Voter's Pipeline; Orange County Supervisor - First District Race.

Welcome to Election 80, one of a series of special programs on Channel 50 presenting candidates and issues to the voters. Join us each Friday night at 7.30 p.m. to hear newsmen interview the candidates. Today's program presents candidates for Orange County Supervisor in the first district. Now here's your host, Jim Cooper. Orange County is the second largest county in California both in population and in registered voters. There are 1.9 million people here and the counties appeal as a place to live, go to school and operate a business has received international recognition. As a demand for growth continues, running the county has become a big business. The five elected supervisors are in charge of more than 10,000 employees in an annual budget of $580 million. An Orange County Supervisor makes $32,290 a year and serves a four year term. Two supervisors seats are up for

election in the June 3rd primary, the first district and the third district. Today we will look at the race in the first district. The first Supervisorial district lies in the central portion of Orange County. It extends from San Ana to Westminster and includes the city of Fountain Valley as well as the portion of Garden Grove. It also includes the unincorporated area of Midway City. There are 146,000 registered voters in the first Supervisorial district. We'll now introduce the candidates and each will give a statement about his candidacy. Joining me to ask questions of the candidates is our special guest from the Orange County media, Larry Peterson. Larry Peterson has been a reporter with the register newspaper for eight years specializing in politics, county government and environmental issues. Prior to joining the register, he wrote for the Schulavista Star News in San Diego County as a general assignment and political reporter. He received his BA in political science from Cal State Long Beach and now let's meet the candidates. Supervisor Phil Anthony is the incumbent

supervisor of the first district. He has in the past year served as chairman of the Board of Supervisors. He is the director of the Orange County Transit District and the former mayor of Westminster. Hector Godina is the Sequoia district manager of the United States Postal Service. He has served for nine years on the Board of Trustees of the Rancho San Diego College District and has been its president for the past year. He is founder and chairman of the Board of Banco del Pueblo and president of the San Ana Health Authority. Roger Stanton has been a member of the Fountain Valley City Council since 1974 and has served as mayor. He is a management consultant to area businesses, holds a doctorate in business administration from USC and is professor of management at Long Beach State. Harry Kay Yamamoto is now serving as the 11th year on the San Ana City Council. He is chairman of the Southern California Association of Governments Human Services Committee and serves on the Orange County Health Planning Council, the League of Cities and the San Ana Housing Authority. Well now we're going to ask each of the candidates to give a one minute statement about his candidacy after which we will ask questions of them. I'll ask

you gentlemen to hold yourself to the one minute time limit. Let's start with supervisor Anthony. Thank you Jim. It's a pleasure to be on your program again. It's been a great experience and an honor to be working as a representative of the people of the first district this past three and a half years or so. I've tried very hard to work at that job with all of my ability and I think I feel that the basic accomplishments have been sound and I'm basically making my appeal for reelection on my record. I think we've had a chance to draw in many people to help participate in county government and I'm very proud of that. We've also been able to work very successfully with the cities in our district and the first district is made up almost entirely of incorporated cities. I've tried to work very closely with the city governments and the citizens in those cities and look forward to a chance to continue that kind of government that's made up of a close working relationship by the elected representatives and the people and one which

makes our county government I think one of the best anywhere and one that's lean and going to get the very most for the tax dollars. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Again Jim. It's a pleasure to be here for a person who's been here all of his life. I take this as a particular challenge to serve the community hopefully in the position of a supervisor. I've seen Orange County from what it was in the 30s up to its present level of activity. I feel that I can contribute to the general welfare of the county. I feel that my knowledge in government, my knowledge in the private sector clearly indicate that I am very well qualified for the position. There's many things that can be done that have not been done in the county and I feel that I am the person that can do it and do it in a manner which would be satisfactory not only to the people but the government that's employees. Thank you. Mr. Stan. Well Jim, as you know, we spoke before. I'm not sure that there'd be that many challengers here under normal circumstances

and I feel that what's in parity for the voters to understand is that they have to take a very close look at the three challengers to this office. They have to look at the experience, the type of expertise that they bring to this office. You mentioned some of my qualifications. I'm not going to repeat those. One thing I might add is I have several years of administrative experience and industry to go along with the management consulting activities that I perform. I also have the ability I think to understand government. I've been in a city council position for six years. I'm the only challenger of the three that are challenging the incumbent who has served as a city mayor and I think I understand best that growth in Orange County is inevitable and you're going out to get somebody that can handle these problems and I think looking at the record, I'm the best one to handle these problems. Thank you, Mr. Yamamoto. Yes, Jim, and opening I would like to state that in a field of four incumbent and six challengers in my last reelection, I was a top vote catcher in the city of

