City-County Panel to Tackle Area Issues

The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to establish a joint committee of city and county elected officials to improve the management of issues such as transportation and hazardous waste that transcend jurisdictional borders.

It was the first step toward a possible major overhaul of the county’s planning apparatus.

The committee is intended to provide better communication between Orange County’s government and its 27 cities.

But it will also explore the possibility of creating another agency to coordinate Orange County’s interests with the other governments of Southern California. Currently, that is a function of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Orange County believes that it is being snubbed in that organization by Los Angeles. And so, the county has suggested that it withdraw from SCAG in favor of its own regional planning agency.

The state Senate heard a bill Tuesday that would allow Orange County to withdraw from SCAG.

“I liken it to the fact that Orange County is now a teen-ager that is grown up and is independent and wants to stand on its own,” said supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder. “In my mind, this makes for much stronger regional planning, planning that occurs from the bottom up, rather than the top down.”

Wieder stressed that Tuesday’s vote does not reflect a county decision about participating in SCAG. That decision will come after the vote in the Legislature and the study by the new committee.

But Wieder said: “I want to underscore that it was never the intent of Orange County to turn our back on issues such as hazardous waste and transportation planning. . . . Much has been made of this legislation by those who would claim . . . there is an effort by Orange County to withdraw from our responsibilities.”

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez added: “This is not an indication or a demonstration that we are going to cease our commitment to dealing with problems on a regional level. I think that is a faulty impression.”

The committee, unanimously created by the board Tuesday, will include three supervisors and members of five city councils. The supervisors appointed to the committee Tuesday were Wieder, Vasquez and Don R. Roth.

The committee will meet quarterly. City councils and the supervisors can vote to place an item on the committee’s agenda.