From the Panther Newspaper, Chapman University
http://www.panthernewspaper.com

December 4, 2000

Chapman politics spark anger among city, county officials

By Will C. Matthews
Editor In Chief

A $26,000 loan from a Chapman trustee made to an independent special interest
group in October has resulted in intense scrutiny of the university by some in the
Orange County political arena for the negative campaign mailers that the loan
funded.

The loan has also left members of the Orange City Council reconsidering their
support of Chapman endeavors and many Orange residents questioning the role
that Chapman plays in their community.

According to records obtained from the Orange City Clerk's office, Doy Henley, an
Orange County resident known for his active support of the Lincoln Club as well as
for his involvement with Chapman's board of trustees, made the loan in October to
the Airport Working Group Political Action Committee (PAC), a Newport
Beach-based group funded to support the creation of the El Toro Airport.

The Airport PAC, which according to city records had just $92 at the start of the
campaign season, went on to spend nearly $41,000, some of which funded
negative mailings throughout Orange, urging city voters not to support candidates
who had come out against the building of a new international airport at El Toro, and
to support those candidates, including Orange Mayor Joanne Coontz, who are in
favor of the airport.

Orange City Councilman Mike Alvarez, elected to a second term in November, took
the brunt of many of the negative campaign mailers that have rocked what normally
is a politically staid community.

In what Alvarez classified as the "nastiest campaign in city history," he said he was
surprised that members of the university's community would choose to be so
prolifically involved in negative campaigning.

"I was floored when I heard that it was Doy [Henley], because there are a lot of
things regarding Chapman that comes through our council," Alvarez said.

Alvarez said that he felt "betrayed" by the university's leadership, sighting his
consistently pro-Chapman voting record during his first term in office.

He said that Henley's decision to fund the negative mailings will affect the way in
which he deals with Chapman in the future, and could endanger Chapman's future
relationship with the city.

"It will reflect in my behavior because I feel betrayed," Alvarez said. "You don't do
this to a sitting councilman. My record regarding Chapman has been impeccable,
but now I have to take another look at that."

All plans regarding university expansion, including the construction of the Wallace
All-Faiths Chapel, new parking lots, the proposed Chapman studios and the
proposed expansion of Bertea Hall must first be approved by a majority of the
five-member council.

Henley took issue with Alvarez's reaction, however, saying his personal political
leanings, and his resulting actions, should not reflect the university as a whole.

"He shouldn't throw any blame toward Chapman," Henley said. "I'm involved in a
wide variety of things in Orange County, and so my relationship with Chapman
shouldn't have any bearing on this."

Henley also disputed the mailings in question being called negative, saying that
Alvarez's substantial victory suggests the mailings "couldn't have been that bad."

Shirley Grindle, a long-time campaign watchdog in Orange County who has
overseen Orange city campaigns for the past eight years, said that the mailers were
in fact negative, and that the loan made by Henley to the independent Airport PAC
were not as independent as he claims them to be. Grindle claims that Coontz,
whose two terms as mayor had expired and who successfully ran for a seat on the
city council, was aware of the contribution that Henley was making and that they
would be used to fund mailings attacking her opponents.

"These are the dirtiest elections that I have ever seen," said Grindle, "and I don't
believe for a second that Coontz was unaware that these mailings were going out."

Contributions to a candidate's campaign are limited to $500 per contributor in the
city of Orange. However independent expenditures, like those made by the Airport
PAC to fund the mailings in Orange, are protected under the First Amendment,
which protects free political speech. Individuals who choose to contribute to
independent expenditures are not faced with contribution limits.

Thus, claims Grindle, political supporters often see independent expenditure
groups, like the Airport PAC, as a way of circumventing campaign contribution
limits. And that was what Henley was doing, Grindle said.

"Someone asked him to do it," she said. "It's a way of avoiding campaign
contribution laws."

But Coontz emphatically denied the allegations, saying she had nothing to do with
the negative mailers that were sent out attacking Alvarez and other anti-airport city
candidates.

"The problem I had is people felt I was responsible for [the mailings]," she said. "I
have never been involved in any literature attacking any candidates since I first
started serving in public office. I didn't appreciate people accusing me of something
I didn't do."

Grindle could not prove her allegations of Coontz knowledge of Henley's loan to the
Airport PAC.

Bill Kogerman, a Chapman alum and a leader in South Orange County's fight
against the proposed El Toro airport, worries about the image that Chapman is
embracing by having so many of its leaders be so vocal with their support of an
issue that is largely unpopular county wide.

He said that instead of setting themselves up to be recognized as airport
supporters, Chapman's leaders should be creating a place that caters to both sides
of the argument, more in keeping, Kogerman believes, with a university
atmosphere.

"Unfortunately, in certain segments of Orange County, Chapman has suffered a
lack of respect for having its leaders so far out as leaders on this," he said. "As a
university of higher learning, they should be focused on getting the facts of the
issue out instead of being a spokesperson for one side."

Kogerman also said that Henley's loan to the Airport PAC, and the tactics that the
PAC used in the election, also create an image problem for the university.

"Part of the [George] Argyros political machine attacked Alvarez simply because he
exhibited leadership in the Measure F fight," Kogerman said. "Now it seems they
vindictively chose to punish Alvarez. Their actions in this thing are really outside
their expressed charter. What part of their charter says that they should attack
people? It's reprehensible."

Alvarez said that the citizens of Orange were infuriated by the negative tone of the
campaign, and that, through Henley's donation, is being linked to Chapman.

"Normally in a situation like this [Chapman doesn't] get involved in campaigns," he
said. "For them to take such a high profile stance is stunning. Up until this election,
no universities were part of the El Toro fight. Now Orange is a new battleground in
a city that happens to have a university with two trustees who are big engines
behind the airport fight. It all connects and people are beginning to see that."

Alvarez said that prior to this election, the presence of Chapman in Orange was a
source of pride for citizens, but that due to the negativity of the campaign, and
Chapman's perceived association with that negativity, Orange residents are
questioning the role of the university in city and county politics.

"People in the city of Orange came away from this election wanting [Chapman
President Jim] Doti to reel in his trustees because they are negatively affecting
Chapman," Alvarez said. "This hurts the university because the university and the
city have always been as one. But to now be a part of the nastiest campaign in city
history hurts Chapman's image, especially in the minds of our voters."

Doti declined to comment for this report.
 
 

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