‘Citizen Watchdog’ : He Keeps an Eye on the Spenders

San Juan Capistrano has the swallows in March. Orange County government has David A. Brubaker in July.

Wednesday marked the 11th consecutive year that Brubaker, 37, a computer programmer, has shown up for the annual county budget hearings to question and comment, listen and offer suggestions.

By dint of longevity, study and willingness to speak out, Brubaker has made himself the “citizen watchdog” of the county budget.

Few members of the public attend the regular Board of Supervisors meetings, which are held during working hours on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. At budget time, the audience is large, but those attending are mostly county employees or representatives of interest groups, such as the homeless or indigent seeking more funds for medical care.

Appears Once a Year

Brubaker, a former county employee, appears to have no ax to grind, testifying simply as a private citizen and only once a year.

“It’s possible that working for the county I got interested in how government works and thought, ‘This is my government. Maybe I should put in my two cents about how it’s functioning,’ ” Brubaker said before the budget hearings opened.

The Garden Grove father of six was working part time as a computer programmer for the county’s Environmental Management Agency in 1977 and going to college on the GI Bill when he saw a notice of budget hearings one day and looked in.

“I sat and couldn’t believe what I saw,” he remembered. “The supervisors had items to spend millions and millions of dollars and were approving them as fast as they came up. I said, ‘Doesn’t anyone question these?’ ”

Apparently no one did, so Brubaker questioned them.

Specifically, he asked that year why the communications portion of the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Commission was increasing from $2,000 to $7,500, in an overall $150,000 commission budget. A supervisor conceded that that was a good question and directed a commission official to answer. The official said it covered telephone costs. The supervisor said $2,000 should be fine and vetoed the request for an increase. Brubaker was hooked.

“That inspired me,” he laughed. The same results “haven’t happened since,” but that one experience convinced him that “the public can have input” into government.

“Shortly after that, Proposition 13 did my job for me,” Brubaker said. Before the 1978 tax-slashing proposition was passed by California voters, county supervisors “printed money” at budget hearings, deciding how much to spend and raising taxes to cover it, Brubaker said.

Now, Brubaker said, there is little “fat” in the budget.

Nevertheless, Brubaker continues to attend the hearings and do his homework beforehand.

Each year, the county puts out a budget book, an inch-thick document blueprinting its plans to raise money and spend it. Brubaker gets that book as soon as it is available and estimates that he spends 15 to 100 hours poring over it, determining where the money goes. He calls departments for information about items that interest him, and he addresses the supervisors.

Although Brubaker said he has clashed with at least one supervisor just about every year, board members have praised him for knowing his subject, preparing his testimony and keeping it short.

Ralph B. Clark, then board chairman and now retired, told Brubaker last year that “we have a lot of respect for you.”

On Wednesday, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder took issue with some of Brubaker’s comments.

Brubaker had suggested that county employees would “have to suffer” because the supervisors are trying to withhold pay raises because they have to pay for new jails. Brubaker said that “proper planning for jails” in the past would have allowed both new jails and pay increases.

Wieder called his comments “totally unfair” but added: “I’m sure our county administrative office will welcome any guidance you can give them.”

Brubaker also asked about a $150,000 increase in the county’s payment to its lobbyists in Washington and Sacramento. He was told it reflected a switch from 12-month to 18-month contracts.

Brubaker pointed out two typographical errors in budget documents and praised the county’s program to give cash bonuses for employees’ money-saving suggestions, saying such programs save more money than they cost.

As he prepared for the budget hearing, Brubaker said that even when he does not change the supervisors’ minds, his presence does remind them that there is at least one person who is concerned how the public’s money is spent. He said he worries that too much tax money goes to the developing areas of the county, while the cities are shortchanged.

The supervisors “haven’t been taking care of the jail needs, they haven’t been taking care of the court needs, they haven’t been taking care of the arterial highway needs” of the whole county, Brubaker declared, but conceded that “the county doesn’t see it to the same extent I see it.”