Roth Considers Abstaining on Backers’ Project : Government: County lawyers alert him to potential conflict in upcoming vote on condo project favored by family that has given supervisor trips and $8,500 loan.

SANTA ANA —  Alerted by county lawyers to a potential conflict of interest, County Supervisor Don R. Roth is debating whether to abstain from a vote next week involving political supporters who have given him three weekend getaways and what amounted to an $8,500 interest-free loan, aides said Wednesday.

“We’ll have until next Tuesday to analyze it and advise the supervisor . . . on whether he should abstain,” said Dana Reed, one of Roth’s lawyers in a criminal probe into allegations of influence peddling.

D & GJ Investments, a Laguna Beach-based partnership owned by members of the Dougher family, is asking the Board of Supervisors to approve a subdivision parcel map that would give the final go-ahead for development of a $5-million condominium project in Midway City on family-owned land.

Roth voted along with the rest of the board to give zoning approval for the project last Dec. 10, and county officials described next Tuesday’s vote by the supervisors as an administrative formality that is required by state law.

It could nonetheless pose legal problems for Roth because of disclosures by The Times earlier this year that the supervisor has received several unreported gifts from the Doughers.

The newspaper reports prompted the district attorney’s office to open an investigation in May into whether Roth exchanged political favors for gifts in his dealings with local business people.

In past interviews, the supervisor has maintained that the Doughers were friends whose financial assistance and payments for trips did not represent gifts that had to be reported to the state. He has declined comment in recent months.

The Dougher family, which owns a dozen mobile home parks in Orange County, gave Roth what amounted to an unusual $8,500 interest-free loan when it allowed him to stay at an Anaheim Hills park for 18 months without paying rent or a security deposit. Gerard J. Dougher and his wife, Dorothy, also hosted Roth three times on weekend getaways to Santa Catalina Island in 1990 and 1991.

One trip came just two weeks before the supervisors’ vote last December to approve the zoning change on property located next to the Dougher family’s Beach Bolsa Mobile Estates.

The “purpose” of that trip, Dorothy Dougher wrote on the back of a credit card receipt, was “to discuss supervisors’ meeting on rezoning Beach Bolsa property.”

The Doughers have said that they have agreed to sell the Midway City land to the Newport Pacific Development Corp. of Newport Beach for construction of a 42-unit condominium complex despite opposition by some neighbors.

Roth stayed several times free of charge at a Palm Springs area condominium owned by Newport Pacific owner Magdy Hanna, but the supervisor did not report these trips as gifts in state-required economic disclosure filings.

The Doughers and Hanna could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Reed and Steven E. Malone, the supervisor’s chief of staff, said no decisions have been made on whether Roth will vote on the map approval.

Malone said lawyers in the county counsel’s office contacted Roth’s office this week to alert him to the upcoming vote on the Dougher project and “to give us time to figure out what to do.”

This is done routinely on legislative matters that may involve a conflict for a supervisor, he said.

Malone said Roth then turned the matter over to his lawyers for guidance, and “they’ll let us know what they think before next Tuesday.”

The aide added, however, that Roth himself “hasn’t acknowledged there was a conflict.”