Santa Ana, which is our county seat. The reason being I feel is that they're well aware of my effectiveness as a legislator and as a decision maker. Several of my accomplishments I might add has been as a representative of the people has been that I was instrumental in the development of the senior citizen program we have in Santa Ana and outstanding paramedic program and one of the top fire departments in the country. In 1976 I was also instrumental in the execution of a well planned program by police chief Ray Davis to bring to Santa Ana the greatest reduction of crime in California and several of my civic members have been as a chairman and member of the criminal justice council. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm going to start with the first question and then we will alternate with questions with Mr. Peterson and I will start. Many times after a whole campaign is over there

is a complaint made that the candidates never really got to the issues they were engaging in superficial exchanges. So let us make the first question one a subjective one on what you feel are the real issues that should be brought out because I think that's a challenge of candidates to define the issues in the elections. And let's come back and start again with supervisor Anthony what do you see the real issues on which voters should make this decision. Jim if I may start thank you I think underlying all of the issues and there are so many that face our count because we are a big county now as you said yourself the second largest and the largest state in the country we still have projections of strong growth the experts tell us that before the end of the century our population could go up another 50 percent our jobs are expected to go up even more than that the 100 percent of the present level the pressures of growth are still very very much with us but underlying

all of those kind of problems which get into the areas of housing and energy and transportation we have first and foremost the problem of running the county government within the budgets within the constraints given to us by the voters of California through proposition 13 proposition four maybe proposition nine and also my own personal philosophy and I think it's shared by many others in local government that we should run a lean and efficient government we've got to learn how to do the job of government more sensibly more in response to the real needs and one of the people and we've got to do it more cost effectively productivity I think has become a problem in our entire country unfortunately even in the private sector it's always been a problem in government I think orange kind of government is one of the best but it's got to become better we've got to get the job done more effectively more efficiently better use of the limited number of taxpayers dollars that we have now and I'm going to see more pressure in that area in the future so operating a lean government

you think of the big lean but still effective all right mr. Godina what do you see of the big issue in this the issues are very closely to what mr. Anthony's bringing across certainly transportation certainly growth and economy are important things but economy at what level I feel that we have not begun to really see what has happened in this country where it has to start at the grassroots manner in which we attack problems cost in a different way we're not going to do it in the way of the 60s and 70s we're coming into a nearer where the country is suffering for the first time drop in a standard of living which requires new thinking and it's not going to be the old story of how you're going to cut the budget and get back at some other meeting in the future it's going to be something that is citizens of this county as employees of this county we have to re-analyze what is the essential

things what are the things that are important for government and government is important we have to see that our employees are the best that we can get I don't follow a philosophy that a county employee for example should be a lesser paid employee but I would expect his abilities to be at a par or bitter than the private sector this type of things I think we have to look at I don't think that the problem will be answered in a few short words and I don't believe that the old tired cliches are going to be the answer to county government it's a new change it's coming we will be swept away by the feelings of the electorate we don't watch this could you define what this new wave is that you talk about I mean what kind of economy are you talking about as opposed to for example what we are looking at different ways in which we deal with government if we are doing a certain amount of work for X number hours with X number of people we have to analyze and see which way it would be done better we have to find ways in which we can utilize our resources within the county

better and that following us at procedure of the past all right mr. Stanton please with regard to the issues Jim I think there's a yeah the important issue in this race well there's an umbrella that you have to look at first and under that umbrella fall out a number of issues right which which do carry rather familiar names and in that umbrella I think is growth size first of all we are large now and we've got all the problems and come with size and and the growth that's coming as was pointed out we're a little under two million now we're going to reach probably close to three million if not hitting three million by the end of this decade and the problems that you have to look at there's nothing really starting about these labels there's housing there's transportation if you take a look at the map of the county and you just look at the transportation quarters for for vehicles it's incredible now we we have a problem you can see it coming if you just simply look at the map housing transportation law and order we've we've done pretty well we've held our own I think in the county but there again when you have girls you have problems

that you have to face in that regard I think you're going to get into some of the issues with regard to sheriff's office and marshal office and some of that thing with regard to their budgets and then we'll talk about that later these are the things that you've got to look at as far as issues between us as candidates what the voters should look at is competency who can handle a job I don't think running a government should be looked at much differently than running any organization a business organization far too often it's looked at differently I've got that experience I've got some expertise in management I think and my my philosophy is essentially let's do what we have to do in government but let's not try and do everything for everybody and be all things to all people I'm Mr. Yamamoto what would you say are the crucial issues in this race well the crucial issues Jim are as Roger stated in the other candidates that transportation and particularly energy I feel that energy is relative to all of the other problems that are going to be facing us or that are facing us now and there

