O.C. Leadership Bound to Have New Look in '98

By SHELBY GRAD and JEAN O. PASCO

Oct. 26, 1997 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

SANTA ANA —

Orange County government will undergo a sweeping leadership shake-up with next year’s election--a changing of the guard that promises to bring fresh faces and conflicting ideas to a bureaucracy still recovering from its 1994 bankruptcy.

Voters are expected to face tough choices and hotly contested races for many countywide elected offices that usually produce sleepy campaigns and only token challenges to the incumbents.

Next June, the county will elect its first new sheriff in 24 years. The race for district attorney will feature no incumbent for the first time since the late 1960s. Incumbents are also expected to step aside in several other offices, including auditor-controller and clerk-recorder.

“This is a tremendous change . . . for voters to go to the polls and virtually look at a new slate of countywide officeholders,” said Mark Baldassare, a UC Irvine urban planning professor and longtime Orange County pollster.

“Traditionally, people held these offices for many years and the elections were often dull and predictable. It looks like this year is going to be much more exciting.”

Many officials and pundits see the impending turnover as a continuation of the political upheaval that started with the county bankruptcy, which has already altered the makeup of the Board of Supervisors. This year’s board contains three freshmen for the first time in three decades.

Board Chairman William G. Steiner, a five-year veteran who is the longest-serving supervisor, won’t seek reelection next year. Because he is a swing vote on a variety of issues from welfare reform to the conversion of the El Toro Marine base to civilian use, the race for his District 4 seat is also being watched closely.

County elections are officially nonpartisan. But next year’s balloting is expected to bring an unprecedented level of partisan activity to even the lowest-profile offices.

Conservative Republican activists from the Lincoln Club of Orange County acknowledge that for the first time they are recruiting candidates for most countywide offices, including assessor, clerk-recorder and auditor-controller.

“As the county has urbanized and become more political, these jobs have become more political. And that affects who wants them and who gets them,” said Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Business Council.

“The concern is that they just don’t become political offices, and that the integrity of the offices are protected.”

The dramatic changes underway in county government are perhaps best reflected in the race for sheriff, where six-term incumbent Brad Gates unexpectedly announced last week that he would retire when his term expires at the end of 1998.

Gates endorsed one of his top aides, Assistant Sheriff Doug Storm. But another candidate, Marshal Michael S. Carona, has won the backing of many Republican heavyweights, including former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle and state Senate GOP leader Rob Hurtt, who broke ranks with Gates over the sheriff’s support for a sales tax increase to help with bankruptcy recovery. Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters is also expected to join the race.

Gates usually faced token opposition and ran unopposed in 1994. With a contentious race heating up this year, voters will hear far more debate about the major issues facing the Sheriff’s Department, such as jail privatization and organizational changes.

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi also ran unopposed in 1994, but he has set his sights on the post of state attorney general. This has resulted in another battle for succession that includes Superior Court Judge Anthony Rackauckas, as well as assistant district attorneys Wallace Wade and Brent Romney.

In addition to Capizzi and Gates, Auditor-Controller Steve E. Lewis is expected to retire after 12 years in office. Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach said he will decide within weeks whether to forgo reelection and run for state treasurer.

Clerk-Recorder Gary L. Granville said he too is looking at other options. “If I finish accomplishing the things I set out to do as clerk-recorder, I will probably either retire or run for another office,” he said.

Granville said he is considering a challenge to Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs, setting up another unusual contest. The two officials have disagreed on a proposal by Granville to merge the clerk-recorder and assessor’s offices in an effort to save money.

Granville, who has served as clerk since 1986, described the departure of veteran elected officials as a “great loss to the county.” Voters, he said, will have to choose their successors carefully.

“It’s hard to get emotional about who is clerk-recorder, but it’s very important,” Granville added. “Voters are going to have to pay close attention.”

The county’s embarrassing bankruptcy has already focused more scrutiny on county leaders who before received little public attention. Former treasurer Robert L. Citron, whose risky investments caused the county’s 1994 financial collapse, resigned soon after the bankruptcy. Lewis was criticized for not being more aggressive in his oversight of Citron and now faces a civil misconduct charge for failing to prevent the bankruptcy.

“The bankruptcy caused people to look long and hard at the those holding office and [focus on] the need for reform and change,” Baldassare said. “This is showing up in the amount of turnover we are seeing in such a short amount of time.”

An October 1996 Times Orange County poll found continued dissatisfaction with county leadership. For example, more than half of respondents said that supervisors were doing a “poor” job managing the county budget.

Irvine attorney Bill Mitchell, the former executive director of Orange County Common Cause, said the leadership shake-up could prove beneficial for the county.

“I think it could be healthy to have new personalities that come in with new energy and vitality,” he said, pointing to Moorlach and Supervisor Todd Spitzer as examples.

When you bring people in from the outside, “new ideas form,” Mitchell added. “Before the bankruptcy, you had a small group of people with a tightly controlled empire.”

It remains unclear how the shake-up will affect Jan Mittermeier, the county’s appointed chief executive officer. The Board of Supervisors gave Mittermeier unprecedented authority to run the county bureaucracy. Newly elected officials might demand more autonomy over their operations.

One thing is clear: The 1998 elections will be more partisan than ever.

Republican activists said they’re in the process of recruiting candidates to run for countywide offices such as auditor-controller, assessor and clerk-recorder in 1998. It’s frosting that many of the seats won’t carry the added challenge of an incumbent.

“We need to look at people with good management skills, who can run complex departments and deal with entrenched bureaucrats,” said Doy Henley, chairman of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a Republican fund-raising organization. “We’re looking at candidates whose value systems and principles we can embrace.”

Asked if that would include Democrats, Henley said, “There are good Democrats, but the truth is, even in these so-called nonpartisan races, I would find it hard to embrace someone without the conservative approach.”

He declined to name potential candidates but predicted that candidates will be found for every countywide office, including those with incumbents.

Wylie A. Aitken, chairman of the Democratic Foundation of Orange County, the Lincoln Club’s counterpart, said his group hasn’t promoted partisan candidates in an organized fashion and won’t, unless forced to do so for “political self-defense.”

“If it makes sense to help someone, we help them,” Aitken said. “I’ve always had concerns about injecting partisan politics into nonpartisan offices, particularly countywide seats. Many of these positions are professional positions, and that has nothing to do with party. We want new ideas and people who are independent.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Race Is On

As many as half a dozen countywide elected officials could leave office next year, triggering the most significant turnover in the county’s elected leadership in decades. The open seats will bring fresh faces and possibly conflicting ideas to a government still recovering from fallout over its disastrous 1994 bankruptcy.

Auditor-Controller

* Steve E. Lewis

* Elected: 1986

* Status: Expected to retire

* No announced candidates

Clerk-Recorder

* Gary L. Granville

* Elected: 1986

* Status: Considering whether to retire, run for reelection or run for county assessor

* No announced candidates

District Attorney

* Michael R. Capizzi