At Issue: Fullerton Official’s Residence

Orange County prosecutors asked the state attorney general’s office Wednesday to investigate allegations that a longtime Fullerton council member has violated election rules by living outside the city.

The request followed a complaint filed last week with Fullerton officials alleging that Councilwoman Julie Sa lives in a Chino Hills home but rents an apartment in Fullerton so she can keep her council seat, authorities said.

Both the Fullerton city attorney and the Orange County district attorney’s office have declared a conflict of interest in the case. State investigators have yet to receive the request, an attorney general’s office spokesman said.

Sa, 49, the city’s mayor pro-tem, won recognition eight years ago as the first Korean American woman in Orange County to win a city council seat. If the claim that she does not live in the city holds up, city officials said it could cost her the seat and prevent her from running for reelection in November.

Sa could not be reached for comment. She lists her address with the city as an apartment on West Commonwealth Avenue in Fullerton. The building, a 225-unit complex called the Ambassador Inn, once operated as a motel, according to building managers.

Marla Voelkl, a manager at the complex, said Sa has rented a $470-a-month, one-bedroom apartment for more than 1 1/2 years. The councilwoman, Voelkl said, came into the building’s main office Wednesday morning to pay her rent. Another building manager, Chul Kim, said he sees Sa at the apartment several times a month.

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But city officials heard charges Friday morning that Sa rarely spends time at the apartment. John Cross, president of the Fullerton Police Officers Assn., delivered a complaint to the city manager on behalf of several unnamed residents.

A handful of residents, he said, approached him recently in confidence and told him that Sa lives on a 10-acre estate in Chino Hills rather than at the Ambassador Inn.

City Manager James L. Armstrong said he passed the claim on to the city attorney, who asked the district attorney’s office to look into it. Prosecutors recused themselves on Wednesday because Assistant Chief Investigator Mike Clesceri is running for the Fullerton City Council in November.

The complaint is not the first time Sa’s residency has been questioned. In 1995, one political activist drew scorn when he mocked the councilwoman’s accent while accusing her of living outside the city.

But Fullerton City Atty. Richard D. Jones said the recent claim is the first formal complaint he has received.

State law allows voters to register at a domicile “to which [they] intend to return”--a definition broad enough to allow many state legislators to have homes in Sacramento and in their districts.

Jones said investigators will have to determine whether Sa uses her Fullerton apartment as her primary residence by examining an array of evidence, including how often she sleeps there and whether she registers the apartment as her address on her driver’s license.

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Times staff writer Jean O. Pasco and Our Times reporter Casey Newton contributed to this report.