Countywide : Wieder Seeks January Start in Chairman Role

Supervisor Harriett Wieder, passed over for board chairwoman twice before the switch to a rotation system got her the job, isn’t about to wait again.

Wieder has asked her fellow supervisors to decide today that Roger R. Stanton’s tenure as chairman will end with the close of the calendar year. Wieder would then become chairwoman next year.

Stanton was vice chairman when Bruce Nestande resigned as supervisor in January, leaving the chairman’s position vacant. Stanton filled in as chairman, but it was uncertain whether he would serve the rest of Nestande’s one-year term and still be able to serve another year in the post, as the rotation plan had called for.

While the largely ceremonial post involves lots of ribbon-cutting, proclamation-signing and resolution-passing, it is also a highly visible position. Chairmen in years past have been able to steer debate and influence the way that the county deals with some issues.

Wieder, first elected in 1978, was reportedly angered when both Nestande and Stanton, who had been elected after her, became chairman while she couldn’t round up three votes to cinch the job herself.

The supervisors later decided to rotate the post, with each of the five supervisors serving for a year. Wieder became chairwoman in 1984. But the rotation plan had no provision for the resignation of a chairman.

Wieder’s has urged board members to rule that if a supervisor moves up to chairman more than nine months ahead of schedule--as Stanton did--it will count as a full term.