Countywide : Ex-Mayor, Professor May Challenge Riley

Laguna Beach environmentalist Jon S. Brand announced Tuesday that he has formed an exploratory committee to challenge four-term Supervisor Thomas F. Riley in next June’s election.

Brand, 52, an Orange Coast College geography professor and a former mayor of Laguna Beach, said the 73-year-old Riley was “on the wrong side” on such issues as airport expansion and new freeway construction.

One year after the voters rejected Proposition A, a tax measure to build more freeways, “developers are thwarting the public will” by persuading supervisors to start a fee assessment program for the San Joaquin and Irvine Hills freeways, Brand said. He also accused Riley of not taking “vigorous” action to block oil drilling off the Orange County coast.

Meanwhile, Riley said he believed public sentiment supported more freeways in the county because “being unable to move traffic in Orange County can be the ruination of our economic vitality.” He also pointed out that he had led county opposition to drilling as far back as 1977.

Brand, a Republican, said he was 99% sure he would run against Riley unless he decides in early January that the race was “useless or suicide--or someone puts a contract out on me.” He said he expected to spend about $150,000--enough for at least two district mailings--in the race.