James A. Hayes; Supervisor, Assemblyman

James A. Hayes, former state assemblyman and member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors known for his work on juvenile justice reform, environmental protection and energy conservation, has died. He was 78.

Hayes, who stepped down from the board somewhat mysteriously and virtually bowed out of politics more than two decades ago, died Thursday in a Lomita nursing home. He had suffered from various health problems.

A lawyer born in Fowler, Calif., Hayes served on the Long Beach City Council from 1962 to 1966, then in the Assembly until he won his supervisorial seat in 1972. In Sacramento, he was chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and helped draft the California Coastal Zone Protection Act, later serving on the California Coastal Commission and a local coastal agency.

During the 1970s gasoline shortages, Hayes, by then a supervisor, proposed a voluntary gas allocation plan that evolved into the mandatory “odd-even” system for purchasing gasoline--people with license plates ending in even numbers allowed to buy one day, those with odd numbers the next--imposed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan.

Concerned that federal curbs on pollution might erode during the energy crisis, Hayes proposed establishment of a Los Angeles County Environmental Protection Agency. Yet after the state adopted a new air pollution control district system in 1976, which weakened the political clout of the Board of Supervisors on the local smog agency, Hayes led the board’s fight to withhold funding for that unit, which governed Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

As chairman of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court system, Supervisor Hayes was unrelenting in his demands for reform, particularly of the overcrowded Central Juvenile Hall. The supervisor made surprise inspections, criticized judges for a “grist mill” approach to juvenile cases and suggested ways to improve court efficiency and treatment of youngsters involved.

Hayes’ tenure on the board, which he chaired in 1974, was not untouched by scandal. In 1975, Los Angeles County Marshal Timothy Sperl was fired by the county’s Municipal Court judges after he was convicted of four felony counts and one misdemeanor. Sperl’s crime: assigning deputy marshals to provide transportation for Hayes and his associates and to sell tickets to fund-raisers for Hayes during the supervisor’s 1972 campaign for the board.

Yet neither the Sperl affair nor any of Hayes’ many achievements in office attracted the level of attention given his sudden departure from the county Hall of Administration.

On June 1, 1979, Hayes wrote a letter of resignation and within the hour quietly went home, leaving his staff to inform his fellow board members, the news media and the public.

“We are in no position to speculate on James A. Hayes’ reasons for resigning, suddenly and mysteriously,” editorialized The Times, and then went on to chastise him for leaving the board in the lurch without a majority vote only three weeks before the end of the fiscal year.

When a Times reporter surprised Hayes at his Palos Verdes Peninsula home a week after the resignation, the ex-supervisor said something about having accomplished his goals and finding it unnecessary to seek reelection in his 4th Supervisorial District, which stretched down the coast from Malibu to the Orange County line. A Times editorial said the explanation was “not convincing.”

“I picked the right time to leave,” Hayes told the reporter who confronted him.

“Goodbye, then, to Jim Hayes, wherever he is--and not even his staff claims to know for certain,” The Times’ editorial concluded. “In his seven years on the board, he has done much to improve the county system of juvenile justice, and has been the leader in drafting energy conservation measures to cope with the present gasoline crisis and that of 1973. In recent years, he was truly independent--the third vote that kept county government moving and on the tracks. But his abrupt departure has thrown the switch.”

At the time of his death, associates said Hayes had made the seemingly sudden decision to resign after suffering a stroke.

Despite his 16 years of active service in politics, he clearly had no problem leaving the limelight. He rarely worked in anyone’s campaign over the next 20 years. When a Times reporter tried to do a follow-up story in 1981 on his life after leaving office, Hayes said he didn’t want to give “even a fragment of an interview” and added, “I’m a private citizen now.”

After his resignation, Hayes practiced law with the Los Angeles firm then known as Kadison, Pfaelzer, Woodard, Quinn and Rossi, and later established his own office in Rolling Hills Estates. He also pursued energy-related business interests.

The former legislator is survived by his wife, Sonja; two sons, James Jr. and Jeffrey; three daughters, Joan Evans, Judy Favero and Reya Hayes; two stepsons, Craig and Lee Wooldridge; and 18 grandchildren.

The Los Angeles City Council adjourned in Hayes’ memory Tuesday. No date has been set for any funeral or memorial services.