Republican consultant, Eileen Padberg, hates a certain misogynistic party leader

Dornan Primary War Leaves One Bitter GOP Hangover 

By DANA PARSONS 

[LA Times] 

JUNE 17, 1992 

¶ Eileen Padberg is toying with a Cobb salad over lunch while providing sparkling conversational theater. Equal parts anguish, earthy humor and vitriol, she’s apparently decided not to trifle with merely burning bridges and opted instead to strafe them, rig them with TNT and personally push the plunger on the detonator. 

¶ This isn’t the way a Republican political consultant is supposed to talk about the county Republican Party, especially a person who worked the Bush campaign in California in 1988 and who has managed campaigns for both Sheriff Brad Gates and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. 

¶ But Judith Ryan’s failed campaign to unseat Rep. Bob Dornan—a campaign in which Padberg was highly visible from the start—still has Padberg fuming. 

¶ She’s angry at the “little men” who she says pull the strings in county Republican politics and is particularly unhappy at what she sees as a personal campaign against her in the wake of the Ryan candidacy. 

¶ She reserves her special dislike for party chairman Tom Fuentes and a small circle of powerful local Republicans, who are largely unknown to the public but have a lot to say about what happens in this county. But she’s also unhappy that Dornan called her a “sleaze ball” in the papers, as if she, and not Ryan, was his opponent. 

¶ “They hate me,” she says. “Why would they hate me? What have I done?” 

¶ You tell me, I say to her. 

¶ “I have always been a thorn in the side of the political Establishment in Orange County, and I don’t know why,” she says. “I don’t know why me, as opposed to others. I don’t deserve the treatment I get. I don’t pull any punches. If I like you, I like you. If I don’t like you, you know it. There are no surprises.” 

¶ Padberg says she’s never been one to sit around with the power elite and listen to each other talk about how smart they are. In that sense, she understands that she’s not a “player” in the inner circle. 

¶ Fuentes and a couple other heavy hitters visited Ryan after the election and said it would be nice if she congratulated Dornan. Padberg says Ryan told them to forget it. Padberg continues to say that Dornan doesn’t “deserve” to represent the district. 

¶ I suggest that their ire merely reflects unhappiness at having a primary fight. Officials in any party hate in-house contests. 

¶ Padberg is convinced that it’s more personal than that. “Other people in Orange County have the right to their opinions and feel very deeply about women’s issues or the death penalty or a number of issues,” she says. “I’m the only one who gets attacked for feeling deeply about my issues.” 

¶ While she found the Ryan campaign invigorating, the county party’s response disgusted her, she says. “This party sucks,” she says. “I can’t believe that these guys have the balls to do this—they do it only because we’re women. But they picked the wrong two women, they really did. The pressure we got before Judy filed was unreal. I got threatened, Judy got threatened.” 

¶ I had been dancing around it, so I ask her flat out: Is it because you’re a woman? 

¶ “These people are very insecure,” Padberg says. “I’m not a sexist, but they’re very insecure about women, very insecure about people who are not like them.” 

¶ So, it’s your feminine presence around them that makes them uncomfortable? That you’re challenging their male power base? “I believe they know that I know they’re (intellectual) frauds, and that’s what drives them crazy,” she says. 

¶ “It isn’t their power base. I can’t do anything to their power base. I can’t cause them grief. They can only cause me grief. . . . They’re despicable people who are very intimidated by women. They think women should be doing something else. 

¶ “All I can tell you is that there are other consultants who do what I do and they don’t get threatened, ragged on, or beat up,” she says. 

¶ Uh, gee, Eileen, this isn’t how Republican campaign consultants generally talk about the Mother Ship. 

¶ “I know,” she says, “but it’s like I’ve had enough and I was not going to take it anymore. I have walked away every time and decided that it’s just a small group of people, and who cares what they think.” 

¶ But the truth is, it does bother her. “I’m like anybody else,” she says. “I don’t like to be hated.” 

¶ I called Tom Fuentes for reaction, but he didn’t call back. Greg Haskin, the county GOP’s executive director, started out diplomatically. He said the party doesn’t have it in for Padberg, but then he dropped a subtle reminder about Padberg’s recent track record in campaigns. (Before the Ryan-Dornan race, Padberg was Sheriff Gates’ consultant for last year’s failed county jail initiative.) 

¶ Oh well, a dig here, a dig there. 

¶ In politics more so than in life, you don’t get mad, you get even. 

