The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 197

LOS ANGELES TIMES VC THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1995 A3 California and the West tr SEC Warns O.C. Official! CAPITOL JOURNAL jGEORGE SKELTON tlace Cards' of Civil Action iSucceed All v. A Ubo Often Bankruptcy: Notices seni 10 supervisors. Legal SACRAMENTO filings would be the first to t-T3 uesday morning had the feel of an blame them for fiscal 1 day. 1 fte jurors not tne pollsters nor the pundits now would return the only verdict that really countea.

By MICHAEL G. WAGNER and DEBORA VRANA TIMES STAFF WRITERS wnat interested me was not so mucn tne fate of O.J. Simpson, but whether the "race card" again had worked, as it has in so many I You never really can prove with certainty "the effectiveness of a race card. People won't admit sometimes even to themselves that their vote was rooted in racism. In 1982, many white Democrats said they pvoted against Los Angeles Mayor Tom 'VV VI aula gull, llUb m.aiUG 'was black.

But we know from a post-election analysis of polling data that Bradley's narrow loss was attributable to racial bias. The victor, Atty. Gen. George Photoe by Associated Press Deukmejian, did not play a race card, per se, Firefighter Eric George pauses to rest at sunrise Wednesday at Limantour Beach near Inverness Park. he never had to because it already subliminally was on the table.

Marin Fire Destroys 47 Homes Jt's human nature for voters jurors, anybody to reach a decision based on a they do not want to acknowledge, then to rationalize it on the basis of something more socially acceptable. A legislator will ODOose a bill because it iiecua uiuic oiuujr, uui uctaiuc vuuiig iui ft, would cut off campaign donations. We can only speculate about the race SANTA ANA-Federal regulator! have warned members of the Orauge County Board of Supervisors who pr2 sided over the county's financial collapse that they may fact civil charges for possible violations! federal securities laws. The supervisors are among several officials and financial firms notified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Cdnf-mission that charges may be filed against them in federal court, a former board member and other sources coflr firmed Wednesday.

If charges are filed, it would mark the first legal action to lay blame for Orange County's bankruptcy on its elected leaders, who repeatedly have contended that they were misled by staff and, duped by financial firms that made millions of dollars in dealings withth county. Through their attorney, the fiva su A pervisors who governed the county before the Dec. 6 bankruptcy have fteeri given "Wells notices" by the SEC.Thq notices are an official alert from'the regulatory agency that charges "mayl follow, and they allow firms or iridi-' viduals a chance to argue against charg-J es in documents or on videotape before a court proceeding is initiated. "I did get this letter this former 5th District Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said Wednesday.

"It was sent to the commission by our attorneys." Riley said the letter described the possibility of an SEC action, but he would not elaborate. Gerald Boltz, the attorney resents the supervisors, did not return, calls for comment. 4 "This is a very sensitive time righi now," said one source, adding, "Then are negotiations going on with 'dht SEC." Only two of the five supervisors ir office at the time of the unprecedentec municipal bankruptcy Roger R. Stanton, the board's current chairman, and William G. Steiner still sit on the board.

Gaddi H. Vasquez resigned last month. The terms of Riley and Harriett Wieder ended last year. Barbara Brown, Stanton's executive Please see OFFICIALS, A21 pard's true effect on the Simpson jury, which included nine blacks. It was "barely a is -hlin "nnp Afriran Ampriran inrnr tnln The 7 Times.

The jury simply did not accept the prosecution's evidence, he said. "It was garbage in, garbage out." A We cannot get into the minds of jurors. But we do not need to get into the mind of 'defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. We heard and read his words to the jury.

And its verdict proved that his blatant playing of the race card, at the least, did not hurt Simpson's case. only did we play the race card, we it from the bottom of the deck," 5 ''attorney Robert L. Shapiro, Cochran's 'colleague, told ABC-TV's Barbara Walters. "Cochran believes everything in America -relates to race. I don't." 1 1 in urn i kii? Singer Jesse Colin Young comforts his wife, Connie, after evacuation.

