Rehab activists target Newport councilman

Newport Beach rehabilitation home activists have put up most of the money to finance a flood of negative direct mail opposing District 2 Councilman Steve Rosansky’s reelection bid, campaign documents released Thursday show.

The political action committee Newporters for Ethical Government, which has paid for several pieces of direct mail over the past few weeks accusing Rosansky of profiting from drug rehabilitation homes in his district, managed to raise $57,000 since it was formed Oct. 1, campaign disclosure statements show.

The group has spent more than $33,000 on campaign literature so far, according to the disclosure statements.

The company U.S. Realty Group donated $25,000 to the committee, records show.

Rehabilitation home activist Bob Rush is president of the firm. Newporters for Ethical Government also had two other donors, attorney Jeffrey Walsworth, who lives in Newport Coast, and the Anaheim-based business Hot Rods, run by Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach member Daniel Welden, according to Jack Wu, who is acting as spokesman for the group. Hot Rods has given Newporters for Ethical Government $30,000, records show. Walsworth donated $2,000.

“Ultimately the group has been funded by Newport Beach residents who put their money where their mouth is,” Wu said.

Walsworth could not immediately be reached Thursday to comment, and the Daily Pilot could not find a working phone number for Welden.

Rush declined to comment Thursday and directed questions to Wu.

Rush has accused Rosansky of malfeasance in the past. The activist waved a stack of papers in the air at a City Council meeting in October 2007, claiming the papers documented how Rosansky was making a profit from rehabilitation homes in his district, but the activist refused to show the papers to the city’s outside legal counsel or city staff, claiming he wanted to reveal the evidence against Rosansky in a public forum.

“I guess it doesn’t surprise me that Bob is behind the mailings, which are false and misleading,” Rosansky said. “I think Bob has been discredited in the eyes of most Newport Beach residents. His wild conspiracy theories don’t pan out.”

Rush also accused former City Atty. Bob Burnham last year of making money off drug rehab facilities in Newport Beach.

Burnham subsequently ended his contract with the city as a consultant on John Wayne Airport issues, citing attacks from residents. The allegations against Burnham stemmed from his wife’s work with Orange County Drug Court while he was still city manager. Like Rosansky, Burnham has denied any conflict of interest on the issue.

The latest mailer, which refers to the councilman as “Steve ‘Halfway House’ Rosansky,” includes photographs of urine sample containers allegedly used for drug testing in garbage bags juxtaposed with photographs of an unoccupied West Newport house owned by Rosansky.

“They are not lies, they are not fabrication. We as a group stand behind everything that’s on those fliers,” Wu said.

The flier implies the photographs of the urine samples were taken in front of a house on Lugonia Street owned by Rosansky. Neighbors have complained about the house in the past because it has fallen into disrepair, but the house is vacant and under construction, Rosansky said.

The photographs of urine sample containers came from another house in the 200 block of Cedar Street, said Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff. Rush took garbage bags from the home on Cedar Street to his house and took the photographs there sometime last year, Kiff said.

“Bob Rush’s assumption was that there was recovery activity going on there, but I don’t think you could say that,” Kiff said. “It’s not illegal to do urine tests in somebody’s house.”

While Rosansky used to provide property management services for the house on Cedar Street, the councilman was not in charge of the house when the photographs were taken, but he was trying to find someone else to manage the property, Wu said.

“In 2008, he was still trying to find another real estate agent to manage that particular property in question,” Wu said.

Rosansky, who once rented out the house on Cedar Street for a friend, has not managed the property since the end of March 2007, he said. The councilman passed along a few phone numbers of a few real estate agents to the owner’s parents last year, but that was the extent of his involvement, he said.

“There’s nothing sinister there,” Rosansky said. “They like to spin this little web of a story around one little bit of information.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.