L. Evans said his office plans to drop its preliminary inquiry into the matter.

“Our review of this matter does not indicate a need to open a formal investigation,” Evans said. “The matter is closed.”

On Thursday, after a reporter obtained a copy of Jensen’s letter, Silva sought to distance himself from the appeal for campaign funds, but he did not disavow it.

Asked if he thought that Jensen was trying to pressure him into voting against the Saddleback Meadows project--or abstain from voting altogether, which could derail it for a year--Silva said, “That sure looks like what he’s doing.”

Jensen, however, a longtime Orange County lobbyist who has been retained by the abbey to fight the project, called the timing of the Silva fund-raiser and the board’s vote merely a coincidence. He said the Silva appreciation dinner was planned two months before the county set a date to consider the housing development.

“It is an ironic coincidence, but it certainly wasn’t planned on my part,” Jensen said. “But as far as backing Silva, that’s what we do.”

In another irony, two years ago, Jensen backed Silva’s opponent, Democrat Linda Moulton-Patterson, in the race for the board seat vacated by former Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder.

Earlier this year, Silva received $5,000 in illegal campaign contributions from officials of the proposed housing project’s developer, Aradi Ltd. of Los Angeles. Aradi, an international firm with headquarters in Washington and Paris, later paid a $14,000 fine. Silva did not have to return the illegal campaign contributions but is said to have donated the unspent portion to charities.

Jensen defended his fund-raising efforts for Silva. While he noted that the developers “laundered their contribution and got fined,” he insisted “I’m raising money for Jim Silva legally.”

Silva said he never authorized Jensen to mail the fund-raising letter and was not even aware of it until it was shown to him on Wednesday.

The supervisor acknowledged, however, that Jensen had promised to raise campaign funds for him and that he knew Jensen was a member of the host committee for next Tuesday’s $250-per-person dinner at Pacifica Hospital in Huntington Beach.

“Yes, he’s on my host committee,” Silva said, “but [the letter is] not my style. It’s not my way to campaign. He said he would help me raise money, but he didn’t say he would write a letter like that.”

Jensen said he has tried to persuade planning officials and supervisors to scale back the Saddleback Meadows project so that the rural setting and contemplative environment for priests and monks in Trabuco Canyon is not destroyed by a dense urban housing tract.

Jensen acknowledged that his donation appeal for Silva caused a stir among some county officials when a resident of the Trabuco Canyon area sent the letter to another supervisor with a note asking: “Am I naive, or is this a shakedown? There is an overwhelming implication here.”

Jensen said he knows who wrote the note and is sorry if he offended anyone. But he added that some of the area’s residents simply don’t understand the political system in Orange County.

“I was just encouraging those people out there to get involved in the system. This is the way it works. These people out there are so naive that a couple have thought it was bribery,” he said.

Although Silva said he disapproved of the letter, he also said that he had not talked to Jensen about it as of Thursday afternoon.

“I imagine I’ll be talking to him about it,” said Silva, who hung up the phone abruptly after announcing: “That’s all I’m going to say.”

While Jensen said that such letters are commonplace in Orange County, Ruth Holton, executive director of California Common Cause, said that it is the type of thing that gives politics a bad odor.

Holton said the letter was “certainly legal” but, she added, “also loathsome and unethical.”

She continued: “It creates a real perception of a conflict and suggests that your voice will be heard if accompanied by dollars. That’s what’s wrong with the whole campaign system and why we’re trying to change it.”

Holton said Jensen “doesn’t understand that the public has legitimate concerns about this perception that [an elected official’s] vote is up for sale.”

Supervisor Don Saltarelli, whose district encompasses the project, said that Jensen and the opponents have “gotten very, very sensationalistic.”

“The anti-project side is paying Jensen a lot of money to stir up trouble,” Saltarelli said. “They are trying their best to influence supervisors, and that’s wrong.”