ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Supervisors Fix a Bad Decision

The Orange County Board of Supervisors was right to postpone an audit of the district attorney’s office until the county grand jury completes its own inquiry.

When the supervisors approved a separate inquiry late last year, it smacked of vengeance on Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. Supervisor Roger R. Stanton was especially critical of Capizzi, who had brought charges of willful misconduct against him and Supervisor William G. Steiner for allegedly failing to prevent the county’s bankruptcy in 1994. A state appeals court threw out the charges against Stanton and Steiner and two weeks later the supervisors voted for an audit.

Now Stanton has left the board and tempers may have cooled somewhat. Although the supervisors will still press ahead with an audit, it will be conducted by the county’s Internal Audits Department, rather than an outside company. That was smart, because county officials said an in-house examination will save the county about $45,000. Cutting costs where possible is always warranted. That is especially true so soon after the bankruptcy.

Steiner, for one, wants to know how much Capizzi spent in his unsuccessful effort to prosecute him and Stanton. That’s a valid question. Capizzi is an elected official and his department should be subject to the same scrutiny given other government agencies.

Capizzi has also been criticized by many heavyweights in the county’s Republican establishment for his prosecution of Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) on charges of campaign fraud.

But attempts to have the case taken away from Capizzi and given to the state attorney general’s office have failed so far. A deputy attorney general rejected calls by Baugh and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) for a probe into the possibility that Capizzi’s office acted improperly.

A main task of the county grand jury is scrutinizing the operation of county agencies. Its $86,000 examination of Capizzi’s office, conducted by the Price Waterhouse accounting firm, is due to be finished in June. When the Internal Audits Department launches its own inquiry into the district attorney’s operations, it should take care to not duplicate the grand jury’s examination.