An ongoing feud between District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Supervisor Todd Spitzer took another turn Tuesday when Orange County’s top prosecutor accused the supervisor of impersonating an assistant district attorney in a recent robocall.
Rackauckas called an afternoon news conference to criticize Spitzer for implying in the script of the call to voters that he is an assistant district attorney, a job he lost in 2010 when Rackauckas fired him.
Spitzer — who showed up after the D.A.’s news conference to hold his own impromptu back-and-forth with reporters — made a call supporting Measure A, which would create an ethics commission to enforce an ordinance governing campaign finance rules.
Shirley Grindle and Chapman University professor Fred Smoller, two of the driving forces behind Measure A, told reporters they were barred from the D.A.’s news conference.
Grindle blasted Rackauckas, saying the reason Measure A came into being was because Rackauckas would not enforce the TINCUP — which stands for Time is Now Clean Up Politics — ordinance.
In the robocall, Spitzer said:
“This is Supervisor Todd Spitzer. I have always played by the rules. As an assistant district attorney, I know that many politicians do not. We must have oversight of politicians in Orange County. So please join me and other good-government advocates and vote ‘yes’ on Measure A on your vote-by-mail ballot or at the voting booth itself on June 7th. Measure A will create a truly independent ethics commission free of political influence and corruption. Remember, vote yes on Measure A.”
Rackauckas said he was “calling on Mr. Spitzer to apologize to the public” for representing himself as a current prosecutor, and to make another robocall to the same voters to set the record straight that he is no longer an assistant district attorney.
Rackauckas accused Spitzer of sidestepping Fair Political Practices Commission rules that require identifying who paid for the ad.
Rackauckas said he hoped that Spitzer wouldn’t “insult” the public by trying make it appear as a “big misunderstanding” because Spitzer, as a longtime attorney and politician, should know better.
“He knows how to say he was a prosecutor in the past,” according to Rackauckas. That Spitzer allegedly improperly represented his stature with the District Attorney’s Office in a call about the establishment of an ethics commission is an “irony not lost on anyone,” the D.A. said.
Last week, Spitzer seized on an Orange County grand jury report to blast the district attorney’s ethics.
The grand jury’s most biting criticism related to the Public Guardian’s Office, but it was also critical of the Public Administrator’s Office, which has been run by Rackauckas since the county separated the agencies.
The public administrator handles the estates of those who die without a will. The public guardian cares for the elderly or ill who have no one else to help them.
The feud between the two public officials stems from Rackauckas’ firing of Spitzer in 2010 when he intervened in a case involving then-Public Administrator-Guardian John Williams.
Spitzer had called Williams’ office about a woman in a check-kiting investigation who he said may have been a victim of domestic violence and should not be prosecuted.
Rackauckas accused Spitzer of using his job as a prosecutor to intimidate Williams’ employees and cited that as one reason he fired him.
Spitzer went on to be elected to the Board of Supervisors and has said he would run for Rackauckas’ job in the future.
Spitzer said he was fired for blowing the whistle on the “incompetence” of Williams and Rackauckas’ wife, Peggi Buff, in the Public Administrator-Guardian Office.
When speaking with reporters after his former boss’ news conference, Spitzer said the public criticism of him amounted to retaliation. He said he was being targeted for pointing out the issues in the grand jury report and for raising questions about Rackauckas’ alleged failure to file the correct reports on $30,000 in campaign contributions for an event to advocate for a regional human trafficking task force, which is a pet cause of Rackauckas’ chief of staff, Susan Kang Schroeder.
Spitzer agreed with Grindle that Rackauckas has failed at cracking down on campaign violations.
Rackauckas denied he was retaliating against Spitzer, saying he had to raise the issue so the public wouldn’t get the wrong idea about the District Attorney’s stance on the ethics commission.
Rackauckas said he has not taken a position on Measure A and declined to say whether he would file a FPPC complaint or investigate Spitzer about the robocall.
Spitzer denied trying to trick voters, repeatedly pointing out how in the beginning of the script, he refers to himself as a county supervisor. He said Rackauckas is “mincing” words about his present-tense reference to himself as an assistant district attorney because it should be obvious to voters that he cannot be a prosecutor and supervisor at the same time.
Measure A is a “referendum on the lack of performance from the District Attorney’s Office” on ethics, Spitzer said.
— City News Service