The OC Register reports that Anaheim Council candidate Steve Chavez Lodge will get to keep “Chavez” as part of his name on the ballot — which shouldn’t surprise anyone since it is part of his legal name:

Margines said “Chavez” may be used on the ballot – it’s part of Lodge’s birth name – Steven Albert Chavez – and that he also remembered Lodge testifying in his courtroom when Lodge was a Santa Ana police officer. During that testimony, Margines said, Lodge was sworn in using his given name “Chavez,” the judge recalled.

To ensure no confusion, the judge ordered that Lodge’s entire name – Steven Albert Chavez Lodge – go onto the ballot.

This is a defeat for Anaheim gadfly Cynthia Ward, who filed the lawsuit — even while dodging all questions about whether or not she is personally paying for the legal services of the expensive, high-powered law firm representing her.

Ward’s lawsuit is raising other questions about who she is covertly on cahoots with in her efforts to undermine Lodge’s campaign. More on that to come in upcoming posts.

Blogger and Anaheim activist Cynthia Ward has filed a lawsuit to prevent Anaheim Council candidate Steve Chavez Lodge from using his name, Steve Chavez Lodge, on the ballot. Specifically, the “Chavez” part.

The specifics of the lawsuit have been covered by the local media. The assumption is including “Chavez” in his ballot name will help Chavez Lodge in a city where 50% of the population is Latino. Ward is a ferocious critic of his candidacy, presumably she’s trying to deny him any possible advantage.

Here’s a key fact: Ward’s lawyer is Fred Woocher, a liberal and one of the state’s top election lawyers who charges in the $500-an-hour range (more on Woocher later) representing liberal and Democratic causes in the state and around the country. The Lodge campaign is raising a hue and cry, demanding that Ward disclose who is paying Woocher’s fees, the implication being Ward is just a front person for whichever campaign or organization with a strong interest in keeping Lodge off the council – say, the Orange County Employees Association or the campaign of rival council candidate John Leos (the OCEA-endorsed candidate) –.is quietly paying Woocher to represent her.

Ward has been peppered with that question on blogs, in the media and by Lodge campaign e-mails, and she has answered them with evasive replies.

Yesterday, commenting on a Voice of OC story, she gave the appearance of answering it:

“I have not accepted a penny from anyone. Period. I do not know how to be more plain than that.”

But Ward answered a question no one is asking. Woocher is the one accepting the pennies (50,000 per hour, to be exact), not Ward.

The real questions Ward needs to answer are these:

• Is she paying for Woocher’s legal services on this lawsuit? Yes or no?
• If not, who is?

Ward was appointed by Supervisor Shawn Nelson as a director of the Orange County Cemetery District, which means she has to file a Form 700 disclosing her economic interests.  An examination of Ward’s Form 700 should dispel any notion she is paying for ultra-expensive Fred Woocher’s representation out of her own pocket.  She simply can’t afford him. The only believable explanation is someone else is paying Woocher, in which case Ward she really does owe the public full disclosure.

As a cemetery district director, Ward is a “designated employee” covered by the county’s gift ban ordinance (Section 1-3-22):

No designated employee shall solicit or accept any gift from any person whom he knows, or has reason to know, is doing business with the County, when such employee, by virtue of his County employment, could make a governmental decision, participate in a governmental decision, or use his or her official position to influence a governmental decision regarding the pending business of the donor, or has done any of the above during the twelve (12) months preceding the donation.

If Ward is paying for the lawsuit with someone else money – and it doesn’t matter if that third party is paying Woocher directly rather than through Ward — it is a “gift” and it falls under the county gift ban ordinance (legal bills aren’t included in the exempted categories), accepting it breaks the law.

If it is not a gift, then it is a political expenditure and needs to be reported as such, or else Ward is acting on behalf of another person or organization that is being deliberately hidden from the public.

And given Ward’s secretiveness on this topic, does anyone doubt she is hiding the identity of her benefactor? She certainly behaves like someone with something to hide.

Of course, Ward can end this controversy right now by disclosing who is paying for Woocher’s $500-an-hour services.

Recent history offers us a clue. Turn back the pages to spring 2007. Trung Nguyen held a 7-vote lead over Janet Nguyen in the 1^st Supervisor District special election. Simultaneous recounts were requested by two different parties: Janet Nguyen and a retired union member no one had ever heard of named Gerald Feathers (the net effect was to split the cost of the recount). Like Ward today, Feathers was represented by Fred Woocher and his legal team. As with Ward, it was obvious Feathers could not personally afford the tens of thousands of dollars Woocher and his attorneys were charging. Like Ward today, Feathers refused to say if he was paying for Woocher’s services out of his own pocket, or identify who was footing the bill.

