List Narrows to 3 for Transportation Post : Finalists: A Chapman College economist and a former Villa Park mayor join Dana W. Reed in the race for his spot as public representative to the county agency.

The list of contenders vying against Dana W. Reed for his post as public representative to the county’s most powerful transportation agency was narrowed Thursday to two challengers--Chapman College economist James L. Doti and former Villa Park mayor Carol H. Kawanami.

Doti and Kawanami join Reed as the last survivors in the competition for the at-large, public member position to the 11-member Orange County Transportation Authority, which will be formed June 20 with the merger of the county’s existing Transportation Commission and Transit District.

The three finalists were culled Thursday from a list of 61 applicants for the post, which is a key appointment because the public member often becomes chairman and is widely viewed as representing the average commuter on a panel that is dominated by politicians with multiple, often-conflicting agendas.

Reed was the top vote-getter in the selection process, which took place after the conclusion of a joint meeting of the Transportation Commission and Transit District boards. The appointed directors of the Transportation Authority chose three people each from the list of 61 applicants, and Reed got eight votes while Doti and Kawanami followed with five apiece.

The directors of the Transportation Authority will publicly interview each of the candidates June 10. A straw vote could be held at that time or deferred until June 20, when a swearing-in session is scheduled for the entire authority. At that meeting, the Transit District and Transportation Commission will cease to exist.

Although Reed received the most votes, it remained unclear Thursday whether that would translate into dividends when the final selection is made.

“I would have to say there’s no sure thing right now,” said Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, a member of the Transportation Authority. “But if I was one of those three people, at this point I’d rather be Dana Reed.”

With all three finalists holding commendable credentials, the selection is expected to come down to a choice based both on personalities and politics.

The authority’s board will consist of six representatives from cities within the county, four of the five county supervisors and the public member. And the battle over the public member could hinge on a simmering rivalry between the city faction and the county supervisors.

Kawanami, for instance, got most of her votes Thursday from city council members sitting on the Transportation Authority. A Villa Park council member from 1978 to 1986, she was an at-large city representative on the Southern California Assn. of Governments for two years during the mid-1980s.

Her transportation credentials are highlighted by service since 1987 as a board member on the Orange County Consolidated Transportation Service Agency, which provides specialized transportation for frail elderly and the disabled. She was also a member of the Villa Park and Orange Traffic Circulation Ad Hoc Committee and was selected a finalist for the Measure M Citizens Oversight Committee.

Reed, meanwhile, is expected to get most of the county vote. After being appointed to the commission in 1988, Reed rose to become its chairman. He received high marks from friends and foes for working hard for the successful Measure M transportation tax increase.

For those efforts, he was named citizen of the year by the California Transportation Foundation. In the mid-1980s he served as the state’s undersecretary of business, housing and transportation in the Deukmejian Administration. But political opponents have argued that Reed, a Corona del Mar lawyer, is too close to big developers who donate money to political action committees that he helps to organize and administer for a living.

Doti could serve as the spoiler in the competition. A professor of economics and director of business forecasting at Chapman College in Orange, Doti has been active in academia--and Orange County--for two decades.

As forecasting director for the college, he has studied the effects of the county’s transportation system on the health and economic viability of the urban economy. Doti also sits on the board of several banks and companies, committees, scholarly journals and institutes.