Ex-Irvine Manager Will Run Tollways : Woollett to Supervise Agency’s $2.1-Billion Road-Network Plan

Former Irvine City Manager William C. Woollett Jr. was given the high-profile job Thursday of running Orange County’s tollway agency, which is planning a $2.1-billion, 65-mile network of three toll roads in eastern and southern Orange County.

Woollett, 60, became Irvine’s first city manager 17 years ago and has been active in state and local planning groups, including the League of California Cities. In February, however, he was ousted by a slow-growth-oriented City Council majority led by Mayor Larry Agran. He was designated Irvine’s city manager “emeritus” and has since been working on special projects for the city.

Woollett replaces John Meyer as executive director of the county’s dual, combined Transportation Corridor Agencies. The agencies consist of two boards with representatives from a total of 14 cities and the county Board of Supervisors. One board oversees the Foothill/Eastern tollway projects; the other supervises the San Joaquin Hills tollway effort. The two boards share the same office and staff.

Meyer announced his resignation in June, citing job “burnout” and a sharp conflict between landowners over how to proceed with the projects. Although design work and grading are under way, the projects still face environmental and financial hurdles that may not be resolved for several months.

Chosen Without Opposition

Woollett was chosen without opposition during a joint board session Thursday in Santa Ana. Irvine’s Agran, who is also a tollway board member, was in Chicago and missed the vote. Irvine Councilwoman Sally Anne Sheridan, an Agran critic who was sworn in Thursday as his alternate on the tollway boards, said Agran would have voted for Woollett.

Caltrans Deputy Director Don Watson was the other of the two finalists for the job.

A search committee has recommended that Woollett be paid $118,000 a year, which would be equal to the compensation he received in Irvine.

“I think this is a very unique opportunity for 14 cities in the county to work together to build something that is much needed, that is difficult and significant, and at the same time work with the people who own the land,” Woollett said in Sacramento, where he was attending a League of Cities meeting. “My attitude going in . . . is that the organization is a good one.”

Woollett acknowledged that the tollway agency has come under fire for spending $1.6 million in legal expenses, and still faces questions about whether developers are paying their committed 48.5% share of tollway construction costs.

“These things are of great concern to me,” Woollett said, “and they are things that I have to find out about.”

Final design contracts for $127 million in bridges, interchanges and grading work on the Foothill and Eastern tollways are being negotiated, with the tollway agency expected to pay for construction with proceeds from revenue anticipation bonds that have not yet been sold.

Woollett said he will sit down with the agency’s staff, landowners and others affected by the three tollways to see what each expects of him personally and of the organization. He said he will also pursue the hiring of two top assistants who are experts in finance and road construction.

“Bill is a very good candidate, and I’m sure he will do a very good job with a corridor (tollway effort) that is somewhat troubled,” said former county Supervisor Bruce Nestande, vice president of Costa Mesa-based Arnel Development Co. and an influential member of the California Transportation Commission.

‘Two Critical Positions’

But Nestande said Woollett cannot solve the agency’s problems single-handedly.

“The major question that remains now is who to have as a good, backup finance person and as a good, top-flight transportation expert. The arrangement is still undone until those two critical positions are filled. . . . It seems to me that the job before all of us is to get . . . back on track.”

“He will heal a lot of wounds,” said Stanley T. Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission. “It’s a great challenge with great problems. . . . He still has to build an effective team around him.”

Said Tustin Councilman Richard B. Edgar, a tollway board member: “We were particularly impressed with Bill’s understanding of local conditions affecting the corridors, and with the depth of his experience in dealing with officials in the central and southern county.”