Times Staffers Lead the Pack at O.C. Press Club Awards : Journalism: Watchdog Award goes to series about water district abuses that led to changes in state law. Register wins second most.

NEWPORT BEACH —  Staffers from The Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition won the Orange County Press Club’s most prestigious award, along with 50 other prizes, at the club’s 39th annual awards ceremony Saturday night. Among the paper’s prizes were 17 first-place honors.

Also at the ceremony in the Sheraton Newport Beach Hotel, former Times staffer Bill Billiter was honored with the Press Club’s Sky Dunlap Award for career excellence and contribution to the Orange County community. Billiter, 59, retired in December after 15 years with the Times.

The Orange County Register earned the second most awards, with 28 winners and 10 first-place awards. Other local publications that earned prizes were the Orange County Metropolitan, Orange County Business Journal, South County News, North County News and Orange Coast magazine.

Capturing the prestigious Watchdog Award for excellence in reporting about public officials were Times reporters Gregory Crouch and Mark Platte, who co-authored a series last spring uncovering a series of ethical violations and financial abuses by officials of the Santa Margarita Water District. The series led to changes in state law.

The judges called the Santa Margarita project “an extremely well-written, well-researched series that triggered investigations of other public entities (and) brought about sweeping changes on the personnel and auditing procedures of the water board and led to the resignation of top officials.” Shirley Grindle, a longtime local activist who has pressed for ethics reforms in all levels of county government, presented the award.

Times photographers Mark Boster and Alexander Gallardo each captured two first-place trophies. Boster won the portrait and news photo categories and placed second for photo illustration and photo portfolio. Gallardo took top honors in the portfolio competition and the sports photo category, and placed third in photo illustration.

Also earning two first-place trophies was Times artist Dennis Lowe, who won for best feature page layout and best graphic illustration.

Times writers picked up first-place prizes in a host of categories: Lily Dizon, who received the David McQuay Award for best column or commentary; Steve Emmons for best story on science or technology; Susan Howlett for best story on social issues; Matt Lait for best entertainment story; Barbie Ludovise for best sports story; Nancy Wride for best story on legal issues; and Dennis McLellan won the Marjorie Freeman Award for best humorous story.

Staff photographer Kari Rene Hall earned best photo illustration, while Robert Lachman of The Times garnered the award for best feature photo.

Copy editor Maria Laso Elders won for best headline portfolio.

Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry served as master of ceremonies for the event, at which last fall’s devastating Laguna fire was the subject of winning entries in several categories.

The Register earned top honors in the investigative category for articles titled “The Big Refugee Ripoff,” by writers Tracy Weber, Kim Christensen and Tracey Eaton. Register staffer Jeff Collins won the beat category for his coverage of crime and the package/series category for his in-depth story about the murder of a teen-age girl.

Other Register first-place winners were: Ron Campbell for business/finance; Paul Carbo for best informational graphic and best graphic portfolio; Katie Hickox and Teri Sforza for best feature; Karen Kelso for best news page layout; Bruce Strong for best photo essay; and Tracy Weber and Jeordan Legon for best news story.

Ray Giles of the Orange County Metropolitan won first place in the politics/government category and the Metropolitan’s Tom Singer won for best magazine story.

The Orange County Business Journal’s Peggy Hesketh won top honors for beat coverage among weekly publications, and Hesketh and Rick Reiff earned first place in the editorial category.

Among weekly publications, Petula Dvorak of the South County News won best feature and Greg Miller of the South County News won best news story.

The Press Club also awarded $3,000 in scholarships Saturday to six local college students. The winners were selected from 51 students who attended a mock press conference and wrote a news story on deadline the week before.

Corey Grice of Irvine Valley College won first place and $750 in the two-year college competition, while Michael Rocha of Cal State Fullerton got the top honor, and $750, in the four-year school competition.

