Former Councilman Appointed to State Transportation Panel

Former Newport Beach city councilman and Irvine Co. executive Robert Shelton has been appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to a seat on the California Transportation Commission, state officials said Tuesday.

“One of the real challenges is to see that transportation funds are used wisely and are not sitting idle,” said Shelton, 68. “But it’s a little too early to pontificate.”

Shelton said he learned about the appointment from the governor’s staff a few days ago. He said he expects to attend his first commission meeting April 9 in Anaheim.

Shelton’s appointment means that the county will be represented on the influential commission--which oversees state highway and transit funding--for the first time since former County Supervisor Bruce Nestande’s resignation from the panel last year.

Nestande was recently named recipient of the California Transportation Foundation’s Tranney Award for career achievement in transportation.

Shelton will fill a seat left vacant by J. Thomas Hawthorne of Escondido, who was fined $165,000 in August by the state Fair Political Practices Commission for voting on freeway projects in San Diego that meant more business for his construction company.

Since 1984 Shelton, a Republican, has been semi-retired but active in statewide organizations such as Californians for Better Transportation, the transportation task force of the California Business Roundtable and the Orange County Transportation Coalition.

A former city manager in several cities, including Newport Beach, Shelton was an Irvine Co. vice president in from 1978 to 1984 and a consultant to the company at other times. He was on the City Council in Newport Beach in the early 1970s.

Shelton, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Pomona College in political science and psychology, said Tuesday that his former ties to the Irvine Co. should not be an issue in deciding what transportation projects to build in Orange County.

“It would be grossly misplaced,” he said, “to suspect that (influence). I’m proud of the fact that I’m an independent thinker.”

Stanley T. Oftelie, chief executive officer of the Orange County Transportation Authority, called Shelton’s appointment “spectacular” for the county.

“Bob is polished and knowledgeable,” Oftelie said. “He has a great reputation for bringing people together.”