Note by Roth Indicates Backdate Idea Was His : Investigation: ‘Need agreement--signed and back dated to 1990,’ supervisor wrote landlord in late 1991.

SANTA ANA —  A note apparently written by Supervisor Don R. Roth indicates that he initiated the backdating of a rental agreement to cover the period he lived without paying rent in a mobile home park owned by friends who later had business dealings with the county.

“Need agreement--signed and back dated to August 15, 1990,” Roth wrote to mobile home park owner Gerard J. Dougher at the top of a draft agreement--now in the hands of law enforcement officials--that the supervisor sent in late 1991, around the time he was moving out of the park.

Roth has refused to discuss the backdating issue in the past, and an aide to Roth said Tuesday the supervisor was unavailable for comment. Roth’s attorney, Dana Reed, also declined to discuss the issue, saying: “I’m not going to comment on a document I haven’t seen.”

In April of this year, Roth produced a typed rental agreement and a canceled January, 1992, check for $8,500 to counter suggestions that he had accepted rent-free accommodations that he failed to disclose on his financial disclosure report in accordance with state law. At the time, Roth said that the agreement was prepared and signed in 1990.

Roth said he lived at the Dougher-owned Ponderosa Travel Trailer Park from mid-1990, when he broke up with his wife, Jackie, until late 1991. The rental agreement that Roth gave The Times Orange County Edition in April was dated Aug. 15, 1990, and stated that Roth would pay $500 a month in back rent, without interest, after he moved out.

Donald G. Dougher, the brother and business partner of Gerard, has acknowledged that he and Roth did not sign the rental agreement until early January of this year--after federal agents and newspaper reporters started questioning whether Roth was paying rent at the park.

The Dougher brothers and other family members own a dozen mobile home parks in Orange County.

Donald G. Dougher said in an interview with The Times last month that his brother Gerard told him the agreement had to be backdated because unnamed people “might be making trouble for Roth” over his stay at the park. Donald Dougher also said his brother told him they had to draw up the agreement because Roth had lost his original copy.

The FBI, the Orange County district attorney’s office and the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission are all now investigating Roth’s relationship with the Doughers to see whether the supervisor violated political disclosure or conflict-of-interest laws. The FBI has said it wants to determine whether Roth engaged in a quid pro quo to trade gifts for political favors.

Last December, around the same time he moved out of the Anaheim park, Roth joined the other four supervisors in voting to overrule a Planning Commission decision and approve a $5-million condominium project on Dougher-owned land in Midway City. In addition to giving Roth unreported gifts, the Doughers have contributed at least $6,550 to his past campaigns for supervisor and Anaheim city councilman, records show.

The Times disclosed in April that Roth had failed to report in state-mandated filings that the Doughers had hosted him on three trips to Santa Catalina Island or given him what amounted to an $8,500 interest-free loan through his rental agreement at the Anaheim park.

Roth has said in past interviews that the Doughers were merely good friends who helped him out of a financial bind by allowing him to defer his rent at the Anaheim park. The supervisor said he always intended to pay them back, and he pointed to the final rental agreement--predating his stay at the park--as evidence of that.

But the handwritten note contradicts that account.

According to sources, Roth apparently prepared the draft of the rental agreement in December 1991, even as he was moving out of the park. He left instructions to “back date” the document, then sent it to Gerard Dougher. Dougher apparently edited it, had the final copy typed and had his brother, Donald, sign it.

Donald Dougher said that when he met with his brother in an office garage six months ago and signed the final agreement, the space for Roth’s signature was still blank. Donald Dougher said his brother told him he was going to take it immediately afterward to Roth’s home for his signature.

A family member said Tuesday that Gerard Dougher was unavailable to speak with a reporter. The family’s attorney, Richard E. Drooyan, declined comment.

The draft of the unusual three-paragraph rental agreement--far shorter than the Doughers’ standard 15-page form--also reveals an apparent uncertainty over the rent and the duration of the contract, even as it was being finalized.

The handwritten note suggests that Roth should pay either $600 a month for 17 months, totaling $10,200, or $500 a month for 18 months, totaling $9,000. Gerard Dougher apparently scratched those figures out and inserted that Roth should pay $500 per month “for approximately 18 months beginning August 15, 1990 or until his pending divorce is finalized, whichever occurs first.”

Roth has said that the $500 a month he paid was the fair market rent for the accommodations he used at the park, but residents of Dougher parks in Anaheim and elsewhere contend that many park residents are paying much more in rent.