NEWEST SUPERVISOR IS ON THE RUN : Vasquez, With an Eye Toward Reelection, Is Anxious to Get Himself Known

Ray Gomez has cut hair in a barbershop a block from the county Hall of Administration for years, but he’d never been inside the five-story building until seven weeks ago.

What got Gomez to put down the clippers and walk across the Santa Ana street was the swearing-in as county supervisor of Gaddi H. Vasquez, a young, good-looking, and articulate fellow Latino whom Gomez knew in Orange.

“I remember he used to chase my boy from the schoolyard on weekends when my son would climb the fence to get inside,” Gomez said. Vasquez was a police officer then, and Gomez said he “was nice, but firm. He got (the kids) out of there.”

Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks spoke at the April 10 swearing-in and recalled Vasquez in a different role, as an aide to Supervisor Bruce Nestande, the man whose resignation midway through his term created the vacancy that Vasquez, 32, is filling.

Hicks said Vasquez was known for either having the answers to questions or finding them, and for keeping his word.

Hicks also joked that the next time so many friendly faces gathered in one room to say nice things about Vasquez would be at his funeral.

The passage of time has not yet stopped people from saying nice things about Vasquez--most of them anyway--though it’s not his police days or his record as a supervisor’s aide that is getting scrutiny now. It’s how he will perform as supervisor.

“Probably, like most people in the 3rd Supervisorial District, I don’t know a lot about Gaddi Vasquez beyond the fact that the last time he ran for elective office he came in fourth, and he worked in the governor’s office,” Ron Isles said. “I think the book is still out. I just don’t know much about Gaddi.”

Isles, a former Brea City Council member and mayor, wanted Gov. George Deukmejian to name him to the supervisor’s job that Vasquez got. He says he has “definitely not” ruled out challenging Vasquez in next June’s election.

Vasquez has been in office now for less than two months, and many of his constituents and colleagues are still connecting the dots to see what the picture of the new supervisor looks like.

After four years as an Orange police officer and four years as Nestande’s aide, Vasquez went to work in the Deukemejian’s Administration, first as a liaison to the state’s Latino community and then as a deputy appointments secretary, helping the governor find people to fill state jobs.

Although he lost his only bid for elective office in 1984, finishing fourth in a battle for three vacancies on the Orange City Council, Vasquez was picked by Deukmejian from more than a dozen candidates to succeed Nestande.

Now Vasquez has left the Sacramento apartment where he lived Monday through Friday while working for the governor. His days of commuting to Orange County on weekends are over. He has settled in Mission Viejo with his wife, a medical assistant, and their 7-year-old son, Jason.

And he is thinking of next year’s election.

Showing Off the Goods

That means speaking at prayer breakfasts, service club meetings, county awards banquets, Republican functions and other get-togethers from morning until night. With a smile on his face and a shine on his shoes, he goes from meeting room to meeting room, showing off the goods, selling the product: himself, The Supervisor, The Candidate.

He said in an interview that he knows Latinos are looking to him for leadership, that others in the county look to him to support people like the homeless and the mentally ill who have few organized advocates, and that Republicans see him as, in the words of county Republican chairman Tom Fuentes, “a conservative Republican Hispanic (who) offers . . . leadership for the 1990s.”

But those other leadership roles must wait, Vasquez feels.

“I’ll be candid with you,” the supervisor said. “I have to look to my constituents in the 3rd District. If I don’t, come next June I’ll be unemployed.”

The 3rd District is the largest of the county’s five supervisorial districts, stretching from La Habra in the north to Mission Viejo in the south. It is affluent, young and largely white. For example, barely 5% of Mission Viejo’s about 60,000 residents were classified as of “Spanish origin” in a recent county survey, contrasted with 44% of the 221,000 residents in Santa Ana, which is part of the 1st District.

Explosive Development

The 3rd District has been the scene of explosive development in recent years, bringing yowls of frustration from motorists fighting clogged roads, developers wanting to build more houses and environmentalists claiming that the builders want to pour concrete on every blade of grass.

Vasquez is listening to the environmentalists and the developers, seemingly without making promises to either and without being forced to choose between them--so far.

In one recent week, he met on Wednesday with leaders of the Rural Canyons Residents Assn., an environmental group, and on Thursday with officials of the Irvine Co., the county’s largest private landowner. On Saturday he met with officials of the Rural Canyons Conservation Fund, another environmental group.

