Gov.’s Irvine Stop Draws Cast of 2,000 Irked by His Policies

Braving heavy rain that drenched coats, hats and umbrellas, an estimated 2,000 protesters gathered outside an Irvine hotel Tuesday to express their opposition to a variety of proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was attending a fundraiser inside.

“Shame on you!” chanted the crowd, outside the Hyatt Regency Irvine, while waving banners with such messages as “Teacher Terminator” and “Arnold, Go Back to Hollywood.”

The demonstrators -- mostly teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public employees -- said they were upset by, among other things, the governor’s attempts to privatize pension funds, increase patient-to-nurse ratios in hospitals and cut school funding.

“He’s just looking out for corporate interests rather than patient interests,” said Lois Sanders, a nurse at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Apple Valley, about 90 miles northeast of Orange County. “He says he’s for the people, but he’s taking pensions away.”

Capt. Ken Whitehead of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said he was concerned not only about pensions but the potential loss of survivor benefits for spouses of fallen firefighters.

“We are here to serve,” he said, “yet [Schwarzenegger] is treating us like second-class citizens. We’re the first responders, yet he’s trying to gut us. We don’t think that’s fair.”

And Eric Padget, a teacher in the Garden Grove Unified School District who is president of the district teachers’ union, said he came to send a strong message about cutting education funds. “The cuts are affecting the kids,” he said. “We’re running on a shoestring right now.”

There was no comment on the protest from the Schwarzenegger camp, and police said they made no arrests.

“It was fairly peaceful,” said Lt. Jeff Love, spokesman for the Irvine Police Department. “People were loud and raucous at times, but they have that right.”