are certain actions that we can take as legislators to overcome the problems that are going to be facing us with the full impact of Prop 13 which has not hit us yet and perhaps the impact of maybe Proposition 9 and if both these of these Propositions hit us at the same time we will be in a lot of trouble it would take experts and what I mean by experts is I'm talking about the staff of the supervisors to look into the solutions of the problems that will be facing us it's understood already that we are the supervisors and elected officials are the decision makers and not the administrators and not the solution not the people that the experts that come up with solutions we give the ultimate

decision and so I can say that what we can do or what the county can do is exactly what the city has done in the past hire experts to solve the problems for the people and carry them from there all right thank you Larry speaking of issues one that's very salient is Proposition 9 on the June 3rd ballot which among other things would cut the state income tax in and half and deprive the state of some two to five billion dollars in revenues depending on whose estimates you're looking at I would like to know briefly what each of the candidates how he plans to vote on on nine and why all right the one we start on this side Mr. Yamamoto and has him Larry I will say that I am going to pose Proposition 9 simply because the promises that have come out by its author are true but that is

only the half truth the truth of the matter is the ultimate harm that this proposition will have is that it will create unemployment it will create havoc with our economy simply because of the unemployment and the cutback of services and I will say that there might be some services that the populist can probably do without for a while but there are some that they cannot do without such as education public safety and well that's just a few you don't you don't believe you don't believe the the argument that says that that that because the taxpayers will have more money of their own to spend that that will in fact create more jobs and employment because the money will will represent a demand for for

new goods and services in the private sector no because even 50% of the he might say tax take would not create that many jobs but it would create havoc as I said in the private sector because of the cutback on services which the people will eventually have to pay for anyway well Larry just picking up on that if if you are a student of basic economics and I know you are you I think you know that more money in the economy is going to create more jobs I don't think that's the issue I think that will happen but that's so far down the line that the problem I have with nine and I personally will vote against nine is that if nine is good it it may be good at some other point in time and I I must refer to one of the mentors of the USC School of Business when I was there Milton Friedman who said that he backed thirteen but nine is too early you have not had a real adjustment

to thirteen you had a very artificial situation with the governor seeking reelection and for whatever motives he had giving this exorbitant surplus bailout funds to all the cities and other agencies in this county so you really haven't had any adjustment yet Friedman says let's have the adjustment let's see what happens and then you can start talking about nine by the way nine is is doing essentially three things as I think most voters should know now we're talking about cutting your taxes back to half of the seven nineteen seventy eight level you're talking about an indexing provision and you're talking about eliminating the business inventory tax well the last two are going to happen anyway so you're really talking about one thing there so I think that that we can afford and we must wait to see what kinds of real adjustments are going to happen with schools cities and other agencies before we start talking about we don't know about the indexing for sure yet we don't know about it for sure but I was in I was in the gallery when that was

introduced in the assembly and there I think there's a real movement if the legislature doesn't realize at this point in time that it better happen I think we're going to have a new legislature up there another factor that I hadn't been I suppose you could bring out the point that had been totally digested yet his proposition for which put a cap on well Friedman said if you pass nine now you may come back and have the legislature raise business taxes in another way and that's going to be passed on to the consumer into the to the taxpayers of course Jarvis Jarvis makes the point and I'm not necessarily signed with him but with regard to the likelihood of increased business taxes you have the mandate of Proposition 13 which says you have to have a two-thirds vote of the legislature and and wonder what wonders if there's going to be a two-thirds vote of legislature to do anything but that's neither here nor there all right Mr. Goodin is well how are you going to vote on Proposition nine it isn't a simple answer as it appears in the surface Proposition nine in itself is irrelevant the simple fact is that two years from now

we'll have Proposition Z with the same type of proposal and the proposal the cause of this things the roots of this thing since what should be discussed and agreed to or disagree upon because the proposition itself is unimportant what Proposition nine is telling us is basically a person making fifteen sixteen thousand dollars a year cannot make it hasn't been able to and is getting worse every year Proposition nine in a sense is saying to the the electorate we are unable to carry it on anymore we have to find ways in which we to do it Proposition nine just happens to be in the way but with the lord of the American standard of living in this country and in this county they request and the demands for some type of a change are coming and that in itself is the answer not the proposition well I think that the people in your district would like to know how you are going to vote I'm coming to that I'm coming to that I'm that basis I'm curious enough to see whether the electorate knows enough

of what they want and on that basis I am I am supporting the proposition you're going to vote yes on Prop nine all right thank you as supervisor Anthony well it's two to one at the moment Proposition nine is a very very interesting proposal it appeals to me tremendously because I believe very strongly that the state and federal income tax have been out of control in a vicious way for years by the lack of an indexing system indexing system both of those income tax systems have been taking much more money away from the American people than we ever had a chance to realize it's almost criminal as people working people fight for increases in their salary they don't realize that they're being pushed into higher income tax brackets those brackets have stayed the same and a greater and greater percentage of their earnings are being taken away from them it's led to I hate to use it the term but outrageous increases in revenue to the state and federal government where do you think

