MATHIS WINKLER -- Reporter’s Notebook

The anonymous caller checked in at random, but with a certain

consistency nonetheless.

“This is [Councilman] Gary Proctor’s real home phone number,” he’d

tell another Pilot reporter before reciting the seven digits, which were

preceded by a San Jose area code.

Proctor’s not living in Newport Beach? Surely that’s something we

should check into, thought my editors, who approached me about the calls.

Been there, done that, came my reply.

After all, I’d talked to Proctor about his living situation when I

interviewed him for a City Council candidate profile last September.

“What do you say to people who might call you the ‘Hillary Clinton of

Newport Beach’?” I’d asked Proctor, who had just moved to a West Newport

Beach condominium in November of 1999.

He didn’t miss a beat before responding.

“Look at the people that have endorsed me,” he said, adding that the

list included then-Councilwoman Jan Debay, the city’s firefighter and

police unions and the Airport Working Group.

“They endorsed me because of what they viewed to be my integrity,” he

said. “If they thought I was lying . . . they ought not support me.”

Fine by me, I thought, and reported all that and the fact that his

wife, Sandra, and the couple’s two children had moved to San Jose to take

care of sick family members.

Newport Beach residents apparently didn’t mind that Proctor had just

joined the community after living in Tustin for more than three decades.

While the races in two other council districts had tight outcomes,

Proctor got a whopping 64.3% of the vote.

What’s the point, you might ask. Well, a few weeks ago, I went through

the journalistic equivalent of the Soviets’ feelings when Americans

landed on the moon. We call it “getting beat” in the business. What it

basically means is that some other paper reports on a great story that I

should have written about myself. A big “no-no,” in other words.

When your editors turn ashen and stop speaking to you, there’s a

pretty good chance that you’ve just gotten beat. It so happened when the

o7 OC Weekly f7 in its March 23 issue ran a story explaining that

Proctor was, indeed, living in San Jose.

Santa Clara County property records showed that the Proctors had

bought an $820,000, 3,900-square-foot home in San Jose, the magazine

reported.

So far, so “whatever.” Last time I checked, no laws prevent people

from buying houses wherever they want to.

But then came the problem. The story went on to explain that Proctor

had taken a $7,000 homeowner’s state tax exemption on the San Jose home.

And according to Santa Clara County tax laws, that can only be done when

the person uses the house “as their principle place of residence.”

Uff! Well, if that’s the case, Proctor can’t be registered as a voter

in Orange County, because he needs to live here, and that means he can’t

possibly be elected as a council member. At the very least, he’s taking a

tax deduction he shouldn’t be taking, I thought. And it’s surely

something I should have dug up myself.

Turns out that the truth in these cases really lies in the details.

What theo7 Weeklyf7 reporter apparently didn’t ask the folks up in

Santa Clara is whethero7 bothf7 Proctors had been listed as

benefactors of the tax exemption.

It’s only Sandra Proctor. Not Gary. And as far as the people handling

such matters up there, that’s fine, they told me when I called.

After returning from a 20-day vacation to Australia on Tuesday,

Proctor said that he’d been a little confused by the story. Yes, he was

spending time up north, where he also has a second law firm. Yes, his

commuter life was not something he hopes to do forever.

“It’s a problem that I’m having to divide my time and attention,” he

said, adding that he’s looking to buy a house in Newport Beach.

“I’m prepared to be criticized for making those decisions,” he said.

“But I thought I laid all those things out front from day one.”

Don’t get me wrong. This is not an attempt to get back at the esteemed

journalists at the o7 Weeklyf7 . It just seems that sometimes it’s

worth it to wait a little longer before writing a story and deal with

those terrified looks on your editor’s faces when they think the paper’s

been beat. But just so you know -- I’m not planning on repeating this any

time soon.

* MATHIS WINKLER covers Newport Beach for the Pilot.