Local News in Brief : North County : Trustees Appoint Runner-Up to Board

The governing board for Fullerton and Cypress colleges has voted to appoint the runner-up in the Nov. 8 election to fill a vacant seat on the board.

At a meeting Tuesday night, the North Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees voted 5 to 1 to appoint Steve White, 41, an Anaheim real estate broker, to the vacant seventh seat. White will be sworn in Jan. 10.

The seat to be filled by White technically was won Nov. 8 by Rebecca Gonzalez, also of Anaheim. However, Gonzalez had withdrawn from the race before the election because she plans to move to Florida to take a job there. Her withdrawal came too late for her name to be stricken from the ballot, and she finished second in a four-person race for two seats on the board of trustees.

The top vote-getter was incumbent Wallace Hardy, with 129,139, who was reelected to another 4-year term. Gonzalez finished second, with 74,550 votes; White had 73,786, and John Kelly of Anaheim had 56,656.

During debate Tuesday night, the majority of the trustees argued that White should take the second seat because he finished just behind Gonzalez in the vote returns. Hardy, who cast the only dissenting vote, said he thought that the board should interview various candidates before making an appointment because that procedure was used in filling past vacancies.