these ridiculous state surpluses have come from the last few years they've come from and run away income taxes so the idea of reducing income taxes and maybe we should start at the federal level I think Prop 13 was a wonderful thing but it probably should have been done last we probably should have first had Jarvis three to put the federal income tax under control then maybe a Jarvis two to deal with the state income tax and then a more modest correction of the property tax here at the local level I'm most distressed about Proposition nine for the same reason I worried and and struggled with Proposition 13 it's the lack of good information out about it the predictions range from one extreme to the other the governor came out and warned us and tried to scare us a couple of months ago when he first came back to California that if it goes through it'll cut the state spending by 30 percent a few weeks ago the experts UCLA professional economists come back and see at most it would be a seven percent cut the optimists say that if it goes

through and other things happen to the revenue sources the shortfall next year might be only a quarter of a billion dollars which is small compared to the twenty odd billion dollars state budget the pessimists tell us that if it goes through and things don't go that well the shortfall could be four billion dollars now obviously there's a tremendous difference in those two projections as to the possible impact on all kinds of services I'm not decided yet I still have it under intense personal study I lean strongly toward the principles that Proposition nine is trying to accomplish I think I would only back off of it if I become convinced in the weeks ahead that the that the blow is too heavy at one time mention the federal federal income tax take are you at all bothered by the fact that under Proposition nine the federal government would probably get a billion dollar you're so right that's the same treachery unfair viciousness of the system that happened with Prop 13 as we reduced our own taxes in Proposition 13 our property taxes

we lost that right off and the federal government took more from us in our federal income taxes unfortunately if we do Proposition nine the same thing will happen as we reduce our state taxes by our own choice if that happens the federal government will leave their system alone and it will just automatically take more federal taxes from us the state and federal income tax systems I think are both in the process of destroying the country thank you so what you're saying is right now you you do not want to go either way and I'm leaning toward it because I believe so much in the principles of reducing the state income tax of indexing it particularly I think for the purpose of this program right now we put you down as undecided is that correct and decided all right strongly in sport I should tell you share with you one of the one of the great frustrations of this is figuring out what the surplus would be so and the debate which we did with Howard Jarvis and Senator Mills we called up Jesse Unra's office the state treasurer of the state of California and

he said that there's 2.6 billion dollars up there in the surplus we then contacted the office of William Hamm the legislative analyst and that office is saying that no the surplus is 1.8 billion so what we have to believe is that in the state of California they can't come within 800 millions of dollars of knowing what the surplus really is and that surplus is going to be a play a role in this because it will be used toward the bailout of at least the first year of it it's a frustrating now the situation proposition 13 over again now to my question please you asked us what are personal how are you going to vote on prop 9 Harry's on a city council I'm on a city council fills on the board hector's on a school board I think it's important to say from from my point of view and I they can speak for themselves that I'm speaking as an individual I think it's it's totally inappropriate for a city council school board or board of supervisors as an agency to to tell the voters how to vote no I'm asking that I'm asking you as a candidate just so

the voters know that because we do not do that in our city but I'm just asking how you're going to vote right you you all answered with exception of supervisor Anthony you said he's undecided okay Larry do you have another question before we go on yes running for county supervisor as we all know is an expensive and necessarily expensive undertaking I want to ask each of you how much approximately you anticipate Spain on your campaigns and where in general do you intend to get it were you getting them money yes okay do you want to say let's let's make a how much money you're going to spend and where you're getting it broad answer yeah I start I would have to tell you that approximately because campaign budgets are projections and it's a little bit of a strategy what are you projecting competition with the opponents to try to guess who's going to do what but our spending plans now are in the order of a hundred thousand dollars and what what kind of donors are you

looking for what time of kind of donations are you well we're looking for as many donors as possible and to both to obey the present county laws and because I believe in the principle of trying to get modest amounts from as many interested people citizens business and men as possible all right to head a question for you hectic adenis how much money you're trying to get and where you're getting it's a three headed question or four based on the obscene amounts of money that are being used to get elected office maybe it's sour grapes on my side it could be and but I'll be very fortunate if I can put out a mailer and possibly some more information to selected areas to espouse my candidacy and I'm looking at a very modest budget that based on my did probably be around twenty five thirty thousand if I'm fortunate what kind of people are you trying to get money from I'm going to the electorate across the board I'm approaching everybody that has the same ideas that I have