¶ Padberg says Ryan is still considering a write-in campaign for the November general election. Despite Dornan’s 60%-to-40% win over Ryan, only about 26,000 votes were cast from the pool of 68,000 registered Republicans in the district. With a larger turnout and with another 68,000 eligible Democrats voting in the general election, Padberg thinks Ryan could take Dornan. 

¶ In the meantime, don’t expect to see Fuentes and Padberg having lunch. 

¶ I, on the other hand, decided I need to have lunch with Padberg a lot more often.

Memorial Scheduled for Edward A. Hart

Memorial Scheduled for Edward A. Hart 

(LA Times, March 20, 1990)

Raghu in print: the 70s and 80s (Mathurian ambition)

1989: Maxine Hong Kingston at Irvine Valley College

     According to the Times, the keynote speaker of the 1989 Irvine Valley College commencement (on May 18) was Maxine Hong Kingston, the celebrated writer. The Times noted that "associate of arts degrees were conferred on 111 students" and "17 received associate of science degrees." 

     I've been unable to find much about Hong Kingston's address. I did find a relatively recent Rebel Girl post:

Outlaw Knot-maker
By Rebel Girl
August 07, 2014

Maxine Hong Kingston receives the National Medal of Arts
from President Obama.July 28, 2014. 

Maxine Hong Kingston! 

In 1989, she was commencement speaker at the little college in the orange groves where Rebel Girl has taught these past 22 years. That was before Rebel Girl's time, but it was the kind of thing that made her eager to join the college. Needless to say, Kingston wouldn't be "approved" or deemed "acceptable" by the people who make the decisions at the college these days.  Reb has been in meetings where nominees, similar to Kingston, are dismissed as "too political" or "not appropriate" or, get this "too professorial." Rebel Girl doesn't know which is worse. 

Another colleague recalls that commencement (May 19, 1989) and how she had brought along her Vintage Books 1977 edition of Kingston's The Woman Warrior, one that she had read so often. She remembers that the sun had set when she was finally able to talk to Kingston, to thank her, and ask that she autograph the book. She remembers her face (see that same face shining above!) Kingston wrote, "To______ in sisterhood." 

"Sisterhood!" What a word, then and now. 

Rebel Girl met Kingston once, at a party on Russian Hill in San Francisco, at the home of her UC Irvine professor Oakley Hall. It was New Year's - 2004, 2005 perhaps? One of the rare years she did not go to Mexico. Her little guy was toddling around the party, being the happy curious toddler he was. You know how it is at parties when you bring your kid - sometimes people don't know what to do or say. Not Kingston. Rebel Girl remembers she was curious, warm, smart. She did not have to be. She just was. For what it is worth, Kingston remembered the little college in the orange groves with fondness.

The other night, Rebel Girl sat in a small community theatre in Costa Mesa while that same little kid (now 12!) rehearsed Ragtime, singing that anthem "Wheels of a Dream" ("And when he is old enough, I will show him America..."). She sat in the back row, prepping for Fall's classes - first up, Maxine Hong Kingston's essay "Tongue-Tied"- "If I lived in China I would have been an outlaw knot-maker." 

Life. Life! 

[See also The Tustin News from Tustin, California, June 15, 1989]

The Fuentes "Poll Guards" Incident (1988)

Fuentes’ “poll guard” episode
[Naturally, this was not a matter of SOCCCD history at the time. Fuentes would not become a trustee until 2000. But much is revealed about the future trustee's character in this episode.]]


• State Assails GOP's Posting of Poll Guards, LA Times, November 9, 1988


Uniformed security guards hired by the Republican Party of Orange County were removed from Santa Ana polling places Tuesday morning after the chief deputy secretary of state termed their presence "unlawful intimidation of voters."
Outraged Democratic Party leaders had charged that the guards were harassing Latino voters in the bitterly contested 72nd Assembly District, writing down automobile license plate numbers and challenging voters to prove that they are U.S. citizens.
Santa Ana police were investigating charges that at least 20 security guards, clad in blue uniforms and wearing badges, had interfered with voters at Santa Ana polling places and displayed signs in English and Spanish warning against voting by non-citizens, officials said.
. . .
Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes confirmed that the security guards "were part of our Election Day security effort" in mostly Latino neighborhoods in central and south Santa Ana. Along with the uniformed guards, signs in English and Spanish were posted outside polling places warning non-citizens that it is a felony to vote.
. . .
…[T]he Democratic candidate in the 72nd Assembly District, Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach of Anaheim, blasted the GOP's use of uniformed observers.
"It shows me the people in control of the Orange County Republican Party are desperate, ruthless individuals who would stop at nothing to get what they want," Thierbach said, referring to the all-out GOP effort on behalf of his Republican opponent, Curt Pringle.
Stunned Latino leaders from both political parties sharply condemned the GOP's ballot tactics.
[Republican] Santa Ana Councilman John Acosta predicted that [Fuentes and crew] had set back party efforts to recruit Latinos "by 20 years." Positioning uniformed guards outside polling places is "totally, totally un-American. It smacks of Nazism. . . ."
But David Gilliard, a consultant to Pringle, said their campaign "received a tip" several weeks ago to watch for "voting irregularities" on Election Day.


