Wieder Surprise Plan for Study Group Upsets Colleagues

Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder’s surprise disclosure this week that she had created an advisory committee made up of influential Orange County business and academic leaders has upset her supervisorial colleagues and violated an unwritten protocol.

Wieder notified her four colleagues in a memo Monday night that on Tuesday she would unveil the county committee, which would study Orange County’s financial future at a time when county government faces a $23-million shortfall and possible layoffs. But after quick--and negative--reaction from the other supervisors, Wieder said the announcement probably would wait until next month.

“I think obviously she didn’t have three votes,” Supervisor Don R. Roth said. Privately, sources in the supervisors’ offices said she probably didn’t have any votes.

“It was such a surprise--speaking only for Tom Riley--especially with the importance and significance of this thing,” Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said. “The first I heard of it was when I arrived here (Tuesday) morning.”

Three of the supervisors said they were uncertain about their support for such a committee, because they had seen only a four-paragraph note from Wieder briefly describing it. Supervisor Roger R. Stanton did not return telephone calls to his office regarding the committee.

“I would like to better understand what the scope of the committee is,” Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said. But he added that he believes that the county should focus on its immediate fiscal crunch and that “establishing a committee at this time has me a bit concerned.”

Such a relatively open schism on the board is uncommon. In Orange County, where the five supervisors are conservative, pro-business and Republican, most of their disagreements are minor and usually are resolved before they reach a public meeting.

The informal protocol Wieder violated was in not checking with her colleagues before she made her idea public.

Wieder said Friday that the episode was “much ado about nothing.” She acknowledged that her announcement was “a little premature,” and she said that she should have provided her colleagues with more information about the advisory committee.

She added that she decided not to announce the committee when the county counsel told her that it had not been properly added to the agenda of the board’s regular Tuesday meeting.

Wieder said she still plans to discuss the idea with the other board members “in the next few days” and hopes that they will support it as a county effort. If not, she said she plans to maintain the committee as an advisory group operating through her office.

“I sent them a memo and it was without any background,” Wieder said. “They didn’t have all the information about it.”

In her memo, Wieder said the committee was intended to review the county’s current fiscal crunch, to identify “appropriate levels of service to keep pace with growth,” and to search for new revenue sources.

Approval Needed

Other board members said Wieder does have the authority to create a committee as an advisory group for her office. But even though she is chairman, they said she could not create a county committee without their approval.

They also expressed concern about the authority she intended for the committee when she said in her memo that it would be named the “Orange County Financial Future Committee.”

Riley said he also objected to criticism of the county staff implied in the first sentence of Wieder’s memorandum: “The citizens of Orange County can no longer afford a haphazard approach to the generation of county revenues.”

In the memo, Wieder also said, “ . . . I have therefore recently appointed a blue-ribbon advisory committee to explore ways to generate the necessary revenues to provide the highest quality service and infrastructure to the county.”

Orange County officials are vigorously working to resolve the $23-million budget deficit before next month, when they may have to lay off hundreds of employees if more money is not found.

Lingering Problems

The current budget shortfall is a continuation of the county’s financial problems over the last few years, and it was those experiences, Wieder said, that prompted her to form the committee.

Creation of the blue-ribbon committee was to be her last act as chairman of the board, a position she will turn over to Riley at the next meeting on Jan. 3.

Wieder said her idea was to model the committee after a similar group in Los Angeles started by Mayor Tom Bradley, the LA 2000 Committee.

So far, Wieder said she has secured the participation of several major community leaders.

The members include John McLuckey, president of the Orange County division of Rockwell International Corp.; Gary Hunt, a senior vice president at the Irvine Co.; Jewel Plummer Cobb, president of Cal State Fullerton; Dennis Aigner, dean of the graduate school of management at UC Irvine; Richard Flamson, chairman of the board of Security Pacific Corp.; Charles Rinehart, president of Avco Financial Services; J. Fernando Niebla, chairman and president of Infotec Development Inc.; Mary Yunt, secretary-treasurer of the Orange County Central Labor Council; Marty Wikstrom, regional manager for Nordstrom, and Pat Krone, incoming chairman of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

A spokeswoman for Wieder said that none of the members have dropped out of the committee since the beginning of the week, although other supervisors said they have had calls from some members who were confused about their role.