I would not approach anybody of course contrary to my ideas or principles and I certainly will not be bound or want to be bound by anybody that would come out with that type of offering to me but I'm addressing myself to the general because that were you that you're you're in a race where one of the opponent the incumbents talking about a hundred thousand dollars and you're talking about thirty thousand dollars is that where is it you that you're going into that ballgame with one strike out or two strikes well I certainly join in without a feeling of apprehension as far as escape abilities I recognize the power of the dollar I know that I have a heck of a problem if it means just dollars to present my case but I deal with what I have I'm trying to be practical and I'll face a future on that basis Dr. Stan with regard to the budget definitely less than what the job pays round numbers all talking about let me anticipate some of the questions yes Hector with regard

to do I feel apprehension with regard to the incumbents or chest no not at all I I right well I I'm familiar with the the very capable hands that he has placed his campaign and I think it's the Nelson agency me I said correct though there are the consultants of the count the year to your campaign and I I know that it is a very polished sort of a campaign machine on the other hand I think that any of the three of us that think that we can compete with that sort of a campaign are really very naive that I don't tend to I've got my own style with regard to getting the message out getting the word out I'm not running against an individual up here I'm running for that seat and I'll be able to put my message across in terms of my my philosophy my understanding of of management and in basic economics I'll be able to put that across with a far less money than a hundred thousand dollars what are we talking about well I said less than the office pays the office

pays thirty two thousand we're hoping for twenty five thousand thirty and what kind of people are you asking the money from I'm asking the money I'm asking the money from people who want to see the electoral process survive and that is to have two people on that ballot in November so any voter in this district or in the county for that matter who wants to make sure that we have a runoff in that we have two names on that ballot in November and that we have among the challengers the individual who is the the most competent based on their their assessment that's who I'm asking money for can you get my address here excuse me you can get your picture for donations I suppose what about you yes you've been asked to Larry's question I like a clarification are you talking about the complete campaign or just the primary let's talk about the primary for now speaking about the primary then I will say that I will not go over what the the annual wage of

that position is which is less than thirty two thousand and I think it will be far less than that for the primary specifically I will say that because we need the money for name identification which I do have I've got name identification I've been elected official for eleven years and in the campaign process for four times that I remember and I do have the name identification so I won't have to spend as much money what kind of people are the ones to me I will be asking money I will be asking money from people that are willing to donate to me knowing that I'm my own man okay but cross-second business labor yes everybody I have a question supervisor Anthony is no it's no secret you've had

legal problems that had to do with the indictment about alleged irregularities in financing in the election I question I think is a fair question to direct to you has this whole legal battle that you've been in and we should say it certainly it's up in the air right now it is undecided but has it whole legal battle you've been in a hindered your service on the board before and do you see it hindering your service on the board in the coming term Jim I sincerely hope and pray it hasn't hindered my service because I've tried very hard to work the job as strong as I can and to do what is there to be done it obviously has been an incredible personal strain on my subconscious my conscious my emotions the particularly on my family this all goes back to some questions raised before I even took office to dealt with the campaign four years ago roughly it deals strictly with some questions

about the reporting of some campaign contributions and loans it I think has been very highly inflated the way the charges have been brought forward and carried on all of this time and it's a bitter irony that it's still in process right here on top of an election it's been thrown out of court twice it's been I think dragged along by the prosecutors when they could have if it's that serious have resolved it a long long time ago it definitely has been a weight that I've had to carry it has nothing to do with my service in office and I hope the voters have realized that I've been accused of no bribery I've been accused of stealing no money there's no hidden money there's no question of any impropriety in my public service as far as I know no one has raised that we have tried to have the charges clarified have them reduced have them dropped for a number of reasons we currently have an appeal of

one of the basic legal issues to actually whether or not this even be a matter of court consideration these appeals are before the Supreme Court at this very moment I have just learned today that the Supreme Court has granted our appeal they are going to order the appellate court to review and have a hearing on these basic issues we've raised which I think stand again an excellent chance of having this entire matter dispatched with and thrown out because the charges are just not justified the way they've been brought I never intentionally in my life have committed any crime that I knew of you were you were in and died in essence for conspiring with other individuals to conceal the source of the campaign contribution correct that's that's that's the outcome was the essence of the charges and you're saying that you you you never did that I never conspired with anyone to conceal the source of any campaign money you and you never attempted to conceal

the source of the campaign contribution I made what was what I later found out to be an error in the reporting method I reported it the way that I was advised to report it by campaign consultants and attorneys when I was informed that that was not the right way we immediately amended the reporting again as required by the law and it's been done that way since the January of 77 me I ask you a question based I believe on the grand jury testimony according the grand jury testimony Mr. Conrad gave you a $30,000 check you exchanged that check for a $30,000 cashier's check from a friend of yours Mr. Ted Cook and then you in turn exchange that cashier's check for a $30,000 personal check I think that's bad news of terms to say that I exchanged this and that I was basically trying to raise money for that campaign by making loans at my own risk and then loaning the money to

