Countywide : Head of Protocol Office Bowing Out

Mary Bonino Jones, who has headed the county’s office of protocol for seven years, has decided to step down from the post in September, saying she has accomplished what she set out to do.

“It was my responsibility to establish an office of protocol for the county, and I feel that I have accomplished that,” Jones said Tuesday.

Jones joined the then-fledgling office in 1985 when she was still an executive with Disneyland. Her goal was to firmly establish the office and create the Protocol Foundation and a commission. After her retirement from Disneyland in 1986 as a community relations executive, Jones stayed on with the county as a volunteer.

“The protocol office was functioning, but its support mechanism wasn’t in place. We still had to establish the foundation,” she said.

Now, she said, the office, foundation and commission are fully functioning and it’s time for her to go.

“I want to spend some time playing golf with my husband,” she said.

County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who first persuaded her colleagues on the board to create the office of protocol, is recommending Gayle Anderson as interim chief of protocol. Anderson has served for three years as president of the foundation.

“It’s an honor for me,” Anderson said. “Mary has done an extraordinary job. I have an incredible role model to look up to. She’s really created this office.”

When she leaves on Sept. 15, Jones will exit an office that under her direction has become more than just a welcome wagon for foreign dignitaries. The office has become a promoter of Orange County businesses by coordinating introductions and opportunities needed for the firms to compete in the world marketplace, Jones said.

New trade agreements and changes in the former Soviet Union and the European Community have prompted local businesses to look for new accounts beyond America’s borders.

Last year more than a dozen consuls general from countries around the world visited Orange County. Protocol tours included stops at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at UC Irvine, pharmaceutical maker Allergan Inc., construction giant Fluor Corp., computer maker AST Research Inc. and McDonnell Douglas.

With a paid staff of just two, the office of protocol also arranges dinners, meetings and tours for scores of non-diplomatic foreign visitors and business people each year, Jones said.

While the office gets free phones and office space in the Hall of Administration, its $133,540 budget this year is covered entirely by private donations through the Protocol Foundation.

The office’s chief fund-raising event is the International Protocol Ball, a glitzy, black-tie event that draws dignitaries from dozens of countries and earns about $35,000 each winter.

Another event the office of protocol sponsors is the International Trade and Investment Exchange. This year’s trade show was held in May but unfortunately coincided with the Los Angeles riots, keeping some foreign dignitaries away. Still, the event drew about 300 people.