Some Bad Feelings Greet Abruptness of Supervisor Selection

The timing of Gov. George Deukmejian’s appointment of Gaddi H. Vasquez to the Board of Supervisors apparently took the entire Orange County legislative delegation by surprise and left at least two members of the Assembly openly disappointed and angry.

Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-La Habra), who was supporting Fullerton Mayor Richard C. Ackerman for the job, said at least half a dozen members of the county’s delegation had hoped to unite behind Ackerman, but Deukmejian never sought their advice.

“I think virtually everyone in the county was caught totally flat-footed by this appointment,” Johnson said Friday. “I was told very directly by Brian Lundgren (an assistant to Deukmejian Chief of Staff Steve Merksamer) that there would be a winnowing process, there would be a group of finalists selected, that there would be a formal interview process, that those individuals would be invited to Sacramento and that there would be ample opportunity for input from legislators.

“I would be less than candid if I didn’t say that the way this was handled was very poor. The message seems to be conveyed that it just plain doesn’t matter what the folks in the area think.”

Another Ackerman supporter-- Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach)--said he feared that Vasquez’s lack of experience in elective office might come back to haunt him when he faces election in June, 1988.

“The thing that concerns me is that very few opinions from the county and from the delegation were weighed,” Frizzelle said. “It seemed like the governor had made up his mind already and they didn’t care that much for the opinion of the rest of us.”

The appointment was announced Thursday, even as legislators, prominent businessmen and other influential residents of the county who expected to be consulted further continued to evaluate candidates for the position vacated last January by Bruce Nestande:

- The Irvine Co.’s top corporate affairs officials were still in the process of reviewing the candidates and had just lunched with one applicant when word arrived that Deukmejian had appointed Vasquez.

- Coulson Morris, president of the Orange County Republican fund-raising group known as the Lincoln Club, heard about the appointment after he had scheduled an interview with another candidate Thursday night. Morris was preparing a letter to the Deukmejian Administration endorsing a handful of top prospects.

- Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) learned of Vasquez’s appointment as he was telling a reporter that he would wait to endorse a candidate until the governor called him with a “short list” of favorites.

Several other members of the Orange County legislative delegation had said in interviews Thursday morning that they would be talking personally with Deukmejian before the choice was made. But by that time, the decision had been final for at least a day, Deukmejian spokesman Kevin Brett acknowledged.

While only a handful of people have said openly that they are unhappy with the choice of Vasquez, many concede that they expected Deukmejian and his lieutenants to take more time before filling the seat.

And some have suggested that the way the appointment was handled indicates that the governor probably planned all along to appoint Vasquez, a former Nestande aide who has worked for Deukmejian since 1985 and recently was named the governor’s chief deputy appointments secretary.

Deukmejian Administration officials will not comment in detail on the process that led to the selection of the 32-year-old Vasquez as the county’s first Latino supervisor. Who was consulted and how much weight their advice was given are confidential matters, Brett said.

He did say, however, that none of the candidates were interviewed by Deukmejian or anyone in the administration before the decision was made. Brett said administration officials screened the applications and presented a list of possible appointees--though he wouldn’t say how many--to Deukmejian.

“The governor throughout the course of his administration has made more than 4,200 appointments, and it is just physically impossible for the governor to conduct interviews with all the candidates for all the positions,” Brett said. “The fact that he did not do interviews for this particular appointment should not be construed in any way to mean the governor does not regard this position to be an important one.”

Brett would not say who in the community was consulted before Vasquez was chosen. Among those who told The Times that they had discussed the issue at least briefly with the governor or one of his representatives were Nestande and the four current county supervisors, several members of the county’s delegation in the Legislature, Republican County Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes, the Lincoln Club’s Morris and officials of the Irvine Co.

Except for Nestande, however, they all described their discussions as general in nature.

Nestande said he discussed the appointment at least three times with Deukmejian and twice with Merksamer. Nestande said he originally supported Ron Rogers, another of his former aides, but later spoke highly of Vasquez as well.

Nestande said the way the appointment was made is a reflection of Deukmejian’s independence as a decision-maker.

“It’s clear that in this administration, the governor makes the final decision,” Nestande said. “I think anybody who wants to deliver to the governor the candidate is making a mistake because the governor is not going to respond to that.”

But others who lacked the access to Deukmejian that Nestande apparently enjoyed were not as comfortable with the process.

Johnson compared Deukmejian’s decision to the 1979 appointment of Edison Miller to the Board of Supervisors by then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. Miller, a former Vietnam prisoner of war accused by some fellow POWs of collaborating with his North Vietnamese captors, was defeated in the 1980 election by Nestande.

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) said he was pleased with Vasquez but “shocked” because administration officials had led him to believe that the decision was at least a month away.

“I think the governor has his own agenda, and it’s quite independent of almost anyone else’s,” Ferguson said. “I can only say that I’m disappointed. . . . I support the governor. It’s just that I’m disappointed.”

Because Deukmejian’s personal relationship with the Assembly Republicans from Orange County has never been described as close, some observers suggest that their snubbing comes as little surprise. More unusual is that Sens. Seymour and Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), two of Deukmejian’s closest allies in the Senate, received similar treatment.

In an interview Thursday morning, Bergeson had said that she wouldn’t be making her endorsements public but intended to discuss her favorites with Deukmejian before he made his decision.

“I have been in communication through Brian Lungren, and at the appropriate time, when it appears the governor is ready to make a decision, then I want to make certain that my input is provided,” said Bergeson, who later the same day admitted that the governor had “moved faster than I anticipated.”

Seymour was caught in a similar situation when he was informed of the Vasquez appointment while he was assuring a reporter that he would be discussing the opening with the governor before a decision was made.

After hearing that Vasquez had been given the job, Seymour said he had discussed the candidates generally with Lungren but had expected to hear again from the governor’s office.

“It does come as a surprise to me that they never came back and said, ‘Here’s our short list--what do you think?’ ” Seymour said.

Seymour and Bergeson, however, both said they were pleased with the candidate chosen. Similarly, officials for the Irvine Co. and Morris, president of the Lincoln Club, said they were surprised at the timing but not disappointed by the selection.

Morris said he and other representatives of the club had interviewed 13 candidates and were preparing to recommend a short list of favorites to the governor.

“That was the plan until (Thursday) afternoon when the appointment was made,” Morris said. “We really didn’t expect it to come out that quickly.” But Morris said he was happy that the vacancy had been filled.

“I’m pretty sure all of us had been after him (Deukmejian) to not drag his feet on this,” Morris said. “For that reason, he just took the bull by the horns and did it. You can’t fault him for that.”

Jack Flanagan, the Irvine Co.’s vice president for corporate affairs, speculated that the Administration skipped the expected final round of the selection process after Vasquez received high marks from most of those who had been consulted.

“If the governor was inclined to go with Gaddi, he received confirmation from everybody’s short list,” Flanagan said. “The decision certainly was not made in the dark.”