YORBA LINDA : New Traffic Panel Members Appointed

The City Council appointed two new members to its Traffic Commission after two veteran commissioners decided not to reapply to the body in a dispute over the selection process.

Council members picked James Radomski and Edward Salgado Monday to serve two-year terms on the commission. They will fill slots vacated by Duane Laible and John Madrick, who dropped out of the running earlier this year in a dispute that dates back to a bitter election campaign last November between veteran Councilman Henry W. Wedaa and new Councilman John M. Gullixson.

In December, Gullixson and several other council members refused to reappoint Laible and Madrick to the commission before completing interviews with new candidates. In the past, traffic commissioners who reapplied for their positions did not have to be interviewed, Laible and Madrick argued.

Since December, 18 people have applied to the commission. Fourteen residents showed up to be interviewed for the posts Monday, city officials said.

Laible has since charged that Gullixson has tried “politicizing” the selection process and to “stack” the Traffic Commission with his choices. Laible and Madrick supported Wedaa’s reelection campaign last year.

“We ardently supported Hank Wedaa,” Laible said Tuesday. “That got Gullixson’s nose out of joint. . . . That’s the first time I’ve seen politics enter the Traffic Commission.”

But Gullixson said that trying to stack the Traffic Commission would be “ridiculous.”

“If anyone goes to a Traffic Commission meeting, they can see there is no evidence that it would be capable of being stacked,” he said. “ . . . I’m the new guy on the block. How am I supposed to stack the Traffic Commission?”

Gullixson noted that Wedaa voted for Radomski to join the commission, and added that Liable and Madrick have been attacking him ever since the campaign.

“You’d think I would be Attila the Hun the way they carried on,” he added. “These guys are just talking out of their hat.”

Although the Traffic Commission serves as an advisory body for the City Council, it occasionally is in the spotlight. Late last year, dozens of residents attended a meeting to oppose a county plan to turn Imperial Highway into a “super street.”