It has since become common knowledge among insiders that it was the OCEA paying for Woocher throughout the long and expensive recount.

The big difference is unlike Ward, Feathers was not a “designated employee” of the county, covered by county gift ban ordinance, so acting of OCEA’s cut-out didn’t violate the law. OCEA fits four of the ordinance’s five definitions of “doing business with the county”:

(1) Seeking the award of a contract or grant from the County; or

(2) Having sought the award of a contract or grant from the County in the past twelve (12) months; or

(3) Being engaged as a lobbyist or lobbyist firm, as defined in this article, from the time of such engagement until twelve (12) months after the award of the contract grant, license, permit, or other entitlement for use, which was the subject of the engagement; or

(4) Having an existing contractual relationship with the County, until twelve (12) months after the contractual obligations of all parties have been completed; or

Anaheim Municipal Employees Association, which is affiliated with and represented by the OCEA, would also fall under these definitions.

Another suspect, the OCEA’s candidate for Anaheim City Council, John Leos, would also fall under these definitions. Leos is county employee and until a few months ago, a member of the OCEA Board of Directors.

Truth the told, it’s hard to think of any likely funder of Woocher’s litigation for Ward who is NOT defined as doing business with the county.

By agreeing to be the plaintiff on this lawsuit against Steve Chavez Lodge, Ms. Ward has allowed herself to wander into a legal-political cul-de-sac from which she might find know exit. She doesn’t seem to have thought through what the potential the implications and consequences for her could be.

The puzzling thing is Ward’s continuing refusal to be transparent about who is paying for Woocher’s representation of her. Anyone who has read her blog posts and comments over the last couple of years knows that hiding-the-ball, obfuscation and evasion are out of character for her, and only make it seem more certain she is covering others.

This is a rather cleaver way for the YR’s to get the word out about their Summer Party.  I am being told they already have over 100 RSVP’s.  This means there are less than 50 tickets still available.

A $10 entrance fee will get you an open bar, a taco truck and an ice cream cart.  This is a real great deal and I am sure it will sell out soon.  You can get your ticket by clicking here.

Here is the Video Invite:

Politicians will say anything to get elected. We all know that.

Heck, Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet. And Bill Clinton said he “did not ha’ave,” well you know the rest.

That brings us to our latest edition of “Lies Politicians Tell.” Today’s contestant: Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar.

Edgar is famous in his hometown for his history of supporting taxes and fees. In fact, during his Primary campaign he was dubbed “Taxin’ Troy” for his history of being a serial tax raiser.

But today, at a lunch of the Family Action PAC, Troy took his taxing past, his current efforts to live up to his Taxin’ moniker, and mixed it with a heaping dose of outright falsehood.

During lunch, Edgar got up and told the crowd that he was currently pushing a Measure to appear on the November ballot to “lower” the Utility Tax in his town.

[Cue the Laugh Track]

What in fact Edgar is up to in his teenie town is quite the opposite.

Utility User Taxes are taxes imposed by cities on things ranging from water, gas, and electricity to home phones and cable tv. Most cities in Republican Orange County don’t even impose one at all. In fact, Los Alamitos is one of only 11 cities in Orange County to have a Utility User Tax.

Most of these taxes were passed and imposed a long time ago, prior to home internet access even being a figment of Al Gore’s imagination. But lately, more and more of the cities that do have one, have been updating their UUT’s to include new technologies, like the internet and cell phones.

This includes Los Alamitos, where Troy Edgar serves as Mayor. Seeing a pot of money that isn’t yet being tapped, Edgar did what any good tax raiser would do, and devised a scheme to get his hands on this extra money.

But knowing the political price he’d pay – he simultaneously tried to cover his tracks by reducing the current UUT by a measly 1%. He claims this will make the tax “revenue neutral,”.  Any rational thinking person knows that broadly expanding the definition of a tax on services that are used almost universally, and claiming to off-set it by a reduction of the tax on services like home phones that are being used less and less, will no doubt make City coffers grow.

And if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck – my friends, that’s a tax increase.

Troy can call it whatever he wants. And he can continue to spew nonsense in hopes nobody will really examine his record. But unfortunately for Troy, facts are stubborn things.

And the facts once again show why Troy has earned the name, Taxin’ Troy Edgar.