Disaster: Blaze imperils thousands of acres of wooded parkland in western part of county. Damage is heaviest near Inverness Park, a popular tourist village. By RICHARD C. PADDOCK TIMES STAFF WRITER SAN FRANCISCO-A wildfire fanned by warm, dry winds had destroyed at least 47 homes near Point Reyes National Seashore and blackened 8,000 acres of densely wooded parkland in western Marin County by nightfall Wednesday, fire officials said. About 1,300 firefighters from as far away as Oregon and Lake Tahoe battled the blaze as it burned from the small artists colony of Inverness Park southwest to the Pacific Ocean, The fire was only 20 contained, officials Fire crews were concentrating much of their effort on Inverness Ridge, where winds were gusting up to 35 m.p.h.

and about 400 buildings-many of them costly homes were threatened. "It's steep, it's overgrown and there are a lot of structures," said Marin County Fire Department spokeswoman Justine Rosenthal. streets are very windy and the area is very wooded. Among those who may have lost their homes was singer Jesse Colin Young, who once wrote a popular song about living high up on a ridge. Meanwhile, more than 30 smaller fires burned in other parts of Northern California.

Five blazes were ignited in the Santa Cruz area when gusty winds downed power lines. An arsonist was blamed for about 20 spot fires in Solano County. Three blazes of suspicious origin burned across a total of about 150 acres of farmland near Fairfield, and three other fires scorched 20 acres of timberland in Sonoma County. Please see FIRE, A21 Li Senate's GOP Leader High on List of Donors I a Politics: Common Cause report says Rob Hurtt and his conservative PAC have surpassed traditional special interest groups in funneling money to legislative campaigns! A home near Inverness Park lies In ruins after wildfire swept through. L.

A. Ethics Panel's Director Fears for His Job George Wallace, the late segregationist from Alabama, made famous the political battle cry that Cochran, in essence, laid on the Simpson jury: Send 'em a message! Wallace was referring to civil rights integrationists; Cochran to "rotten apple" cops, like the "genocidal racist" Mark Fuhrman. "Johnny Cochran was playing to jurors as if they were voters," says Susan Estrich, a USC law professor and campaign manager for Michael S. Dukakis in 1988. "It outrages me.

Criminal juries are not supposed to be sending political messages." Race cards are as old as American politics. Estrich's client fell victim to the most infamous card of modern presidential elections: The odorous Willie Horton TV ad run by George Bush. The ad showed rotating mug shots of Gov. Dukakis and the bearded Horton, a black who had raped a pregnant white woman while on furlough from Dukakis' prison system. "Race is still the most powerful divide in American politics," asserts Estrich.

Race cards usually can stand alone as legitimate issues illegal immigration and affirmative action, for example. Gov. Pete Wilson argues both are about "fairness." But Wilson and the GOP know, as well, that both are about attracting white voters. So these issues also are race cards. On the other side, when immigration activists and minority groups and Democratic politicians cannot successfully defend the status quo or offer solutions acceptable to the public, they resort to accusing Wilson of racism.

Everybody plays their own race card. Political consultant Bill Carrick says race cards now are more inflammatory than ever because everyone gets to see them being prayed over television. Racism, he says, "is Jike a scab on society. You keep picking the scab and sooner or later you get an infection. And we keep picking at the scab." Nobody should be shocked at race cards being played in the courtroom.

The judiciary, after all, is just another branch of our democratic government. These cards are freely shuffled into the decks of the other two branches. The scab keeps getting picked, but hey! whatever works. That's the morality. Or amorality.

