Irate Board Extends Medfly Emergency : Infestation: Tension over malathion spraying to control the Mediterranean fruit fly caused county supervisors to fly off the handle at each other.

A bitterly divided Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend Orange County’s state of emergency regarding the Mediterranean fruit fly, infuriating opponents of malathion spraying and drawing several of the supervisors into testy exchanges.

“I don’t think that most of our board members care about us at all,” said Shirley Chase, a Garden Grove resident who said she and her family have suffered from allergies and other ailments since the spraying began last year. “These people have no credibility, as far as I’m concerned.”

The supervisors’ action came on a 3-2 vote and marked the latest chapter in a long and increasingly contentious debate about the county’s role in the state-ordered spraying. Tuesday, the normally unified supervisors peppered each other with criticisms, egged on by the audience.

After Board Chairman Don R. Roth challenged Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder to assure him that opposing the emergency declaration would prevent future sprayings--an assurance she could not give--she accused him of “hiding behind the cloak of potential legal liability.”

She called that a “cop-out.”

When Wieder suggested that supervisors without constituents in the spray zone are not sufficiently sensitive to the potential dangers of malathion, an angry Gaddi H. Vasquez said he “took exception” to her comments.

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who has some constituents within the spray zone, tried to heal the rift by offering to share his district’s Medflies with Vasquez. Vasquez, apparently unamused, did not crack a smile.

The tension among the supervisors spilled over to the audience as well. When malathion opponents cheered remarks by Wieder and Stanton, Roth banged his gavel.

“We’ll have none of that,” he said, pointing his gavel at the section of malathion opponents. “This is not a debating team.”

By the time the members of the audience finally had their chance to address the board, an exasperated Roth invited the speakers “to add more gasoline to an already flaming fire.”

Opponents of the spraying have asked the supervisors to refuse to extend the state of emergency, but some supervisors and the county’s legal advisers have argued that failure to make the declaration would not stop the spraying and would only open the county to legal liability should an accident occur.

The matter has returned to the board every two weeks, with the pressure on the supervisors ratcheting higher with each meeting.

The supervisors have broken into two camps on the issue, with Stanton and Wieder consistently voting not to extend the state of emergency. Thomas F. Riley and Vasquez, whose districts are not affected by the spraying, have voted in favor of the emergency declaration, and Roth has voted in favor of it but has expressed public frustration on several occasions.

More than once Roth--whose district includes small areas that have been sprayed--has said he would never again vote to extend the emergency, and as a result he has been perceived as the potential swing vote.

Ultimately, Roth voted again to extend the emergency, again tipping the scales in favor of approval.

“It is with great reluctance, great reluctance that I move the recommended action,” Roth told his colleagues. “If I could vote no and stop the spraying today, I would vote that way.”

Although Tuesday’s action settled the issue for now, it may get yet another wrinkle in a few weeks: Stanton told board members that he intends to ask them to direct the county’s agriculture commissioner to stop cooperating with the state’s spraying efforts.

The county’s lawyer expressed doubts about whether the county can issue such an instruction but agreed to research the matter and report back to the supervisors with his findings.