• FBI Probes GOP's Posting of Guards at Santa Ana Precincts, LA Times, November 10, 1988


The FBI is investigating allegations of voter intimidation by uniformed security guards who were hired by the Orange County Republican Party and posted at polling places in heavily Latino precincts in Santa Ana.
Republican officials said the guards were hired because of anonymous tips about a Democratic plan to bus illegal aliens to the polls to vote….
The uniformed guards were sent to the polling places with large signs in English and Spanish warning non-citizens not to vote.
The polling places were in the 72nd Assembly District, and Carlos Rodriguez, the chief consultant to the Republican candidate who apparently won there, said Wednesday that the outcome might have been different without the guards.
"I'm not at all sure we would have won," Rodriguez said.
Republican Curt Pringle was leading Democrat Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach of Anaheim by 671 votes, as the counting of absentee ballots continued Wednesday.
[Orange County Registrar of Voters Donald F.] Tanney said he visited two of the polling places Tuesday night and will report his findings to the Orange County district attorney's office for review of any election code violations, such as interference with a polling place or intimidation of voters.
. . .
Latinos and Democrats reacted strongly, likening the presence of uniformed security guards at the polls to "Gestapo" tactics.
. . .
…"We were even told that one of the guards was sitting next to a ballot box and was handling ballots as people left," Thierbach said.
. . .
Bob Hattoy, director of the Dukakis presidential campaign in Orange County, said he found four polling places where security guards were sitting at tables with volunteer poll workers….


• GOP Was Warned About Poll Guards, Registrar Says, LA Times, November 11, 1988


The county registrar of voters said Thursday, as the controversy continued to grow over a GOP decision to station uniformed guards at polling places, that he had warned Republican officials 4 weeks before the election not to challenge voters at the polls.
Registrar Donald F. Tanney said he issued the warning at a meeting requested by two Republicans involved in the race in the 72nd Assembly District.
"They inquired about challenging voters about their eligibility to vote as they arrived to cast their ballot," Tanney said. "I strongly cautioned them about any form of interference."
GOP County Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes has taken responsibility for the decision to station guards at 20 polling places in heavily Latino areas of the 72nd District on Election Day, and pressure was building Thursday for Fuentes' ouster.
. . .
State Republican Party Chairman Bob Naylor said Thursday that the GOP has guidelines specifically precluding the use of uniformed personnel at polling places because there is a "heavy-handed look to it that could cause people not to exercise their perfectly legitimate (voting) rights."
Naylor added that he was outraged by the use of uniformed guards: "It's a terrible, terrible symbolic insult to the Hispanic community to have these put in just Hispanic precincts."….


• GOP Official Says He OKd Observers at Polls, LA Times, November 12, 1988


Orange County's GOP chairman said Friday that he had agreed to use party funds to hire Election Day observers at polls in the 72nd Assembly District, but that the chief consultant to the district's Republican candidate decided that those observers should be uniformed guards.
. . .
County Registrar of Voters Donald F. Tanney ordered the guards away from the polls. Only voters and election officials are allowed within 100 feet of a polling place.
County Republican Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, who has accepted responsibility for the incident, said Friday that the guards were requested by Carlos Rodriguez, Assembly candidate Curt Pringle's political consultant, a few weeks before the election. Fuentes said he and Rodriguez were concerned that Democrats might bring illegally registered people to the polls….


