Mike Capizzi, Pro and Con

* Last month, Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi sabotaged a unanimous Board of Supervisors-sponsored state legislative effort to establish a pilot program to test the privatization of child support collections in Orange County.

Given Capizzi’s miserable track record collecting court-ordered support and his failure to make this issue a priority during his tenure as district attorney, his fight to counter the board’s efforts to make enforcement more efficient and accountable was not unexpected.

It’s a fact that Capizzi has had the absolute worst record in the state when it comes to collecting court-ordered child support. The county’s failure to collect more than $100 million in court-ordered child support is made even more abysmal, if possible, when one realizes that the state of California has one of the worst records in the entire nation. Therefore, that gives Capizzi the dubious distinction of being the “worst of the worst.”

These findings were driven home in September 1997, when Supervisor William G. Steiner and I put on the agenda a public hearing before the five-member board to air many of hundreds of complaints the board receives regarding Capizzi’s failure to enforce court-ordered child support payments.

During that hearing, more than two dozen women took the time and effort to address the board on the problems they have experienced with Capizzi’s Family Support Unit. Based upon the testimony, which corroborated his failed track record, it became readily apparent that Capizzi was not meeting acceptable standards for enforcing the child support laws.

Orange County welfare officials estimate that at least 27,000 families have been pushed onto the welfare rolls because of unpaid or insufficient child support.

Like a defendant who himself has been caught, in response to our hearing, Capizzi blamed everyone but himself for his failure to carry out his duty to enforce the laws. Primarily he has passed off the blame to a state computer system that never came online, while all along ignoring admonitions from his own staff and the press that the computer was a failure.

TODD SPITZER

Supervisor, 3rd District

* Republican voters are beginning to ask if there really is any difference between the Democrats and Republicans when it comes to respect for the law.

The answer, at least in Orange County and among many state GOP leaders, seems to be: not much.

Republican leaders at last month’s state convention in Burlingame again refused to allow Orange County Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi to speak.

Nor would they provide space for his supporters to pass out his literature. Those same party bosses, all from Orange County, continue to berate and oppose Capizzi because he dared to prosecute some of their political cronies.

Voters, especially Republicans, watch Democrats defend President Clinton by blaming Independent Counsel Ken Starr and a right-wing conspiracy. It makes most Republicans nauseous.

Yet some GOP leaders, especially those in Orange County, including the state party chairman, are doing the exact same thing when they attack Capizzi for prosecuting some of the Republicans involved in illegal activities in the Scott Baugh election.

The unethical and criminal involvement of the Orange County Republican political machine and others in the election of Assemblyman Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) is as obvious to Republicans and most county voters as are the sexual dalliances and lies of Clinton.

Republican voters, unlike the army of Clinton apologists, were and still are embarrassed. They remain ashamed and embarrassed by the fact that many Republican leaders in the county continue to act like Clintonites in attacking the county’s chief prosecutor. Instead, they should accept what they and others did was wrong.

If party leaders continue to employ Clintonite tactics against Capizzi, who is a candidate for state attorney general, they will end up splitting Orange County GOP voters.

Mike Capizzi has been and is an outstanding public servant whose respect for the law and widely acknowledged integrity has earned him the respect of the public he serves and should engender [support from] a political party that claims it supports law and order.

GIL FERGUSON

Newport Beach