Councilman Pushes for Anti-Poverty Post : Supervisor Stanton Prefers His Own Aide on Development Council

As an elected official from one of the poorer districts of Santa Ana, City Councilman Ron May thinks that he should be able to represent his city on the Community Development Council, the county’s designated anti-poverty agency.

Santa Ana residents draw on the agency’s $7-million budget more heavily than do residents of any other city, and Santa Ana contributed more to its operation--about $150,000--than the county or any other city.

But the only way May can gain a seat on the agency’s board of directors is through an appointment by Roger R. Stanton, the county supervisor whose district includes Santa Ana. And Stanton has turned him down, telling May that he is perfectly happy with the representation provided on the board by his own executive assistant, Fausto Reyes.

In a memorandum sent to the Santa Ana City Council last week, May wrote that the city’s lack of representation on the board was made evident most recently when the CDC’s executive director, John Flores, was fired. May and City Councilman Miguel A. Pulido attended the May 7 meeting and offered to mediate the dispute between Flores and the board.

“The CDC Board, including Supervisor Stanton’s representative, disregarded (our) pleas,” May wrote in the memo.

Stanton said: “I don’t think anyone requested their services (as mediators).”

According to CDC bylaws, five of the board’s 15 seats are to be occupied by public officials or their representatives. Four of the five supervisors have appointed members of their staff to represent them on the board, while one, Thomas F. Riley, appointed a member of the public, Herbert Schwartz.

Schwartz, currently president of the board, said May is “welcome to come to our meetings” but noted that he had not seen him there before the May 7 meeting at which Flores was dismissed.

Stanton, noting that May is a new city council member, said “for him to suddenly argue that he should be the one to be on the CDC is totally out of the blue. If he wants Santa Ana to be represented, it’s a rather audacious request that I replace an existing representative with him.”

While May concedes that the supervisors have the legal right to appoint members of their own staff, he says an agency whose mission is to help the poor needs grass-roots leadership, not bureaucrats.

And, May points out, the Orange County Grand Jury wrote in a study published last March that “unless mandated by law, county employees should not sit on citizen commissions” like the CDC.

“It seems to me that this particular agency should have a local elected official who represents constituents and whose heart and soul are involved with the community,” May said.

“I just don’t sense that when you assign an executive assistant who is more removed emotionally and more removed in terms of the feel for the issue.”

Reyes, an Irvine resident who has worked for Stanton for about five years, defended his position on the board as “an extension of the supervisor’s policy-making.”

“I definitely have a very clear picture of the needs of this particular district and of the county,” Reyes said.

“When you work up at the county . . . you see how all the organizations mix and match--you have a real clear, broad picture. . . . Not to mention that I am Hispanic, and a good portion of Santa Ana is Hispanic. I think that itself is important.”

Pulido, one of two Latinos on the Santa Ana City Council, said he is “considering joining Ron’s effort” to win appointment to the board but might also consider requesting his own appointment. In any case, Santa Ana should be represented, he said.

“I think common sense would dictate that.”