• GOP Chairman Says Poll Guard Decision Was Pringle Aide's, LA Times, November 12, 1988


…The [poll guard] incident has become an embarrassment for the Republican Party, whose leaders at the state level have joined in denouncing the plan because of its potential for intimidating prospective voters, particularly Latino voters who may be new citizens.
County GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, who has accepted responsibility for the incident, said Friday the guards were requested by Carlos Rodriguez, Assembly candidate Curt Pringle's political consultant, a few weeks before the election….
"I said we would be willing to pay for that segment of our Election Day overall voting security," Fuentes said, adding that he authorized a $4,000 expenditure. But he said the details of the security arrangement were left to Rodriguez.
GOP Assemblyman John Lewis of Orange, who assisted the Pringle campaign, said Friday that the issue of hiring uniformed personnel to monitor polls was discussed by Republican officials as early as 2 months before the election. Lewis said he recalls such a discussion at a meeting also attended by Fuentes, Pringle campaign staff members and several other GOP officials….


• Fuentes Should Resign, LA Times editorial, November 13, 1988


…No matter how [government] investigations turn out, there is no question the county GOP organization, and its chairman, Thomas A. Fuentes, are guilty of a blatant violation of fairness, decency and basic common sense in the inexcusable and reprehensible attempt to intimidate Latino voters.
County Registrar of Voters Donald F. Tanney says he warned Republican officials 4 weeks before Election Day not to challenge voters at the polls. Still, Fuentes allowed the security guards to go to the polls, where they displayed signs in English and Spanish warning against voting by non-citizens, sat alongside election officials at some polling places and, according to witnesses, wrote down license numbers and reportedly questioned some voters about their citizenship.
By singling out Latinos, the alleged security action introduced an element of racism against an innocent group of people. Santa Ana Councilman John Acosta, a Republican, said the action set back party efforts to recruit Latinos "by 20 years."
But equally detestable to the authorization of such a despicable operation was the reaction by Fuentes….
Fuentes, in confirming that the security guards at the polls "were part of our Election Day security effort," first termed the charges of harassment and intimidation "a media event." The following day he issued a weak apology and added: "I would say in retrospect, based on the brouhaha created by the opposition in the media, I would not have" hired the uniformed guards.
. . .
County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, probably the most prominent Republican Latino in the state, said the episode "showed a tremendous lapse in judgment."
Bruce Nestande, a highly respected county Republican leader who was co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Orange County, was shocked that Republicans took part in the security-guard fiasco, and he said "anyone who has that thought process ought not be involved in our party."
Nestande is right. And so are those clamoring for Fuentes to resign as the county's GOP chairman. … The head of the GOP should be providing leadership and sound judgment, not overseeing loathsome operations that intimidate and insult a minority community and hold the county Republican organization up to ridicule throughout the state and nation.


• Way Out of Step in Orange County, LA Times (del Olmo commentary), November 17, 1988


What's the problem with Republicans? Whenever they seem on the verge of a breakthrough with Latino voters, they shoot themselves in the foot.
…[W]hat Latinos will remember about the election of 1988 were the insulting and heavy-handed tactics used by Republican officials in Orange County (and a few other places) to keep them from voting.
…In one instance a guard handled a voter's ballot, a felony under state law.
…Republican officials explained [the guards’] use, saying they had heard rumors that the Democrats might bus large numbers of illegal aliens to the polls to vote. That explanation is so ludicrous that even Latino Republicans were not convinced….
The resulting outcry was so unanimous that Orange County Republican chairman Tom Fuentes publicly apologized, saying, "If there was an offense taken by anyone . . . we need to say lo siento , which is 'we are sorry'."….
Fuentes can apologize in any language he wants, but his explanation doesn't wash….
…Even presuming they did not know that they were doing something that might be illegal, one would hope that they at least had the ethnic sensitivity to realize how it would look to send uniformed guards only to polling places in Latino neighborhoods.…


• Hispanic Caucus Assails Precinct Guard Use, LA Times, November 18, 1988


The 7-member Hispanic Legislative Caucus in Sacramento on Thursday labeled as "vigilantism" the Orange County Republican Party's use of uniformed security guards on Election Day at 20 Santa Ana precincts where there are heavily Latino populations.
. . .
The incident has drawn sharp criticism from Republican as well as Democratic and Latino leaders. A bipartisan group is expected to file a lawsuit today to overturn the results of the 72nd Assembly District race, in which all 20 precincts are included.…


• 5 File Suit Claiming Harassment at Polls by Security Guards, LA Times, November 19, 1988


A lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on behalf of five Santa Ana Latinos, who said they were harassed and intimidated by uniformed security guards as they voted last Election Day.
. . .
Plaintiff [Rudy R.] Rios, a member of the Laborers' Union, said Friday that the security guard at his precinct was seated behind the table with voting officials.
"As I got close, he got up and crossed his arms and looked at me," Rios said. "I thought, 'Are they expecting trouble today or what's happening?' I thought, 'Wow, this is like Mexico or something.' " Rios, a second generation American, said that his wife is from Mexico and that he has heard "horrible stories of guards and stuff" at Mexican elections from her relatives….


