No Favorite Emerges for AQMD Seat : Vote: Cities are split between Costa Mesa mayor and Yorba Linda councilman. Mayors will meet in February to set another election.

Split between a moderate incumbent and a conservative challenger, the county’s mayors on Friday failed to elect a representative to the South Coast Air Quality Management District board.

The campaign for the seat representing Orange County’s cities on the AQMD board has been unusually intense, with some elected officials seeking to unseat incumbent Henry W. Wedaa because they strongly dislike the AQMD’s policies and rules.

Wedaa, a Yorba Linda councilman and chairman of the AQMD, and Costa Mesa Councilman Peter F. Buffa ran neck-and-neck through three ballot attempts. Although Wedaa led in the first two votes, the final tally was 14 cities supporting Wedaa and 16 favoring Buffa.

To win, a candidate must win 21 of the 31 votes cast by the county’s mayors. Also, those cities must be home to two-thirds of the county’s population. If no candidate gets the required votes, Wedaa retains his post under state law.

City leaders decided to discuss the issue at the next League of Cities meeting in February, and will set a date for another vote.

Wedaa, appointed by the cities of Orange County five years ago, is considered a moderate and a bellwether for how the rest of the air board usually votes. Buffa is pro-business, contending that the AQMD is overbearing and insensitive to the needs of the economy.

Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead ran on the same conservative, anti-incumbent platform as Buffa. He garnered only his vote in the first ballot, and none in the two subsequent ones.

“It’s a classic struggle we’re seeing here--incumbency versus new blood,” said Irvine Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan, who supports Wedaa.

The AQMD is authorized under state law to regulate air pollution in the four-county Los Angeles Basin.

None of the local candidates at Friday’s meeting discussed clean air or strategies. Instead, the two-hour debate focused on who could best protect the city governments and businesses from the AQMD’s policies.

About the only thing most of the mayors--and all the candidates--agreed on was that the AQMD is widely loathed by Orange County elected officials.

The AQMD “is one agency that most people love to hate,” Wedaa said, urging the mayors to vote on the qualifications of the candidates, not on how they feel about the agency.

Buffa stressed that the AQMD is too intrusive and its rules unfair and inflexible, especially for small businesses.

Before the vote, various businesses endorsed one of the two candidates. Generally, large businesses such as McDonnell Douglas and Hughes Aircraft strongly favored Wedaa, saying he has been fair to their economic concerns. Small-business owners supported Buffa, saying that the AQMD was driving them out of the state or out of business.

“There’s something drastically wrong here with what we are doing to small business,” said Jim Morrissey, president of the newly created Republican Small Business Assn. “We’re all in favor of clean air, but where are we going to breath it? In Orange County or in Oklahoma City?”

Jim Cox, owner of Johnson Controls, a manufacturing plant in Fullerton, said small businesses “are not getting any kind of ear anywhere with this board. . . . I support change in membership of this board to make it more responsive to everyone in Orange County.”

Wedaa told the mayors he gives equal consideration to the economy and public health, and noted that he recently formed a commission to evaluate economic impacts of clean-air rules.

Buffa said that Wedaa has not represented the conservative views of Orange County. He said that although the AQMD must adopt anti-smog measures to comply with federal law, it has “tremendous latitude” in carrying out its mission.

Buffa said in an interview that if he is elected, his first effort would be to try to persuade the AQMD board to suspend all fees on businesses for 90 days “to get the economy back on its feet.” The AQMD gets about 80% of its funds from fees on businesses.

“Small businesses . . . cannot afford to do business here any more,” he said. “The No. 1 reason is over-regulation.”

Many city officials said they want to retain Wedaa because he was newly named the AQMD’s chairman of the board, and they want that leadership role go to an Orange County representative.

How the Cities Voted

The mayors of Orange County cast three separate ballots in an effort to elect their representative to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. A two-thirds majority is required to elect. Since no candidate won, the mayors will have to try again. A date for the new vote has not been set. Candidates are AQMD Chairman and Yorba Linda City Councilman Henry W. Wedaa, Costa Mesa Councilman Peter F. Buffa and Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead.

First vote: Wedaa 15, Buffa 14, Bankhead 1

Second vote: Wedaa 16, Buffa 14

Third vote: Buffa 16, Wedaa 14

Cities for Buffa: Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Garden Grove, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, La Palma, Orange, San Clemente, Stanton, Villa Park, Westminster, Yorba Linda, * Brea, * Dana Point.

Cities for Wedaa: ** Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, La Habra, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Placentia, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Tustin.

** Brea and Dana Point voted for Wedaa on the first two ballots.

** Fullerton voted for Bankhead on the first ballot.

NOTE: Fountain Valley was not present

Source: Orange County League of Cities