Deputies Union Scolds Candidate

An Aliso Viejo City Council candidate in a contentious campaign has been rebuked by a law enforcement union for listing the group as having endorsed him--something it says it never did.

In a letter Thursday to Russell Reinhart and the 11 other City Council candidates, the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs said Reinhart’s campaign mailers say he was endorsed by county sheriffs and firefighters groups.

“The only Orange County sheriffs association is our association,” said Tom Dominguez, president of the group’s political action committee. “He was inferring that our organization was endorsing him, and that is completely false.”

Reinhart, a Huntington Beach police officer and president of that city’s officers union, sent out campaign mailers saying he has been endorsed by “Orange County Sheriffs’ and Firefighters’ Associations.”

Reinhart said Thursday he sent e-mails to his opponents to clarify the issue and apologized to the sheriff’s deputies group for putting it “in a difficult position.” Several of his opponents sought the sheriff’s deputies union endorsement, as did Reinhart, and were told the group would not be making one in the Aliso Viejo election.

Reinhart said he has been endorsed by two state umbrella organizations that include the sheriff’s deputies group. Representatives of the Southern California Alliance of Law Enforcement and the California Coalition of Law Enforcement Assns. could not be reached Friday to confirm the endorsements.

On Feb. 5, Reinhart filed a complaint with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that three of his opponents have been using money from a political action committee to promote the cityhood proposal.

Barry Adams, chairman of Aliso Viejo for Cityhood, vehemently denies that the group has done anything wrong. While the candidates--Carmen L. Vali, Cynthia Pickett and William Phillips--have been endorsed by the cityhood committee, none of them has received money from it, Adams said.

The law allows political action committees to endorse candidates provided the committees notify the secretary of state’s office, which the Aliso Viejo city organization has done, state records show.

Residents of unincorporated Aliso Viejo will vote March 6 on whether to become the county’s 34th city. They will also select five people to serve on the first City Council if the measure passes.