• B'nai B'rith Criticizes GOP for Poll Guards, LA Times, November 22, 1988


In a letter to the county's Republican Party, a Jewish anti-discrimination organization expressed "dismay" at the recent posting of uniformed guards at polling places and urged party officials not to use such "harassing tactics" in future elections.
. . .
The letter to Fuentes, which was signed by Jack Adelman, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith Regional Board, and Harvey B. Schechter, the organization's Western states director, said the Jewish leaders were "writing to you as registered Republicans" in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
. . .
"It was the unanimous recommendation of our regional board members that we write this letter to you expressing our deep concern and dismay that the Republican Party of Orange County, and you as its chairman, initiated this highly questionable harassing tactic."….


• GOP to Pay Legal Fees in Guards Case, LA Times, November 23, 1988


Orange County Republican officials have agreed to pay legal defense fees for party activists sued over the use of uniformed guards in Latino election precincts, Assemblyman-elect Curt Pringle said Tuesday.
. . .
…[T]here was no criticism of Fuentes at a meeting Monday night of the Orange County Republican Central Committee. In fact, "I ♥ Tom" stickers were handed to everyone entering the room and an agenda item about ballot security was passed over.
"If you ever imagined Jonestown, that's what it was like," said a veteran party member, referring to the 1970s religious cult headed by Jim Jones in Guyana. "It was clear that had there been a call for a vote of confidence, people there were prepared to give it to Fuentes because it was his crowd."
. . .
[Curt] Pringle said Tuesday that the issue of legal fees was raised at a meeting of the county GOP executive committee last week. "Legal assistance did come up as a topic of discussion, and there was a consensus that the party would pay to defend anyone named in a lawsuit," Pringle said.
The full County Republican Central Committee was not informed of the executive panel's decision, Pringle acknowledged. "That's a decision within the role of the executive committee," he said.
. . .
Fuentes told executive committee members that Orange County businessmen Peter Muth and Johnny Crean had offered to help pay for legal assistance, according to people who attended the session….
[Crean? Now where have I heard that name before? (Crean Lutheran.)]


• Candidate Says Poll Guard Wanted ID, LA Times, November 24, 1988


A Santa Ana mayoral candidate in the Nov. 8 election said Wednesday that she was ordered by a uniformed guard acting as a partisan poll watcher to produce some sort of personal identification when she voted on Election Day, an apparent violation of state election laws.
Sadie Reid-Benham, who finished third in the mayor's race, said she and her 19-year-old grandson, who was voting for the first time, were questioned by the private security guard at a Santa Ana senior citizens center about 10:30 a.m. Nov. 8.
. . .
The use of the uniformed guards as poll watchers in the 72nd Assembly District has caused a storm of protest and prompted Democrats to file a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the outcome of the election in that district.…
. . .
On Election Day, Reid-Benham said, the guard who questioned her was standing inside the polling place at the corner of 3rd and Ross streets in Santa Ana when she arrived to vote. She said she was surprised when the guard asked her for a "voting card. . . . He seemed to want some sort of identification that I was registered to vote."
. . .
Orange County Registrar of Voters Donald F. Tanney said Wednesday that it is illegal for anyone except appointed precinct workers to "question any voter.
[According to The Long Shadow of Jim Crow (2004), a publication of the “People For the American Way” Foundation,

The GOP officials involved in the [poll guards] plan … claimed they acted on rumors that there was illegal registration of voters. However, according to the Orange County Register, they admitted they had no evidence of such activity and were concerned because of a sudden surge in voter registration in some Latino neighborhoods….

LSJC also asserts that the OC GOP eventually settled the lawsuit, paying $400,000. Further,

[The local GOP] also released some evidence gathered during the trial, including a map given to a sign-making company by the GOP campaign that indicated intended sign placement. Signs reading "Thank You Curt Pringle" were to go in predominantly white areas and bilingual signs saying "Non Citizens Can't Vote" were to be placed in largely Latino areas.

