$500 Gift Winds Up Nullifying Spitzer’s Vote

For Supervisor Todd Spitzer, the vocal chairman of the San Joaquin Hills toll road agency, it was a rare moment of silence on a policy decision for Orange County’s toll roads.

Spitzer recused himself from voting or deliberating on the award of a $90,000 contract to traffic forecasters Wilbur Smith and Associates after revealing to the board that he accepted campaign contributions from the firm in excess of $250.

Transportation Corridor Agencies board members are not allowed to vote on monetary contracts involving companies that have donated more than $250 to their campaigns.

Spitzer, who ran unopposed for the 3rd District supervisor’s seat in Tuesday’s election, said a routine review in anticipation of Thursday’s vote showed Wilbur Smith representatives had given him a total of $500 in the last year.

One of the strongest critics of the firms’ faulty predictions, Spitzer apologized to fellow board members for the conflict.

“Obviously, with hindsight being 20-20, I’d prefer that I hadn’t taken the contributions and I could vote on this issue today,” said Spitzer, who will be eligible to vote on Wilbur Smith contracts after April 17.

The donations came in the form of two breakfast tickets purchased by Wilbur Smith Vice President Ed Regan and another employee for a Spitzer fund-raiser. Regan, who is based in Connecticut, said he almost never goes to political fund-raisers and only attended Spitzer’s event because he happened to be in California at the time.

“We weren’t trying to buy influence by going. We were just being courteous to a board member,” Regan said.

Spitzer said he was unaware at the time of the breakfast last April that anyone from Wilbur Smith had been invited. The event was thrown by an engineering firm with Orange County offices, he said. He also said he didn’t anticipate any contracts for Wilbur Smith coming up for board review. The firm has a contract with Orange County’s toll road agencies that expires in June 2002.

“Every member of the board gets campaign contributions from people who do work with the agency. There is no prohibition on that,” Spitzer said. “The legal prohibition is if you’ve accepted more than $250. I did, and I recused myself as a result.”

Spitzer said he will continue to lead an ad hoc committee concentrating on increasing revenue and examining why significant errors were made in traffic forecasts for the troubled 15-mile toll road.