the campaign did you not did you not on February 1st 1977 tell Joe Cordero and John O'Dell reports for the register that you knew the money came from Conrad but you you agreed to conceal it because oh wait a minute you knew about his checkered pass you sounded like a prosecutor I absolutely knew the money came from Conrad I was the one that took the money from him to Mr. Cook because he offered to loan Mr. Cook the money so Mr. Cook could loan the money to me and did you not concede having concerns about his and your own words his checkered pass and and and therefore arranged so that his money would not show up on the proposition 90 that's absolutely not true I was concerned about being obligated to a some that large to a person I hardly knew who I'd had some friends indicate they were a little bit concerned about his reliability we needed the money my old friend offered to try to help he could not have the cash on hand Mr. Conrad offered to loan him the money so he could loan the money to me this

happens every day in the business world I was relying upon the information it said that no matter how the business transaction went once I took respect personally responsibility for a loan my obligation was to report the loan from me to the campaign I also in a different document reported the loan from Cook to me the only loan I didn't actually report the first time around was the loan from Conrad to Cook which if you read those instructions yourself I'd defile you to find a place that either says you should do that or find a space on the form which indicates you should show that kind of a thing and you did all this on your advice from your attorneys yes from my campaign the same ones they're representing you now or no thank you a question did you have any time indication when this might come before the appellate court that you're just telling us about this we learned today that the Supreme Court has recognized our appeal has stayed all of the present they've stopped all the present legal proceedings and they are ordering

the district court of appeals to conduct a full hearing and this and what would you think is going to be decided within the next 30 days or do you have any indication of that we should tell our viewers that we're taping this program on the 18th of April although it will not be be airing until May 4th Jim after suffering the situation for almost four years now I have great faith in the American legal process but I have given up trying to predict the timing okay very frankly I should say again this program was being taped on April 18th but is airing on May 2nd so it puts it in the time perspective I'd like to ask your gentleman to respond to one of the biggest problems that this county can have about transportation it's no secret that for every dollar that goes out of Orange County in state gas taxes up the Sacramento only 20 cents is coming back in new road funds because of outrageous injustice on the dispersal of those state funds we are in a cal trans district called district seven since this county is having a desperate transportation problem its roads and in bad states what would you do as supervisor

and I'll let's start on this time with Mr. Yamamoto what would you do as supervisor to address that terrible transportation problem are you just talking about the road system or also the bus system transportation everything the whole transportation period I feel strongly that the roads should be repaired or perhaps even new roads being put in for the transportation purposes but where is the money coming from this is what I was going to get to I'm only talking about the money that is coming back the use of that money how far it can stretch I really don't know because I haven't had access to what the county government can do with the money they are getting back but they're only getting back 20 cents on the dollar for every dollar taken out of Orange County and shipped to Sacramento from state gas lean taxes right we're only getting 20 cents back what you say we're getting 20 cents back but 20 cents times how many could that be perhaps 20 million or or 10 million or whatever you see this is this is what I'm trying to get to okay as we have to use

that money in certain segments of our transportation including public transportation because right now a public transportation is very important because the the high cost of gasoline we're in cal trans district number seven some people have advocated divorce from that and creation of our own cal trans district so we get a much much larger fair I'm more just chair of our state gas act money back here yes perhaps you'd favor that or yes I do for that one thing unfortunately the legislature does not well then do we stop fighting that's the question do we stop fighting because the ball games seem to be stacked in favor of LA County right now mr. Stanton with regard to transportation in the fact that we're not getting our fair share of that money we're not getting our own money right now I don't think that any supervisor can solve Jerry Brown's problem of going out of state

and getting people like Adriana Gerentorco to to run cal trans I think that's one problem that we'd have to address but really we we simply can't can't deal with that to the extent that we can get what we pay into the kitty back to us I think we could solve our problems if we had the money available that we generate and a step in that direction would be a separate transportation district which is the first thing I was going to say that that I would favor we've got a lobbyist now as I understand I'm not sure what the feedback is as far as effectiveness in San Francisco I'm not so sure it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a lobbyist at the federal level to start working also in that direction also I think you might want to look at you say transit transportation you're talking I told you look at a map and look at the one freeway going down orange county after you get to the populated area isn't you you've got you've got a future problem down there you've got freeways going nowhere you might want to look at some very innovative forms of transportation such as as moderials it's a very realistic thing I realize I appreciate

that a supervisor one supervisor even five supervisors can't just wave a magic wand and solve this whole problem but if they have a program for addressing it a program for a good transfer to the state legislation then that bad lot to be going on because it's outrageous it has reached the outrageous state where we we're getting such a minuscule portion of our state gas taxes back here I wouldn't I wouldn't just throw my hands I say separate transit district more intense lobbying if I did have the one those Adriana would be going tomorrow all right Mr. Gideon is what about transportation what do you see as you could exert as a supervisor to this terrible problem orange county transportation of course simplistic answers would be the easiest thing to do but I'll tell you one thing there's two million people in this county are close to it and there's a substantial electorate that can make their feelings known and I certainly would support a separate district and whatever action might be needed by the citizens of orange county whether it be a fiat where it be with other counties to to get more effectiveness in the state