Bruce Conn, president of the Rural Canyons Conservation Fund, had Vasquez over to his house that Saturday and gave him a tour of the canyon area that Conn’s group is fighting to preserve.

Conn characterized the tour as a success, even though he ran his Jeep off the road into a ditch, forcing Vasquez, his aides and Conn to walk back to the house while a tow truck winched the vehicle out.

‘Politics of Balance’

“At least he was willing to go out and bounce around the hills and meet with a couple of the local people,” said Conn, whose group has two lawsuits pending that seek to reverse county approval of developments.

Still, Vasquez “is by nobody’s definition a ‘no-growther’ ” Conn cautioned. “He’s into the politics of balance. It’s nice (for environmental groups) to be put on the scales for once. He certainly has everybody’s interests at heart.”

Vasquez “demonstrates an effort to listen to us, whereas Nestande basically shut us out, discredited any commentary we had. But I’ll say this. It’s all talk until (Vasquez) votes. That’s where the tire meets the road.”

In his speeches, Vasquez stresses that growth cannot be stopped, but he also insists that for developers “it is not business as usual anymore” in the county.

He points to his vote--soon after taking office--against the Mission Viejo Co., which wanted approval of a tract map allowing it to build more homes in one of its developments.

At the time, Vasquez said the go-ahead for this project would have to wait until the county devises a plan for the foothills of the Santa Ana mountains that would provide transportation improvements at the same time homes are built. The area makes up much of the 3rd District.

‘Super Nice Guy’

John Erskine, executive director of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County, called Vasquez “a super nice guy” with “instant sincerity and instant credibility” that dates from his first days as a member of Nestande’s staff. Erskine was an aide to Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder at the time.

But, Erskine says, the county’s builders and developers are as anxious as the environmentalists to learn what Vasquez has in mind for his district.

“He is going to have to remember that business is part of the constituency, whether they are builders or airport interests or whatever else,” Erskine said.

Vasquez has said that he wants to raise money for his election not only from developers, who have been the bulwark of most supervisors’ campaigns, but also from hundreds of constituents giving $10, $20 or $25 each.

That’s a hope that many find naive.

“There’s just no question about it, that developers are heavy contributors to protect their interests,” said Jim Beam, former mayor of Orange and the loser by 1% to Supervisor Don R. Roth last November in the county’s most expensive supervisorial race. Beam and Roth spent $1.3 million, much of it coming from developers and other business people.

Whole Business Community

“It’s not just developers” who contribute, Beam said. “It’s the whole business community. People who deal with the county, or by the nature of being a large company, want to have a good relationship with the county, contribute.

“My observation and my personal experience over the last 20 years is that it’s hard to raise large dollars except from the business interests.”

Harvey Englander, who managed Roth’s campaign, says of Vasquez that “realistically, he’s going to need the $250-per-person, the $500-per-person or even the $1,500-per-person events to build up the kind of dollars necessary should a major opponent come on the scene.

“Will he be able to raise $100,000 in $50 contributions? The answer is no. You’re talking about 2,000 individual contributions of $50. It just hasn’t been done in this county.”

Englander, 37, says that since becoming a supervisor, Vasquez “is virtually everywhere” in the community, giving speeches and meeting people. “I find it exciting just that it is a new generation of leadership. . . . It’s great to see guys our age out there in positions of power like this.”

Provide Leadership

Zeke Hernandez will be happy to see Vasquez wield some clout too, even if the supervisor is a Republican.

Hernandez is president of the Santa Ana council of the League of United Latin American Citizens and an active Democrat.

“In terms of leadership, I think Gaddi is a very visible Hispanic elected official,” Hernandez said, “In fact, a top elected official in Orange County. I’m sure he will provide that leadership in our (Latino) community as well as the area he represents.”

“His experience as a police officer and aide to a supervisor . . . (means) he has been able to get around, he has been able to develop his contacts, he has been able to show that he has got the credentials,” Hernandez said.

Beam, as Orange mayor, appointed Vasquez to the city’s Planning Commission, and although Beam himself wanted to succeed Nestande, he sings Vasquez’s praises.

“He was good” at his police work, Beam recalled. Vasquez “likes people. He comes from a very religious background. Not only is his father a minister, but he’s an active layman. He likes people. He has an empathy for them, so he was good on the street.”