Deborah Haar of Fullerton College and Adam Schiffer of Chapman each got $500 for second place; Frances Lee of Fullerton College and Leigh Logan of Cal State Fullerton each got $250 for third.

In the public-relations competition, UC Irvine came out with the most awards, five of the nine distributed.

Scott Nelson of UCI earned a first-place trophy for feature release; UCI’s Randall Black got top honors for news release; and Cathie Douglas won the external publication category.

Runner-up awards include:

News story (daily): second to John O’Dell of The Times, third to Kevin Johnson and Mark Platte of The Times.

News story (weekly): second to Tiffany Sparks of the South County News, third to Scott Woolley of the OC Business Journal.

Feature story (daily): second to Dennis McLellan of The Times, third to David Haldane of The Times and Martin Smith of the Register.

Feature story (weekly): second to Greg Miller of the South County News, third to Mary Guthrie of the South County News.

News photo: second to Gary Ambrose of The Times, third to Dave Carlson of the South County News.

Feature photo: second to Don Leach of the South County News, third to Gail Fisher of The Times.

Beat coverage (daily): second to Dan Weikel of The Times, third to Dennis McLellan of The Times.

Beat coverage (weekly): second to Marader Hovanesian of the OC Business Journal, third to Barbara Diamond of the South County News.

Package/series: second to James Grimaldi and the Register staff, third to Jerry Hirsch of the Register.

Photo essay: second to Karen Tapia of The Times, third to Gail Fisher of The Times.

Photo portfolio: second to Mark Boster of The Times, third to Gail Fisher of The Times.

Graphic portfolio: second to Scott Brown of The Times, third to David Puckett of The Times.

Headline portfolio: second to Curt Seeden of the North County News, third to Ruthanne Salido of The Times.

Magazine story: second to Craig Reem of the OC Metropolitan, third to Jean Hastings Ardell of Orange Coast.

Sports story: second to Mike DiGiovanna of The Times, third to Chris Foster of The Times.

Sports photo: second to Christine Cotter of The Times, third to Don Leach of the South County News.

Business/finance: second to Dawn Yoshitake and Ron Campbell of the Register, third, a tie between Elliott Blair Smith of the Register and Susan Howlett of The Times.

Entertainment: second to Cary Darling of the Register, third to Anne Valdespino of the Register.

Portrait photo: second to Kari Rene Hall of The Times, third to Glenn Koenig of The Times.

Photo illustration: second to Mark Boster of The Times, third to Alexander Gallardo of The Times.

Graphic illustration: second to Lisa Mertins of the Register, third to Paul Carbo of the Register.

Informational graphic: second to Scott Brown, David Puckett and Doris Shields of The Times, third to Dennis Lowe, Tom Penix and David Puckett of The Times.

Politics/government: second to Dave Lesher of The Times, third to Michael Flagg of The Times.

Legal issues: second to Martin Smith of the Register, third to Michael Flagg of The Times.

Social issues: second to James Gomez of The Times, third to Jean Pasco and Katie Hickox of the Register.

Science/technology: second to Michael Flagg of The Times, third to Susan Peterson of the Register.

Humor: second to Paul Hodgins of the Register, third to Jean Pasco and John Westcott of the Register.

Column: second to Melissa Balmain of the Register, third to Patrick Mott, OC Metropolitan.

Editorial: second to John Needham of The Times, third to Steven Burgard of The Times.

News page layout: second to Greg Beckmann, Dave Campbell, Lily Dow, Chuck Nigash, Juan Thomassie and Kent Zelas of The Times, third to John Fabris of the Register.

Feature page layout: second to Brenda Shoun of the Register, third to Maryanne Dell of the Register.

News release: second to Cynthia Morris of UCI, third to Dorothy Jean of UCI Medical Center.

Feature release: second to Cathie Douglas of Amies Communication, third to Randall Black of UCI.

External publication: second to Elaine Beno of the Orange County Transportation Authority, third to Sara Schantz of Paine Associates.