O.C. Official Apparently Broke Funding Law

A longtime Placentia councilman who also serves as an Orange County Sanitation District board member apparently broke state law when he accepted a $1,000 campaign donation from an engineering company just days after voting to approve a new contract and a contract increase for the company.

Campaign finance documents further show that Councilman Norman Z. Eckenrode filed his state-required campaign disclosure forms almost two months late and inaccurately stated that he received the $1,000 contribution more than three months after he actually did.

A member of the Placentia council and the sanitation board since 1990, Eckenrode accepted the donation from Camp, Dresser & McKee Inc., a Carlsbad firm designing odor control facilities for the sanitation district and a groundwater replenishment system for that and another agency.

The company reported to the state that it made a $1,000 donation to Eckenrode’s campaign for a seat on another agency, the Orange County Water District, on Oct. 29, 2003, during a fundraiser in Placentia. The date is seven days after he voted on two sanitation district contracts for Camp, Dresser.

Campaign disclosure forms show, however, that Eckenrode reported receiving the $1,000 donation Feb. 12 -- more than three months after his votes.

Eckenrode acknowledged that the Feb. 12 date he used on his campaign form was inaccurate -- “an inadvertent mistake” -- and vowed to correct the situation. He said he has consistently complied with state conflict-of-interest laws as a councilman and board member but was unfamiliar with specific legal provisions that restrict the acceptance of political donations.

“It might be there in black and white, but I have never seen that section of the law, nor have I been told about it as a board member,” Eckenrode said. “I have been above the fray for 26 years. This is a new one on me.”

He also vowed to return the donation to Camp, Dresser this week.

The state Political Reform Act, which is designed to prevent conflicts of interest in voting by policymakers, prohibits appointed board members from accepting campaign donations of more than $250 within three months of voting on contracts or other matters that affect the donors financially. The act generally carries civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation.

On Oct. 22, Eckenrode voted in favor of a $3.2-million agreement with Camp, Dresser for engineering services related to an overhaul of the sanitation district’s odor control facilities.

The other matter involved a $305,000 increase in the company’s $33.5-million contract to design a groundwater replenishment system, a joint project between the sanitation district and the Orange County Water District, which manages the county’s huge groundwater basin. Eckenrode also seconded and voted for the increase during a committee meeting Oct. 13.

Thomas Woodruff, general counsel for the Orange County Sanitation District, said he has tried to keep board members apprised of state conflict-of-interest laws.

The agendas for district board meetings even carry a boxed warning that mentions section 84308 of the Political Reform Act, which states:

“No officer of an agency shall accept ... a contribution of more than two hundred fifty dollars from ... any participant ... while a proceeding involving a license, permit, or other entitlement is pending before the agency and for three months following the date of a final decision ...”

“It would be hard for board members not to know this,” Woodruff said. “They’ve been alerted to it, and they do a pretty good job of it.”

Woodruff said he knows of no problems with Eckenrode’s votes in the past. But he said the law can be confusing sometimes for policymakers because state conflict-of-interest codes for appointed board members differ from those for elected officials.

The Orange County Sanitation District board is made up of elected officials who are appointed by city councils and the county Board of Supervisors.

“This is another example to me of just how screwed up Sacramento is,” Eckenrode said. “I thought I was entirely legitimate on this issue. Now that I’m aware of it, I will conform to it.”

Eckenrode added that his political opponents probably are leaking information about the Camp, Dresser donation to the news media in an attempt to undermine his bid for an Orange County Water District seat. So far, the Placentia councilman is running unopposed for that agency’s board of directors.

Eckenrode filed his twice-annual campaign disclosure forms for his water district race on March 22, almost two months after the Jan. 31 deadline to report campaign activity from last year. The forms list political contributions and campaign spending.

Eckenrode said he was late because campaign donations were still coming in earlier this year and he had not received his state identification number for his election committee, which was formed seven months ago.

Once everything was received, he said, he filed his campaign statements. Eckenrode denies that the late filing was an attempt to hide anything.

Officials at the Orange County registrar of voters, which accepts campaign reports for filing with the state, said the twice-annual financial disclosure forms were due Jan. 31. State identification numbers are not required to file the documents, they said, and can be added after the forms are received.

Representatives for Camp, Dresser said that the firm’s political donations are carefully reviewed and that there was no attempt to influence Eckenrode’s votes. Irv Pickler, a former Anaheim city councilman who organized Eckenrode’s Oct. 29 fundraiser, recalled that the company presented the donation at the event.