• Fuentes Keeps His GOP Post, Quits Catholic Diocese Job, LA Times, January 10, 1989


Thomas A. Fuentes, who Monday night won his third term as Orange County Republican Party chairman, has left his influential post as director of communications for the Diocese of Orange, it was learned Monday.


…His leaving comes in the wake of concerns that his role as GOP chairman had inadvertently drawn the Catholic Church into a political controversy over the county GOP's hiring of uniformed security guards on Election Day at polling places in predominantly Latino areas of Santa Ana. Church officials said Fuentes' departure is not related to the security guard incident.


But Msgr. John Sammon said Monday that the controversy was "not well received" in the diocese because several news stories about it at the time also mentioned that Fuentes worked with the diocese.


"It made us become part of the party, which we weren't," Sammon said. He said that many church leaders also hold leadership posts in other areas, but that being the head of a political party and working with the church—"those two are not compatible."


While Sammon said he did not think that the security guard flap was the reason that Fuentes left his diocesan post, he added that concern over the incident was expressed to the head of the diocese, Bishop Norman F. McFarland….


On Monday night, Fuentes was the overwhelming choice of county Republican Party activists to lead the GOP for the coming year.


He was unopposed in his bid for a third, 2-year term and was selected county chairman by acclamation by the 66-member county central committee, which met to elect new officers at a Costa Mesa hotel.
. . .
In a partisan swipe, he labeled the county Democratic Party as "sad and ineffective." Then, in his only public reference to the controversy, he accused the Democrats, who have filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the election results in the 72nd Assembly District, of attempting to "use the courts to seek revenge."


Referring to the Republican Party's decision to post uniformed security guards at 20 Santa Ana polling places, Fuentes said, "We would not let them then, or will not let them now steal" that election….

Black workers harassed by white supremacist(s) at Fullerton College

      I came across this curious news story from the Fullerton Observer about white supremacist workers at Fullerton [Community] College back in 1988:

the only thing I can find on "Chris Tetzlaff" is a LinkIn page:

Just what is an "executive fixer"?

This guy seems too young to be the Tetzlaff of 1988. 

DOWN ON ITS LUCK : Westminster

DOWN ON ITS LUCK : Westminster’s Saddled With a Corrupt Past and Uncertain Future
By ANDY ROSE

Los Angeles Times

OCT. 19, 1986

     These are tough times for Westminster, the city that got the cold shoulder from Queen Elizabeth II, lost its elephant museum to Portland, Ore., once saw four council members and a city administrator jailed on bribery charges and recently teetered on the brink of financial ruin. 

     By outward appearances, Westminster is a quiet little city, an Orange County bedroom community best known for a big mall and for its growing community of former Southeast Asian refugees. 

     But from 1961—when all but one council member was indicted on bribery charges—to today, when the current City Council has had to levy new taxes to stave off bankruptcy by 1988, Westminster has always had more than its share of controversy. 

     Mayor Joy Neugebauer, who is serving her fourth term on the council, said she finds the city’s reputation for controversy “puzzling” because its population really isn’t any different than other cities in Orange County. Perhaps the same things go on in most cities, she speculated, but those who were caught in Westminster “just weren’t as practiced at escaping public scrutiny.” 

     For Democrats, the city has started the political careers of some well-known talent. Among the Democrats who got their starts here in the 1960s and 1970s are state Controller Ken Cory, former Rep. Richard Hanna and former county Supervisor Philip Anthony. “It was an amazing collection of people,” said political consultant Bill Butcher, who grew up in Westminster. 

Grand Theft Charges 

     But not every home-grown politician did well. When former Planning Commissioner Jack Miller was arrested and charged with grand theft in August, it was just the latest chapter for a city that has grown accustomed to visits from the district attorney’s office. 

     “We do have a really poor reputation and it’s too bad, because there are a lot of fine, hard-working people here,” former Mayor Kathy Buchoz said. She said the reputation is such that she gets an occasional comment along the lines of, “Oh yes, we’ve heard of Westminster. You serve on the council, you go to jail.” 

     Councilman Elden Gillespie conceded that Westminster has had a tough rap. But he pointed out that most of the indictments haven’t directly involved city business. 

     “Most of the problems they’ve had have not been city-oriented, they’ve been related to private business dealings,” he said. 

     - Miller, who was appointed to the Planning Commission in 1980 by former Councilman Guinn (Gil) Hodges (who was himself convicted on federal loan fraud charges before successfully getting the conviction overturned last May), has pleaded not guilty to the grand theft charge. A police and district attorney investigation alleges that he used his property management firm, Community Assn. Management Service, to bilk at least 79 homeowner associations of about $1.3 million. 

