BOND TICKER : ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Vasquez to Vote for Tax Hike

Gaddi H. Vasquez, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, has officially announced his support for Measure R.

“I intend to vote for it,” he said Monday. “I have evaluated all the issues and the facts and the significant analysis that has been done by a lot of people and, after doing my own personal evaluation, I conclude I intend to vote in support of Measure R.”

But Vasquez said he would not actively campaign for the half-cent sales tax increase.

“I have not been asked and I don’t think I am in the appropriate position to do so,” he said, taking note of his duties as chairman to participate in the “day-to-day decision-making” that keeps the county operating.

Vasquez joins colleagues Marian Bergeson and William G. Steiner in saying they will vote for the sales tax, a key component of the county’s bankruptcy recovery plan.

Supervisor Jim Silva has said he opposes Measure R and “probably” will vote against it.

Only Supervisor Roger R. Stanton has yet to announce how he will vote on the issue. Stanton said last week he “will take a position” before the June 27 election.

“I am not reluctant to express my skepticism on this thing,” he said of the tax and the current recovery plan. In the meantime, Stanton said he will analyze various alternatives to the tax increase and urge County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy to devise a better solution to the financial crisis.

Moorlach Hires Ex-City Treasurer

A former Pomona city treasurer now serving as chief financial officer of the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation has been hired as assistant treasurer of Orange County.

County Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach said Daniel J. Hempel will start work Monday.

Hempel, an accountant who attended San Diego State University, has worked at Cal Poly since last year. Previously, he spent four years as Pomona’s treasurer, overseeing an $85-million investment portfolio. Before that, he was accounting manager for Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization.

His annual salary will be $82,139.

Recovery Plan to Be Outlined

The state Senate Special Committee on Local Government Investments, which has been investigating the Orange County bankruptcy, has scheduled a hearing this afternoon at which county officials will outline their bankruptcy recovery efforts.

Legislators at the Sacramento hearing will examine how the county plans to avoid default if Measure R--the proposed half-cent sales tax increase--is rejected by voters June 27.

Wall Street bankers are also expected to testify.

Compiled by Times staff writers Peter Warren and Jodi Wilgoren.