Rival Led Probe Into Signatures

Michael Szkaradek likes poking around--sifting through the campaign filings of election candidates and checking the signatures on nomination papers with those on file at the registrar of voters office.

Every once in a while, Szkaradek says, he spots a questionable signature or some type of irregularity, but the candidates usually have ended up losing the race.

But it was different in November.

Szkaradek said he noticed something strange about two signatures on newly elected Costa Mesa Councilman Chris Steel’s nomination papers: The writing appeared to be the same.

Szkaradek, a 49-year-old bankruptcy attorney and accountant, decided to look at Steel’s previous filings and checked every signature--24 of them--at the Orange County registrar of voters office. He said he found another irregularity--this time with one of 25 signatures on Steel’s 1998 nomination papers.

He went to authorities with his findings, and now Steel is facing charges that he forged two signatures--felonies that, if he is convicted, could send him to prison for three years and cost him his council seat, something he sought unsuccessfully nine previous times.

Steel insists that he has “run honest campaigns” and that Szkaradek has a political ax to grind. They both ran--and lost--in the 1986 council race. Also, Steel doesn’t think highly of renters and has blamed them--in part--for crime in the city. Szkaradek is a renter, living in the same Mesa Verde apartment for 25 years.

Steel has said that he allowed a husband to sign for his wife on nomination papers for the November 2000 election, and that he signed for a blind woman in 1998 because she was having difficulty signing for herself. Steel also indicated on nomination papers that each of the registered voters signed her own name. But, he said, both individuals have supported him in past elections.

A preliminary hearing on the matter is set for June 28, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Lubinski said.

“This is purely political,” Steel said. “I did everything by the book. . . . [Szkaradek] hasn’t liked me since he ran against me.”

Szkaradek said he’s not a fan of Steel’s. But, he said, that’s not the issue.

“My real motivation here is that I think there are too many false declarations in this world,” said Szkaradek, who is pursuing a credential as a fraud examiner.

County prosecutors aren’t taking the matter lightly either, saying the allegations are extremely serious. An infraction of election laws, regardless of how small, could compromise the entire electoral system, Lubinski said Wednesday.

Szkaradek said he only hopes this case serves as a deterrent in future elections.