     - It was land acquisition that got the first City Council in trouble back in 1961. Four council members and the city administrator served time on charges that they got $24,000 in exchange for the city abandoning its effort to annex the Eastgate area, which subsequently became part of Garden Grove. In a separate case, another $24,000 was offered in exchange for a vote on a zone change. 

     “That was the worst case,” Gillespie said. He noted that Orange County was just beginning to boom at the time and “the land grab was on.” 

     - In 1968, the city adopted a new slogan, “The City of Progress Built on Pride,” and then-Mayor Derek McWhinney said the concept was to put the city’s sullied past behind. ¶“People have seen so much controversy here in the past. . . . The new slogan may not fit the past but it is apropos for the present and future,” he said at the time. 

     But in 1972, McWhinney and Planning Commissioner Tad Fujita were indicted on conspiracy charges. The case involved a farmer in Mile Square Park who said the two officials told him the only way he could renew his lease on the property was to pay $5,000 and contribute another $5,000 to a supervisor’s campaign. 

     McWhinney, who owns a city cemetery and mortuary, was sentenced to state prison. Fujita got three years’ probation and six months in the county jail. 

     Gillespie, who said he doesn’t believe that either man needed the money, described the case as “a guy who wanted to be a political bigwig. . . . Yeah, a kingmaker. That’s a good word for it. . . . He (McWhinney) was trying to put the squeeze on this guy and it turned around and bit him.” 

     - Anthony, the former councilman, paid a $12,000 out-of-court settlement in 1981 when his opponent, Harry Yamamoto, filed a libel suit. In addition, Anthony was indicted for not reporting the source of a $30,000 campaign contribution. He was placed on probation and fined $5,000. Anthony won a seat on the Board of Supervisors in 1976, and was defeated by Roger Stanton in 1980. 

     - Former Westminster attorney Richard Hanna, who went on to the state Assembly and then the U.S. Congress, was convicted in 1978 of conspiracy to commit bribery in the South Korean influence-buying scandal. But many locals aren’t convinced that Hanna deserved the jail time. 

     “A lot of people were implicated, but he was the only one to serve time. He was the fall guy,” said Lloyd Thomas, editor and publisher of the Westminster Herald for the past 40 years. The editor said he endorsed Hanna “although he was a Democrat.” 

     - In 1983, Councilman Hodges was convicted of falsely verifying information on real estate loan documents and sentenced to 18 months in prison (all but three months were suspended), five years’ probation and a $2,000 fine. Defense witnesses argued that Hodges was not involved in the scam and that the loans were actually arranged by his late brother, Barclay Hodges. 

     Barclay Hodges was shot to death in a cocktail lounge at John Wayne Airport in 1982, and government documents later alleged that he had attempted to use the real estate scheme to launder profits from cocaine sales. 

     Hodges succeeded in having the loan fraud conviction overturned last year and a Los Angeles federal court jury exonerated him last May. 

     - While Hodges was fighting to clear his name, Miller was attempting to keep Community Assn. Management Service operating. In February, 1983, Miller was kidnaped in a case that Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Ormes said was not related to the management service. 

     Five men eventually pleaded guilty to duping Miller into driving to the Registry Hotel, where he was held at gunpoint and ordered to make restitution on alleged debts from a business deal. The gunmen purportedly threatened to kill him if he didn’t make good on a six-figure debt, and he eventually paid $40,000 to win his freedom, according to a report filed by the state Bureau of Investigation, which handled the case. 

     “We have had what appears to be more than our fair share (of controversy),” acknowledged Councilman Mel Jay. But he echoed Gillespie’s comment about most of the problems stemming from private rather than city-related dealings. 

     Westminster government is “absolutely” clean today, Jay insisted. “This City Council has probably gone as far as possible to remain above reproach,” he said. 

     Buchoz, who switched from a longtime affiliation with the Democratic Party to become active in Republican Party politics, said she hopes that the controversy is all in the past. Still, “It seems like once a decade, someone’s indicted,” she said. 

     From time to time, Westminster is also the scene of some unusual efforts to boost municipal self-esteem. In 1983, the City Council beseeched Queen Elizabeth II of England to stop by during her tour of California. 

     After all, the reasoning went, the city was founded in 1870 by the Rev. Lemuel P. Weber as a temperance colony based on the tenets of the Westminster, England, Assembly of 1643. And the Civic Center is constructed Tudor-style, as are several redevelopment projects in town, including the Bank of Westminster. 

