Editorial Omitted Facts About Wedaa

Once again the Los Angeles Times is playing apologist for government of bureaucracy, by bureaucracy, and for bureaucracy, this time in defense of Hank Wedaa and the monstrosity he chairs, the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

I would like to point out some facts conveniently missing from the editorial (“The Campaign to Get Wedaa” Sept. 16).

Mr. Wedaa’s term as Orange County League of Cities appointee to the SCAQMD Governing Board expired at the end of 1991. Law requires that he win the votes of two-thirds of Orange County cities to be reappointed. On every League vote, he failed to do so.

Yet he continues to serve on the governing board--without the support of his constituency.

How can this be called representation? My amendment to Senate Bill 883 makes a simple change: If the league’s SCAQMD appointee cannot muster the necessary two-thirds support, he or she cannot serve.

Hank Wedaa should have resigned when he failed to gain the support of his municipal colleagues. Instead, he clings like grim death to his SCAQMD billet, siding with the district’s anti-business staff and junketing around the world at public expense.

The Times contends that Wedaa is being “sacrificed” for a bill exempting small businesses from mandatory ride-sharing programs, pointing out that such an exemption exists in the South Coast region but failing to mention that exemption is due to my successful SB 1352 of last year--which the SCAQMD vigorously opposed. SB 883 simply extends that exemption to small businesses statewide. Does The Times think California’s small businesses should be “sacrificed” to keep Hank Wadaa on the SCAQMD Board?

JOHN R. LEWIS

State senator, 33rd District

Orange