El Morro residents funded DeVore

Alicia Robinson

The assemblyman who has proposed two bills to allow El Morro

residents to stay in their mobile homes received thousands of dollars

in campaign donations from those living in the beachfront community,

and he still owes money to a board member of the company that handles

the homes’ leases.

Two bills introduced in February by 70th District Assemblyman

Chuck DeVore would allow residents to stay at El Morro Village for up

to 30 more years in exchange for a $50-million up-front payment and

increased rents. The state is in the process of evicting residents to

convert the land to public park use.

DeVore owes $28,800 in campaign loans to Roberto Brutocao and his

family, according to a report filed with the Secretary of State’s

office. Brutocao is DeVore’s campaign finance chairman and is a

shareholder and board member of El Morro Village Inc., the company

that manages the mobile-home park.

The report said DeVore’s campaign spent $515,420 and received

$457,173 in 2004. The Los Angeles Times reported $66,000 in campaign

donations and loans came from El Morro residents, Brutocao and his

relatives. DeVore said he did not know if that figure is accurate.

A fundraiser held at El Morro Village in 2003 netted DeVore’s

campaign about $10,000, he said, but he didn’t know how much

mobile-home park residents had otherwise contributed to his campaign.

DeVore maintains he has always thought it made fiscal sense to

extend the El Morro leases and halt the park-development plan, and

that’s why those with interests in the mobile-home park chose to

support him.

“People support candidates who agree with their stances,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 50 bucks, 100 bucks or 100,000 bucks; my

position was set before I got money from these people.”

The state parks department has a $900-million maintenance backlog,

so it’s foolish to spend $12 million to develop a park at El Morro

and lose residents’ rent payments, DeVore said.

His predecessors in the 70th District Assembly seat, John Campbell

and Marilyn Brewer, both proposed extending the El Morro leases,

DeVore said.

“It’s not like I’m the only guy who’s come up with this idea,” he

said.

Brutocao said he supported Campbell and Brewer when they held the

seat, and he and his family liked DeVore’s positions on more than

just El Morro -- his fiscal conservatism and his anti-abortion

stance, for example.

But the perception is there that campaign money was exchanged for

legislation, UC Irvine political scientist Mark Petracca.

With all the other things DeVore could be doing during his first

months in office, Petracca finds it difficult to believe the claim

that El Morro contributions didn’t drive the bills.

“There are two dozen other things that you could do to manifest

your interest in fiscal conservatism,” Petracca said. “There’s no

answer to the why-prioritize-this question.”

Some critics think it’s doubtful the bills will get any traction

in the Assembly.

A bill in 2002 that would have extended El Morro leases by five

years and directed the profits to maintain historic cottages at

Crystal Cove never got out of the Water, Parks and Wildlife

Committee, where this bill is likely to be heard. The 2002 bill was

written by Campbell, who held the 70th District Assembly seat for two

terms before moving to the state Senate in 2004.

“Mr. DeVore is a flagrantly conservative Republican, and he’s

going into a legislature where the committees are controlled by

Democrats, and I should think these bills would just die quietly at

their first committee hearing,” said Allan Beek, a spokesman for

environmental watchdog Stop Polluting Our Newport.

The group plans to send a letter opposing the bills to state

officials. A committee hearing on the bills has not yet been set.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.