‘Really Impressed Me’

Assemblyman John Lewis (R-Orange) did not support Vasquez for the supervisor’s seat either, but he said Vasquez “has really impressed me since the appointment was announced.”

“I think just about everybody in (Orange County’s legislative) delegation probably backed someone else,” Lewis said. “The delegation was split quite a few different ways. But I have not heard any criticism toward Gaddi at all. He’s done a very good job.”

Lewis and state Sen. Ed Royce (R-Anaheim) held a joint meeting of their support groups at a Santa Ana hotel May 15 to let Vasquez speak to “a good chunk of the Republican leadership and establishment around the county. . . ,” Lewis said. “He did an excellent job, and he was received very, very well.”

County Republican chairman Fuentes was there for Vasquez’s speech and reported, “He wowed that crowd.”

Like Nestande before him, Vasquez brings Sacramento contacts with him to the Board of Supervisors, though Vasquez’s connections are of a different kind. Nestande was a state assemblyman before running successfully for supervisor in 1980 and 1984 and was able to deal with state legislators as a man who had been among them.

Lobbied for Causes

He used his contacts in the Legislature and the Deukmejian Administration to lobby for money and causes important to the county and won appointment to the California Transportation Commission, a post he has retained even after resigning from the board and to work for a developer.

Vasquez says he expects his experience in the capital to give him quick access to state officials and allow him to plead the county’s cause with them.

Lewis agrees.

“Just because there is a personal relationship and close ties with a lot of administration officials,” Lewis said, Vasquez often will “be able to shortcut the process or get the point across and questions answered with a lot more rapidity.”

Fuentes agrees that Vasquez will have a “two-way, complementary relationship” with Sacramento officials.

“The governor thinks very highly of Gaddi and vice versa. I think the governor will be very supportive of Gaddi’s reelection in 1988. And Gaddi will also provide a liaison and communication with the governor and for (the governor) from his vantage point at the board (of supervisors),” Fuentes said.

Sharing Political Life

That view is supported by a Deukmejian spokesman, who said the governor “has full confidence in” Vasquez and “feels very strongly about Gaddi’s ability.”

Vasquez says he enjoyed Sacramento but that he now wonders how he managed to put up with being away so much from his wife and son.

He says his wife enjoys sharing his political life and that they meet at evening functions when they can. In scheduling his Saturdays, he asks his staff, “Can I bring Jason?” And he gives preference to events his son can attend.

The new supervisor is the grandson of emigrants from Mexico and the son of parents who picked crops in California’s Central Valley before moving to Orange County, where his father became a minister in the Apostolic church.

“We were quite poor” in the crop-picking days, Vasquez remembered. “A big night out for us, when we could, was going to a local hot dog stand and having 10-cent hot dogs.”

His father named him “Gaddi,” the Hebrew word for “fortunate.” As a high school student Vasquez won dozens of speaking contests, patterning his speaking style after the Rev. Billy Graham and winding up in 1972 being elected to the annual Boys’ State Convention sponsored by the American Legion.

Studied at Night

While working as a police officer, a Riverside community relations official and a supervisor’s aide, he studied at night, getting a bachelor’s degree from the University of Redlands.

The oratorical ability he showed in high school is evident. As he addresses a group, he will write two or three words on a piece of paper, using that as a jumping-off point for a half-hour speech.

Every speech includes what he sees as his district’s major problem: transportation. Toll roads on highways yet to be built are a possible solution, he says. So is the county’s not-yet-completed plan to have houses and roads built simultaneously in the Santa Ana Mountains foothills.

His speeches also proclaim a boundless optimism that the county can solve its problems. He broadcasts the Republican creed that less government is better. He hails the county’s new Performing Arts Center and home for abused children as evidence that the private sector and government can be partners.

Ethnic Heritage

When asked, he also talks with pride about his ethnic heritage.

After his swearing-in, the new supervisor gave interviews and greeted well-wishers in both English and Spanish. He told questioners that he is willing to serve as a role model for other Latinos.

But he insisted that it is not his ethnic background that got him his job.

“I don’t want to be known as the Hispanic supervisor,” he told one interviewer. “I want to be known as the supervisor who happens to be Hispanic.”

In another interview he said: “I don’t like to be patronized on the basis of my ethnicity. I’m proud of my heritage, but I’ve never wanted it to be the reason I acquired a job or anything else.”