We've all heard it: You hire defense attorneys to free their clients and political strategists to elect their candidates at whatever cost. "All's fair," notes veteran consultant Joe Cerrell. "It's the real world." It's not "how you played the game" (Grantland Rice). It's "winning's the only thing" (VinceLombardi). And to paraphrase that juror, it's garbage in, garbage out for society.

a Government: Benjamin Bycel says commission chairwoman told him he will be fired over rifts with other agencies. She only confirms that she will hold a meeting on his status. De La Rocha denied telling Bycel But Bycel declared, "I don't know why anyone would want to change the conductor while the train's running just fine. We are generally recognized as one of the foremost ethics commissions in America." Riordan senior adviser William War-dlaw said Wednesday that the Riordan Administration has no role in De la Rocha's moves regarding Bycel. "Obviously, the mayor selected her and has great confidence in her, but this is herj position," he said.

A Bycel supporter, Commissioner Edwin Guthman, meanwhile, called on De la Rocha to postpone consideration of the matter "because this is not the way Please see BYCEL, A24 By KENNETH REICH TIMES STAFF WRITER Benjamin Bycel, the executive director of the city's Ethics Commission since its inception in 1991, says he is struggling to save his job after being told by Mayor Richard Riordan's new appointee as commission president, UCLA law professor Raquelle de la Rocha, that she has decided he should be fired. that, but she confirmed that she has called a closed personnel hearing on Bycel's status for Friday because, she said, neither the state Fair Political Practices Commission, of which she used to be a member, nor Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti is willing to deal with him. "The issue has been festering for a year and a half," De la Rocha said.

"Somebody is going to have to bring it up." By DAN MORAIN TIMES STAFF WRITER '1 SACRAMENTO-As it seeks to place a campaign reform initiative on neijt year's ballot, California Common Caus reported Wednesday that Senate GOP Leader Rob Hurtt and his conservative allies have become the No. 2 and No. 3 largest donors to state legislative races; The political watchdog group's analy sis of campaign finance reports for 1993 and 1994 shows that Hurtt individually and his firm, Container Supply gave $1.2 million to get Republicans elected to the Legislature. Allied Business PAC, of which Hurtt is a member, gave an additional $1.08 million to legislative races. Combined, the donations from Hurtt and the separate political action com-mittee surpass the largest single donor, the California Teachers which gave $1.3 million, primarily to Democrat.

Individually, Hurtt ranked second and Allied was third, ahead of political heavyweights such as the California Medical the California Trial Lawr yers Assn. and the Assn. of California Insurance Companies. "The top 10 list is distinguished by thfe extraordinary rise and political influr ence of Rob Hurtt and Allied Business PAC," said Ruth Holton, director of California Common Cause. Donations from Hurtt and Allied amounted to the lion's share of funds raised by several candidates.

One, Seri. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside), a leader df antiabortion forces in the state Senate, received $319,000 for his 1994 campaign, with $166,000 coming from Allied, which now is called California Indej-pendent Business PAC. "The fact that one person and their company can essentially buy members of the Legislature is, I think, a frighten-Please see DONORS, A21 New UC President Greets Students Via Internet minutes, dozens attempted to do just that, signing on to the World Wide Web and querying Atkinson on everything from affirmative action to O. J. Simpson.

They didn't all get answers. But most of those who participated among them students from seven of the nine UC campuses as well as at least one Stanford student seemed pleased that the 66-year-old administrator had dared to tread into the realm of cyberspace. A UCLA student named Steve thanked Atkinson, saying, "It's the first time I've ever had direct communication with a UC president!" Thuon, a UC Berkeley senior, agreed: "You certainly didn't have to do this. I applaud you." The on-line chat was one of several activities Atkinson scheduled this week to introduce himself to the various constituencies of UC. During his first three days as president, Atkinson has met with UC chancellors and adminis-Please see ATKINSON, A23 By AMY WALLACE TIMES EDUCATION WRITER The advertisement in the college newspapers promised University of California students an experience "as real as it gets" a real-time, on-line computer conversation with new UC President Richard C.

Atkinson. "Ask questions," the ad said, "and get answers right from the top." On Wednesday night, for about 60 5.