First Meeting Held : More Latino Leaders Sought by New Group

In the first gathering of its kind in Orange County, a group of locally elected Latino officials met Thursday to discuss ways to recruit and groom Latinos for public service, including political office.

Spearheaded by Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, the highest ranking and most visible Latino officeholder in the county, the nonpartisan group was formed to encourage Latinos to seek careers in public service as well as to provide leadership and promote discussion on issues such as education.

In the past, Vasquez said, attempts to solve the problems confronting the county’s burgeoning Latino population have been isolated and sporadic. By coming together, he said, the county’s Latino leaders can pool their clout as well as their resources to deal more effectively with the needs of the Latino community. Before that can happen, however, Latinos who hold elected or appointed offices must become familiar with one another.

There are now 30 Latinos in elected offices at the city, county and judicial level in Orange County.

Platform Adopted

“If nothing else, at least many of the Latino leaders in this county had a chance to meet one another,” Vasquez said after the private luncheon at La Brasserie in Orange. Eighteen Latino officials were there. “Literally, we had some situations” at the luncheon, Vasquez said, “where people didn’t know the person across the table from them.”

The group, called the Latino Elected and Appointed Officials of Orange County, unanimously adopted a nine-point platform Thursday intended to expand the “Hispanic political base and the Hispanic agenda” in the county, according to a statement released by the group.

In 1980, Latinos made up 15% of Orange County’s population. By 1987, nearly 24% of the county’s 2.2 million residents were Latino. But the numbers of Latinos on school boards and city councils and also in key administrative posts have not kept pace, Latino officials contend.

In Santa Ana, for example, Latinos account for more than 50% of the city’s 225,000 residents, yet only two of the seven seats on the City Council are held by Latinos. The disparity is even greater for the city’s school board. Eighty percent of the 41,000 students in the Santa Ana Unified School District are Latino, yet only one of the five school board members is Latino.

Latino community leaders place part of the blame on Latinos themselves for not being more aggressive and better organized. Correcting that situation, they said, was one of the reasons for forming the new group. Another of its objectives is to provide role models for young Latinos.

“Because we are elected officials, we are role models for the Hispanic community,” said Sal Mendoza, a member of the Santa Ana school district board. “We have a responsibility to network as Hispanic leaders to create more opportunities for other Hispanics.”

Santa Ana City Councilman Miguel Pulido emphasized that education will be a top priority for the group.

Referring to the high dropout rate for Latino students, Pulido said Latino officials “have an obligation above and beyond other elected officials’ ” to encourage young people to stay in school. That message, he said, should be carried by the newly formed group.

Because the group is nonpartisan, Vasquez said, there are no plans to designate specific school boards or cities for the election of Latinos.