Moreno Came In as an Outsider, but the Status Took a Toll on Effect

He entered city politics six years ago, the youngest councilman in Santa Ana’s history. Then only 25, Ted R. Moreno was the self-proclaimed outsider fighting entrenched interests.

A man of the people.

But over time, his combative personality and deep philosophical differences with the council majority pushed him ever further to the margin of city politics.

By the time he was indicted Tuesday on extortion, money-laundering and conspiracy charges, Moreno already had lost much of his political clout, though some residents continue to applaud his seemingly quixotic battle against the status quo.

The ambitious former Santa Ana High School class president can point to few concrete successes, largely because he is often on the losing end of a 5-2 vote.

A long-running feud between him and several council members has become bitter and personal, with barbs and insults routinely breaking into city business.

His foes in City Hall have made no secret of wanting him gone. In 1996, for example, they openly backed a candidate to run against him.

The council majority has frequently voted down projects merely because Moreno supported them, said several residents with projects pending before the council.

His opponents have at times questioned Moreno’s behavior. In February, he was accused of slamming rival Councilman Brett Franklin into a wall. The same month, City Clerk Janice C. Guy asked for a police escort at council meetings to protect herself and her staff from Moreno after she had an altercation with the councilman.

Moreno’s sole ally on the council, Tony Espinoza, a high school friend elected with Moreno’s money and clout who was indicted Tuesday on one conspiracy count, is stepping down after only one term. Espinoza said he was fed up with the bickering.

And yet, despite the years of acrimony and stalemates, Moreno--a real estate agent who is running for mayor against longtime rival Miguel A. Pulido Jr.--still appears to enjoy some of the support that twice elected him to office.

“He’s the only one bringing up some of the issues people care about,” said Sam Romero, a downtown merchant who said Moreno has been punished for speaking his mind. “The only way to build bridges with the majority on that council is you’ve got to be a good little doggy and go along with everything they want. He won’t wag his tail.”

It remains to be seen now what impact, if any, the federal indictment on alleged campaign abuses will have on Moreno’s popularity. But as rumors of the impending charges circulated in the city for the past week, opinions fell into two camps.

Moreno’s adversaries said the charges reflect a pattern of arrogant, aggressive and sometimes duplicitous behavior.

“His pattern is to push the edge, push the edge, push the edge, and when caught, blame other people,” said City Councilman Robert L. Richardson, who has made no secret of his distaste for Moreno. “You can’t sit here and be holier than thou and at the same time do what he does.”

Moreno’s supporters said his greatest crime has been to threaten the city’s controlling elite with endless questions about contracts and salaries. Some said they believed the investigation was instigated by members of the council majority in an attempt to destroy Moreno’s political career.

“I definitely think this is part of a way to get people not to run or take the people who are running and discredit them,” said Suszan Ales, a hair stylist and neighborhood activist who last year helped create the watchdog group Citizens for a Better Santa Ana.

“I don’t know that it’s because of him,” she said. “I think it’s because of what he’s bringing forward.”

The son of an auto mechanic, Moreno, who is married with two children and lives in a modest Santa Ana neighborhood, said he speaks for those who have traditionally been shut out of local politics.

“I represent the common person,” he said in an interview two weeks ago. “If they had the opportunity to be in my seat, they would be making the same decisions.”

That has been Moreno’s mantra from the beginning when, fresh out of Cal State Fullerton with a business degree and one failed school board race behind him, he ran for council as a home-grown Populist.

With only $11,000 in campaign financing, he went after the favored candidate, a protege of then-Mayor Daniel Young, by promising change. And he stunned the council by winning with 42% of the citywide vote.

He did it again in 1996, winning reelection against two challengers by garnering 46% of the vote. And those votes were spread fairly evenly throughout the city, from its poorest areas to neat, middle-class neighborhoods where the councilman said he has many “closet supporters.”

Against the Majority

Moreno and his longtime friend and ally, Espinoza, who was elected in 1994, have clear philosophical differences with the council’s other five members.

