Wilson Era to Begin With Mix of Holdovers, New Faces : Governor: His team shares his moderate philosophy. It is young but includes several he has felt comfortable with over the years.

Gov.-elect Pete Wilson, preparing to take over the governorship of California today, has surrounded himself with longtime loyalists, aides from Washington and holdovers from the Deukmejian Administration.

In naming his top staff and cabinet secretaries, Wilson has selected two dozen veterans of government service and political campaigns who seem to mirror his moderate philosophy. For the most part, they are young, male, white and Republican. Of the governor-elect’s executive staff, most are in their 20s and 30s; his oldest aide is 48-year-old chief of staff Bob White.

“One of the things Pete Wilson deserves credit for is (that) he has brought a great, new, young talent pool into government,” said Otto Bos, the 47-year-old director of communications. “These are young people who want to affect public policy.”

Although Wilson will be sworn into office today, he has named only half of his cabinet so far. Vacancies remain for a secretary of Health and Welfare, a director of Industrial Relations, a secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, a secretary of Environmental Affairs and a secretary of State and Consumer Services.

One group that is not represented on Wilson’s staff or in his cabinet is the conservative wing of the Republican Party--a sore point with some Republicans in the Legislature.

“So far he has been inclusive of everyone except conservative Republicans,” complained Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach). “He wants to solve some of the big problems, do some of the big reforms. He’s not going to be able to do that with strong conservative Republicans who adhere to the Republican platform.”

That reaction mirrors the hostility Wilson encountered last week when he named Republican state Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim to replace him in the U.S. Senate. Seymour is considered a political moderate who shares many of Wilson’s views including his support of abortion rights.

Wilson and his inner circle defended his selections as well-qualified people who represent the diversity of the state.

“I think they have common sense and they also have a great deal of experience,” Wilson said. “They have a good deal of expertise in the particular area of responsibility that they have been assigned.”

In picking his cabinet, Wilson has turned to people who are specialists in their field and who, in some cases, are strongly identified with the interest groups they will oversee.

For example, he appointed Maureen DiMarco, the past president of the California School Boards Assn., to assume a new cabinet-level post of secretary for Education and Child Development Services.

And, setting the stage for a potential conflict within his cabinet, Wilson named an environmentalist and a farmer to head two state agencies that overlap on such issues as pesticides and water-use. Former Sierra Club Executive Director Douglas P. Wheeler will become secretary of the Resources Agency and Henry Voss, a former president of the California Farm Bureau, will stay on as director of Food and Agriculture.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how they reconcile their own views and the views of the constituencies they bring to the conference table,” said Steven A. Merksamer, former chief of staff to Gov. George Deukmejian. “Ultimately, the governor is going to have to make some of these balancing decisions.

Wilson’s choice for secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, developer Carl D. Covitz, has been a Wilson backer since 1978, but also has demonstrated an independent streak. A Republican, Covitz has supported the campaigns of Democrats, contributing money to Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, among others.

Two of the five cabinet members named by Wilson were originally Deukmejian appointees: Voss and Thomas Hayes, the new director of the Department of Finance who has served as state treasurer since 1988.

Wilson also has drawn heavily from Deukmejian’s inner circle to form his own staff. Eight of the 19 people who will serve on Wilson’s executive staff have worked for the departing governor.

“What I’m very impressed with is (that) the people Pete is picking from the Deukmejian Administration are, from my perspective, some of the best and the brightest of the Deukmejian people,” Merksamer said. “Pete is doing a good job of balancing the need for continuity with bringing in new ideas.”

At the staff level, among those Wilson has decided to keep in their current jobs is Allan Zaremberg, who as legislative secretary was Deukmejian’s liaison with legislators. Although the Deukmejian Administration had a reputation for rejecting the Legislature’s proposals and rarely offering ideas of its own, observers expect Zaremberg to ably fill a different role for Wilson.

“Allan Zaremberg will be just as capable delivering a message of ‘here’s what the governor wants’ as he was delivering the message of ‘here’s what the governor doesn’t want,’ ” said Robert Naylor, who once was the GOP leader in the Assembly and is a former chairman of the California Republican Party.

Two Deukmejian staffers who will stay on in the new Administration also have long ties to Wilson. They are Terrance Flanigan, who will remain as appointments secretary, and Loren Kaye, who will become cabinet secretary.

Flanigan began his career in government service in 1974 as a deputy city attorney for San Diego when Wilson was mayor and worked in many of his campaigns. Kaye, whose father, Peter, was press secretary for Wilson’s 1971 San Diego mayoral campaign, has worked in Wilson campaigns since 1982, primarily overseeing research.

Of the five ethnic minorities named to the staff so far, only one is in a high-level policy position: Janice Rogers Brown, who will serve as secretary for legal affairs. A black woman, she served as deputy secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing under Deukmejian.

Bella Meese, a black woman who served as deputy appointments secretary under Deukmejian, will be Wilson’s deputy director of community relations. She is the sister-in-law of Ed Meese, longtime aide to former President Ronald Reagan.

From his Washington Senate office, Wilson plans to bring more than a half-dozen aides. One group of Washington staff members shared a moving van and formed a convoy of cars to make the trip to California.

Those named so far include press secretary Bill Livingstone, who held the same post in Washington and in the gubernatorial campaign; deputy cabinet secretary Larry Goldzband, who has been Wilson’s executive assistant, and Margaret Reid, who has been Wilson’s personal assistant and will become his scheduling director.

Another Washington hand, Mark Davis, will leave a job as one of President Bush’s speech writers to perform the same task in the new Administration. And Sal Vasquez, formerly director of Wilson’s Senate office in Los Angeles, will become director of community relations.

Wilson also has tapped a handful of party loyalists and campaign aides to serve in the government. They include former California Republican Party spokesman Dan Schnur, who will be deputy communications director, and Fred Beteta, a former advance man for Presidents Reagan and Bush.

The efforts of all of these people will be overseen by Wilson aides who have been with him for more than a decade.

White, the chief of staff, has filled that spot for Wilson since 1968, when Wilson was in the Assembly. Bos, the communications director, joined Wilson in 1977. Deputy chief of staff Marty Wilson, no relation to the governor-elect, has been with him off and on for 12 years in a number of campaign and government jobs.