SANTA ANA : Ex-Official Accused of Improper Mailing

The state Fair Political Practices Commission has accused former Santa Ana City Councilman Wilson B. Hart of improperly mailing thousands of letters during the 1989 council campaign.

According to the complaint, the Friends of Wilson Hart Committee sent out 11,000 letters purportedly by former Santa Ana Police Chief Raymond Davis suggesting that the other City Council candidates had “conflicts of interest.” The mailings were paid by Hart’s committee.

The letters were in violation of the state’s 1974 Political Reform Act because Hart failed to identify himself as the sender or mention his committee, the complaint said. According to the act, “the name of a candidate and his or her controlled committee must appear in at least 6-point type on the outside of each piece of a mass mailing.”

In another letter, Hart’s committee sent a reprint of a newspaper article that further described conflicts of interest by the other candidates. “The mailing emphasized the fact that Mr. Hart had not been mentioned in the article as having a conflict of interest,” the complaint read.

In those letters, Hart also did not identify himself or his committee as the sender.

The FPPC filed the two-count complaint Monday against Hart, who finished the April 4, 1989, election in third place. Hart, an attorney, faces up to $2,000 in fines for each count if he is found guilty. He will have to go before an administrative judge, who would then make recommendation to the commission.

Hart declined to comment on the charge, which was filed in Sacramento.

The complaint was brought after the FPPC received “sufficient evidence to bring about enforcement action,” said Sandra Michioku, a commission spokeswoman.

The identification of candidates are needed in mass mailings so that voters can assess the political messages in the campaign material, Michioku noted.

Hart was a councilman from 1984 to 1988. He lost to Councilman John Acosta in 1988 after the city was divided into different wards because of redistricting.

Hart had been running against swap meet operator Richards Norton, who won the race. The other candidates were businessman Lyle Overby, transportation official Lisa Mills and real estate agent William Camp.