legislature outside of LA county and get this show on the road the things that are happening in this county will lead to even worse situations and we can sit down and watch narrow fiddles while room burns can you think of any any new lobbying techniques or any new advocacy techniques in terms of the legislature and Sacramento because they've done this before they've agreed with you and they've attempted to do it and thus far no action well it certainly has been the case before but I believe that out of the dollar we sent to Sacramento we should demand a bigger share of what comes back to us and politics being what they are power of course gets to those that are frustrated with the most but I believe that the county is in a unique position to get together with county such as San Diego County laws orange county and get a situation where LA county or Los Angeles County no longer pulls a string for whatever acts occur in segment other counties

are being similarly short-change and maybe form some kind of alliance with that absolutely in alliance with San Bernardino County Riverside County San Diego County and Orange County would be the first step all right to supervisor Anthony I know that you've lived with a problem a long time and Jim we can borrow are we doing it for several hours and I have worked very closely to it in my years and office here transportation is one of our most crucial physical problems in the county one of our great weaknesses is that we have grown up quickly in recent years more less in the shadow of a very large metropolitan area Los Angeles the other weaknesses we don't have any one single large city in Orange County to carry the spear forward we're a very large metropolitan area but we have no single large municipal leader we've got 26 independent cities that are cussedly proud of their independence but in transportation it's gotten to be so bad that I think you really see a case where Orange County's new secret strength is coming out

we're able to get cooperation and pull together here in a way that most counties don't enjoy the county government the county transportation commission the county transit district all 26 cities private industry have pretty much all joined together for this common cause of solving our transportation problem now the new cow trans district is just one element of it we have gone forward on all fronts to pursue that there've been bills introduced by our state assemblyman that one is destroyed the one by their state senator is still alive the resistance against that change in the legislation because of the tremendous power and size of the LA delegation as well as the governor and misgie and turkers attitude I would say it's a long uphill fight to get the new district in the meantime we're making some progress of working within the present system toward getting a bigger share of our proper allocation through the normal process that has had some results in the last couple of years we now have an 83 or so million dollar appropriation to Orange County

for the next several years which is bigger than it has been before we also have a chance of putting together a plan of not chopping up the district but dividing the allocation process within the existing district which is one in the cow trans seven yes within seven we'll just break out two allocation plans one for Orange County one for LA Ventura that looks like it could happen administratively if you will the next year or so there are other things that can be done it should be done one is on our ballot this coming June proposition a is a great chance for Orange County to act on its own to get access to some of our own tax money we years ago approved proposition five in the ballot which says that a certain percentage of the gas tax can be used for public rapid transit we never approved that particular use for Orange County most other counties the big ones have if we approve proposition a which we certainly should will automatically

get back something on the order of eight million dollars or more each year of money which is our own tax money it's sitting up there other people are using it we can't use it but if we approve a will have access to that money to use for particularly rapid transit applications so thank goodness Orange County is pulling together for transportation improvement the cow trans district is only part of it that particular change in my mind is a long shot I think we should tell viewers that proposition a would appear on the county ballot proposition a merely says that we are accepting the money that has has already been authorized back in 1974 which was proposition five at that time that put the money there and this eight million dollars would be used for rapid transit I can't ironically our county approved prompt five for the statewide program we never approved the specific acceptance of it for rapid transit two step process we need to do the second and it's a proposition a I have another question now moving along to another proposition will be your June ballot county proposition b or county measure b it will be called which will

give supervisors only an advisory opinion of whether there should be consolidation of functions or the Marshall's office and the sheriff's office is that a good idea or a dumb idea mystery I'm a model well you you have to we're talking about county measure b now yes well the problem with that is the you're talking about the Marshall which is federal and the sheriff's which is county no you're talking about the county marshes we're talking about the county marshes of course the plan that had been for advanced supervisor Clark has talked a lot of the about it of merging those two offices and right now both of the people in charge of those offices have had strong opinions about it we don't I feel what my what's your opinion my opinion is I feel that it should be brought together simply because they have the same duties and in fact what's happening is you have a duplication of duties by both

organizations so you you you favor the merger yes I do all right I'm a strong advocate of the proposition of the merger you you said that there's strong feelings on both sides but in any organization business industrial organization you're going to have to merge you're going to have to reorganize and you've got strong feelings when one department disappears or merges with another uh what you've got to look at in government and and in private business is what's the best for the people what's most cost effective and it is not a cost effective situation now they should be merged what about the merger chef absolutely I'm not parochial and one of the things that I said at the beginning of this program there has to be new things tried implemented and this is one of the things there's other government services in the cities that if we forget our local pride and even though we might retain autonomy we still can do this things and give the taxpayer a better break for the tax dollar in a lesser tax dollar all right I suppose that we should hear