Moreno and Espinoza have consistently pushed for more spending on community centers for the city’s young people and for repairs of cracked sidewalks and potholed streets. They have been critical of the majority’s efforts to create an “artists’ village” downtown.

Moreno also has challenged the city’s trash hauling contract, saying it should be put to competitive bidding. And he frequently has criticized the pension packages of city staff along with their salaries, which he said are the 10th highest in the nation.

Moreno said his greatest achievement was in creating a city-funded college scholarship program for local high school graduates.

He can point to few other accomplishments, however, in part because his relationship with the council majority has been so sour.

“It takes four votes, and on a 5-to-2 council, they’re not going to get the good stuff they need for their folks,” said Don Blankenship, president of the Santa Ana Police Officers Assn., which opposes Moreno’s bid for mayor. “If you’re not a team player on the Santa Ana council, you’re ostracized.”

The council was not always so polarized. That built slowly, and some say Moreno was driven to hostility by years of frustration.

A review of votes through the past six years shows little initial conflict: Moreno often voted with the majority, and his resolutions and appointments to city boards and commissions were usually approved.

That began to change after the November 1994 elections altered the political landscape. Moreno failed to win the Democratic nomination for a state Assembly seat; Espinoza was elected to the council against a Richardson-backed candidate; and former Young retired, succeeded by Pulido.

While the reasons are not clear-cut, the council majority began rejecting Moreno’s appointments to city boards and commissions, replacing them with their own candidates. Moreno began to have heated differences with Richardson and, increasingly, with Pulido. The pattern of the 5-2 split began to emerge.

And a war began to build between factions on the council. In 1996, the majority sponsored a young, Harvard-educated challenger to go up against Moreno; the challenger lost. Moreno sponsored his own slate in an attempt to build a majority of his own; they lost.

“They’re like a bunch of kids with this terrible infighting,” said Steve Ellis, a longtime council observer who favors Pulido for mayor but also admires Moreno’s ideas. “They’re small people, small thinkers. And the city suffers.”

History in Office

In a recent interview, Moreno conceded his combative style had helped alienate him from the council majority. “It’s my greatest weakness,” he said. “I’ve learned over time not to be so opinionated.”

But moments later, any trace of humility was gone. “The people did not elect me to stay quiet,” he said. “You have to stick with your conscience. I’m not here to just go along with the flow. If it means we’re not being effective, that’s the price we pay.”

As his critics point out, Moreno’s history in office is full of such contradictions and about-faces:

* A fiscal conservative who questions even routine expenditures, he once billed the city for at-home gym equipment under a program that was being eliminated. After the purchase was questioned in 1994, he donated the equipment to a local continuing education school.

* He often complains that city staff and resources are not fairly allocated to all members of the community, yet he once asked workers from the Parks and Recreation Department to bring city-owned picnic tables and chairs to his backyard for a daughter’s birthday party. He later apologized for the February 1996 incident, and asked the city to bill him for rental charges, but chastised staff for not telling him it was improper.

* Moreno, a real estate agent, bought two condominiums in a Santa Ana redevelopment area, one in March 1996 and another the following June. Both bank-owned properties were in a complex that benefited from a city-backed refurbishment program. Moreno sold one property for a profit. In an interview, he said he sold his interest in the other after the city attorney questioned the purchase, which may have violated state law. “My taxes show I [took] a loss on that property,” he said.

Political enemies say such behavior represents a pattern of pushing the limits of the law. Others say they’re just part of the puzzle of a complex man.

“Many people have said but for his personality . . . if he would smooth it out a little bit, he would be very effective,” said Manuel Pena, a downtown insurance broker who complained in writing last January about Moreno’s behavior following a confrontation in the council lobby.

“He has a very short fuse,” Pena said. “He is combative. He’s like a little bulldog. But he may just be very frustrated. I know I would be.”

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Staff writer Janet Wilson contributed to this report.