Wieder Is Hit on Both Fronts: Recall Papers, House Race

Even as a slow-growth activist was taking out recall papers to unseat her and a colleague Thursday, Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder was drawing harsh criticism from two of her seven opponents in the 42nd Congressional District race.

Wieder, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat now held by Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), was accused by Stephen Horn and Andrew Littlefair at a luncheon gathering in San Pedro of being responsible for Orange County’s growth problems.

In a statement, Littlefair charged that “Harriett Wieder has earned the title of growth mother of Orange County.”

Both Horn, former president of Cal State Long Beach, and Littlefair, a former Reagan Administration aide, charged that Wieder cannot say no to developers, many of whom have contributed to her political campaigns.

‘Rotten Planning’

With Wieder present, Horn told the luncheon gathering of Republican women that Orange County is being “besieged by rotten planning” because county supervisors “refuse to live up to their responsibility to the voters. Politicians who are elected have a responsibility to the people. You must analyze each question and not simply be a person that automatically votes yea every time a developer contribution is given.”

As Wieder frowned, Horn endorsed Tom Rogers’ slow-growth initiative, saying: “We need to preserve the aesthetic aspects of Orange County.”

In a clear allusion to Wieder, Littlefair told the GOP women that he “won’t be afraid to stand up to the special interests.”

Wieder, who spoke first and did not address growth issues at the San Pedro forum, said in an interview afterward that she will get tough with her opponents.

“I’ll have to start picking on them, won’t I?” she said.

Counteroffensive Possible

She suggested that she may launch a campaign counteroffensive against Horn, who stepped down as Cal State Long Beach president after severe budget problems at the university.

“It’s the kettle calling the pot black,” Wieder said of Horn. “Is he inviting a Pandora’s box to be opened? He’ll get it. . . . He’s been out baiting me since the day he filed for this seat.”

In Santa Ana, Rogers, a leader of the successful effort to get a slow-growth initiative placed on the June 7 countywide ballot, said he obtained recall papers Thursday from the county registrar of voters in the first step of a drive aimed at Wieder and Thomas F. Riley.

Rogers announced the planned recall drive Wednesday at a Board of Supervisors meeting minutes after the board voted 3 to 2 to approve the controversial Laguna Laurel development agreement between the county and the Irvine Co. Wieder, Riley and Supervisor Don R. Roth voted to approve the agreement; Supervisors Roger R. Stanton and Gaddi H. Vasquez voted against it.

Rogers said that Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control, the sponsor of the slow-growth measure, is not officially involved in the recall effort but that a recall committee is being formed.

“The people behind this are homeowners associations from all over who have been talking about it for several weeks,” said Rogers. “They came to me and I am acting as an individual, not as a representative of any organization.”

The Laguna Laurel development agreement protects the Irvine Co.’s plans to construct 3,204 housing units, a shopping district and two golf courses in Laguna Canyon from future land-use restrictions. In exchange, the company agrees to pay for road and park improvements and contribute toward construction of such public facilities as a sheriff’s substation, a library and a county emergency communications center.

Greg Hile, another leader of Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control, said the group has not officially taken a stand on the planned recall drive.

‘Haven’t Discussed It’

“We have not sat down and discussed it, and it would be premature to talk about it,” Hile said.

Rogers said members of the recall committee now being formed will be announced when it officially begins the recall process, perhaps as early as next week.

On Thursday, he said, he picked up from the county registrar of voters sample copies of “intention to recall” forms that must be filed to get the process in motion.

Once those papers are sent to Wieder and Riley and filed with the registrar of voters, the proponents of the recall effort must post them or publish them in a general circulation newspaper, said county registrar Don Tanney.

The proponents must then file with Tanney’s office two copies of the petitions it plans to circulate. Once those are approved, the proponents have 160 days to collect the signatures of 10% of the registered voters in each of the supervisorial districts affected.

20,270 Signatures

In Wieder’s 2nd District, 20,270 signatures would have to be collected; in Riley’s 5th District, 25,456 would be needed. Those figures are based on the latest voter registration data submitted to the state, said Tanney.

At the supervisors meeting Wednesday, scores of people showed up to urge the board to reject the Laguna Laurel development agreement.

Many of those who spoke are supporters of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, a 4-month-old environmentalist group that is seeking to keep development and freeway projects out of Laguna Canyon.

The conservancy announced Thursday that it is joining the campaign to recall Wieder and Riley and plans to sue the county over the Laguna Laurel agreement.

Opponents of the development agreement say it and other agreements like it approved by the Board of Supervisors in recent months are an attempt to circumvent the slow-growth initiative on the June 7 ballot.

Lawsuits challenging several of the development agreements that have been approved already have been filed.

Several of the speakers at the public hearing Wednesday called on the supervisors to halt approval of development agreements until after the June 7 election, a suggestion the board has repeatedly rejected.

Roth, who has voted for the agreements, was not targeted for recall, according to Rogers, because petitions for the slow-growth initiative were not circulated in Anaheim, which comprises a large section of Roth’s district, and the sentiments of his constituents on the growth issue are not known.

In an interview Thursday, Wieder branded the recall threat “a political ploy” and expressed confidence that voters will recognize that her Laguna Laurel vote was right.

“There is a time to lead and a time to be led. And I have done both over these 10 years as a county supervisor. I see this as a time to lead,” Wieder said.

“If I don’t get elected because of my leadership, I will be able to sleep with myself because I know that what we are doing in the long-range planning process is good for the county. It’s good for Southern California. We are innovative with those development agreements.”