from you left here well Jim it's obviously a cost effective good management thing to do we've been talking about it for years the idea of putting it on the ballot we hope will help get some momentum to do it unfortunately it takes state law change to make this possible the president the state law requires the municipal courts to be served by the marshals the superior courts by the sheriff they obviously have many overlapping duties luckily the uh sheriff's and the marshals here in Orange County are willing to work together to put together a merger plan we will need state so would you say you'd favor the merger absolutely uh we have about five minutes left and one of the questions I think we absolutely should get to is uh county measure C which would allow for rental housing development for the elderly the handicapped and the lower-modored income persons in incorporated areas why any of the nine cities that will be uh becoming a part of that under the article 34 of the state constitution so we're talking about do you favor the the chance to put up some of the housing creating housing Jim I of course voted with the board members to

put this on the ballot for the voters to decide it's an extremely touchy issue I know it the state law now's the state constitution says that you cannot have public assisted housing in any area without approval of voters if this is approved by the voters that will give more less blanket approval in the unincorporated part of Orange County for various kinds of public assisted housing the house it would still require a hearing but well that's something we added on to we put a number of special qualifications because I was very concerned about just opening the door wide open to public housing but many projects will have to have specific approval by the board of supervisors do you approve it or do you disapprove of it oh I do the idea as qualified on our ballot yes I voted to put it on the ballot in other words to create rental housing for elderly handicapped lower-modored income what about you much if we are to assume the responsibility as elected officials we have to recognize this and yes I would I would recommend there some certain restraints that have to be judged on their merit there's certain things that we have to look at like mr. Anthony mentioned but absolutely we have to take care of

the elderly under the private enterprise system we have to make sure that the people that deserve it have it I'm not espousing a general housing program for people that might not be in a position or should not get it other than the private sector but I do think that there's a need for an unbalanced you support it and you're going to vote for yes okay what about you we have a few minutes left well these are buzzwords Jim the elderly and the handicapped and who is not in favor of helping the elderly and the handicapped everybody wants to help them but I think public housing is a bad solution so you're going to vote no wait a minute please I think public housing is a bad solution this I'm not sure what you mean by qualifiers I don't know if you've got enough qualifiers in there any time that you've had a public housing project in this country it's deteriorated very severely there are no positive examples of public housing in this country and if these qualifiers and if the hearings can somehow generate some kind of safeguards so where this temporary solution is not going to be institutionalized as a permanent solution then I'd be open to it

but at this point in time I doubt if it would pass so to pin you down when you walk into the bowling polling place how do you think you're going to vote on county measure C I don't know on that one and I'll I'll take the opportunity saying I want to look at that more all right but I don't think it'll pass whether I vote for it or not yes I would like to see how that's written myself but when you say low income you're including the elderly not when I'm saying it at this what the ballot says yes that's when elderly handicapped in lower moderate income well lower moderate income includes the elderly and the handicapped and these are the people that I would like to help when you say lower moderate income I could be healthy people that don't want to work well as it's as it's phrased on the ballot on June 3rd do you do you favor it or I haven't read the ballot yet see that's why I say so you're reserving judgment on that we've got about one minute left you want to ask a question Larry yes starting with supervisor Anthony how do we solve the the airport problem are growing social needs and I've got the plan to solve it I've

been working in that very hard since I got into office and realized what a mess it was we finally have a master plan that I propose underway we're going to hopefully come through with a development plan to build some decent facilities to handle the passengers there we've still got to keep control of the noise problem all right very quickly we have anyone else want to go out of the airport problem I'm not sure that the answer for the airport is more growth I don't think can take any more growth and I look at it very apprehensively I think it's way past a saturation point okay anyone else may come get some more questions we are coming near the end and it's a difficult question but you have any this is the last one yeah that we're out we're right out we're at the end of our time now but you have some comment you want to make about the airport problem no I'm somewhat familiar I must admit with that supervisor Anthony's proposal on those lines and I really don't have much in a way of of innovative proposals or opposition to what he's personally do you have anything yes I think perhaps the private airplanes could use another

airport and leave this for commercial and I do know that commercially it is needed and perhaps it might even have to be expanded much to the dismay of Newport Beach that you've got to face the facts okay on that note we are going to have to move along thank you very much gentlemen in summary here this is how our candidate today regard proposition nine now supervisor Anthony is remains undecided on the question a hectogadinas as he will vote yes on proposition nine Roger Stanton is going to vote no and Harry Yamamoto is going to vote no we hope that the audience can be with us again next Friday when we will be having all of the candidates for the 34th congressional race here on the program I'm Jim Cooper thanks for being with us you