Robert Gardner -- THE VERDICT

During the days when the so-called Balboa Bunch ran this town -- 1928

until the mid-1940s -- City Clerk Frank Rinehart was cast as the villain,

the “payoff guy.”

I think this was mainly because Frank looked the part. If Central Casting

had been looking for someone to play the part of a dirty, dishonest

public servant, it couldn’t improve on Frank Rinehart. He looked like a

sleazebag. Whenever I saw him, I thought of Uriah Heep.

Like Dickens’ character, Frank was always wringing his hands, a practice

which is traditionally looked upon as a sign of dissemblance, if not

dishonesty.

In Frank’s defense, I remember he had some kind of a skin problem with

his hands that accounted his habit.

Also, Frank never spoke up like a good, honest public servant is supposed

to do. Frank was a mutterer, a world-class mutterer.

At City Council meetings, Frank as city clerk would mutter something.

Lloyd Claire, who really ran the town, would move that whatever Frank had

muttered be passed, and it was.

The only way to find out what had been muttered and passed was to look at

Frank’s notes the next day. And there it was, in beautiful handwriting,

explicit and comprehensive.

So why go to the City Council meetings? Just go to Frank’s office the

next morning and read his notes.

I think Frank probably liked his image. When I was city judge, no one,

least of all Frank Rinehart, ever asked me to do anything improper.

When Frank came in with a parking ticket or traffic ticket, he paid for

it out of his pocket. But I am sure he told the holder of the ticket he

had “fixed” it.

When I was practicing law, he did make one approach to me which I could

construe as improper. However, it was so ambiguous that to this day, I do

not know whether it was improper or not.

This is not to say the administration of the Balboa Bunch was squeaky

clean. After all, it inherited a tradition of illegality. We had

wide-open gambling on Main Street, which the City Council declared

“legal.” The gamblers simply saw to it that those elected to the City

Council looked with favor on gambling, which in those Depression days

helped keep the city out of the red.

And long before Frank Rinehart and the Balboa Bunch took office, the town

had a tradition of looking the other way when Tony Carnero was landing

illegal liquor at the city dock, and our justly famous or infamous

drugless drug store sold nothing but illegal alcohol.

Still, the Balboa Bunch and its front guy, Frank Rinehart, ran the town

during the Depression and kept it out of bankruptcy. I still think if

Frank Rinehart had looked more like Charlton Heston and less like Peter

Lorre, he would not have been looked upon as the “payoff guy” for the

Balboa Bunch.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.