     But the queen declined. In her stead, she sent a contingent of sailors from the Royal Navy who were feted with hamburgers at Carl’s Jr. in the mall and saluted by Westminster High School cheerleaders, hula dancers and a pair of Playboy bunnies. 

     In 1984, Jack Adams, a retired professor of animal behavior and psychology, persuaded the City Council to help him establish an attraction he was sure would draw tourists to the city. Adams’ elephant museum opened in the city’s auditorium, with such displays as a $40,000 ivory collection, a pachyderm heart, 12 jaws, five skulls and an elephant’s brain. 

     “Anaheim has Disneyland, Long Beach has the Queen Mary. And by God, Westminster will have its elephant museum,” Adams said shortly after the facility opened. 

     Alas, not too many folks came to see the collection. It closed a short while later, to be packed and shipped up to the Portland Zoo. 

     “Maybe you’re interested in elephants, I don’t know,” said City Administrator Chris Christiansen. “I can see having that sort of facility as an adjunct to other facilities, but it’s so specialized, it’s hard for me to see it standing on its own.” 

     The influx of Southeast Asians to Westminster in the late 1970s may some day mean more prominence for the city, officials hope. And many expect the newcomers to become more involved in politics soon. 

     The number of registered voters among Southeast Asians will probably rise, according to demographic information. Statistics from the Westminster school district indicate that Asians and Pacific islanders make up 17% of the area’s elementary school student population. 

     The area along Bolsa Avenue is now dotted with Vietnamese, Cambodian and other Southeast Asian businesses that flocked to Westminster in the late 1970s to take advantage of inexpensive land prices. 

     Christiansen said he expects that the area could become a lucrative tourist attraction for the city. “I can see it becoming, well, I would hope it would become like Chinatown San Francisco, a great tourist attraction,” he said. 

     Although no Asian candidates have run for political office yet, many residents believe it’s only a matter of time before one makes a run at a council seat. Frank Jao, a developer who serves on the city’s Traffic Commission, predicted a candidacy from the Asian community within two to five years. 

     Jao echoed Christiansen’s opinion on the future of the area known as Little Saigon. “I believe so. Some day it will be (a tourist attraction),” he said. “All we have now is commercial activity. We’re trying to add some cultural activity, perhaps a community center, perhaps a Buddhist temple.” 

     Efforts are being made to convince the Orange County Office of Protocol that visiting dignitaries should tour the area, said Mayor Neugebauer. “We really want to encourage that. It could mean a lot of sales tax and tourists,” she said. “There are some great restaurants down there.” 

     Neugebauer said there were a few negative opinions voiced when the first wave of refugees moved in, but acceptance of the Southeast Asian community appears to be widespread today.     “There were no problems that were acute,” she said. “It’s a normal feeling that what is unknown sometimes manifests as fear, an irrational fear.” 

     Christiansen, who arrived in 1983, said city government has been steadily eating into its financial reserves since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. The city’s financial health had deteriorated so badly that a recent study indicated that Westminster would be out of money within two years. 

     The most drastic solution, according to the study by former City Administrator Bob Huntley, would be to dissolve the city, which was incorporated in 1957. Christiansen said that was never a real consideration, and that a new 5% utility tax should provide at least a temporary respite. 

     “You never know, I can’t predict the future. We might be awash in money five years from now or we might be broke,” he said. “We projected that if we continued the course we were on without severe cutbacks, we could not get through ’87. For example, just in safety alone, I mean police and fire, we were looking at 30 layoffs.” 

     The taxes aren’t pleasing to a lot of people who call Westminster home. 

     Thomas, the editor of the Westminster Herald, argues that the city should have done something years ago to head off the cash crunch. 

     “I think they’ve been foolhardy,” he said, adding that the city will be in “big, big trouble” if it has to pay off any damage awards in lawsuits. 

     The only major source of income for the city is the Westminster Mall, which provided a major portion of the city’s $6.3 million sales tax revenue in 1985-86. Some residents think the mall is the only reason Westminster is still around. 

     Ed Bynon, former publisher of the Westminster Journal and an unsuccessful candidate for City Council in 1984, said he sometimes thinks Westminster ought to just fold up and become part of Garden Grove or Huntington Beach. “It’s a funny city. If it wasn’t for the Westminster Mall, there’d be no Westminster,” he said.