Wedaa Fails to Win Majority for Reelection to Air Board

Orange County’s representative on the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Henry Wedaa, failed to get enough votes Thursday night to secure his reelection.

Wedaa, a moderate Republican who serves on the Yorba Linda City Council, has earned supporters and opponents during his six years on the board. Wedaa’s opponents see his potential ouster as a victory for businesses that are smarting from strict emissions rules and the hand of government.

Wedaa received 19 of 30 votes cast by the county’s mayors at a meeting of the Orange County chapter of the League of California Cities. The action means the panel will continue to vote on candidates, including Wedaa, for the seat until someone receives votes from mayors representing at least two-thirds of the county’s population.

Two of Wedaa’s critics, Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) and Sen. John Lewis (R-Orange) led legislative efforts to change voting requirements that would ease Wedaa’s ouster.

Under Wedaa, “the SCAQMD has become a business-killing machine in Southern California,” Pringle said.

And Lewis said the AQMD had become “one of the regulatory agencies responsible for much of the recession we’re in right now,” saying that strict regulations force businesses out of the state.

Wedaa says the attempted ouster stems not so much from his stand on air quality issues but because of the chasm in ideology between him and archconservatives in Orange County.

“I continue to seek a moderate approach to air quality issues,” Wedaa said. “This approach will always make enemies at either extreme of the issue.”

Wedaa has said his role on the AQMD is to carry out actions ordered by the federal and state governments to improve air quality in Southern California--more of an exercise in civic responsibility than an environmental agenda.

But Lewis said Wedaa is “a rubber stamp for bureaucrats and liberal environmentalists.”

“I think Orange County should have someone that better reflects Orange County’s point of view,” Lewis said.

Wedaa’s proponents praise his work and willingness to promote clean air standards.

“Mr. Wedaa has been a key leader in bringing the business and environmental community together to solve our air pollution problems before the district,” Edwin C. Laird, chairman of the Small Business Coalition, said in a statement pleading with businesses to urge mayors to vote for Wedaa.

If Wedaa fails to gets two-thirds of the votes before March 1, his term will expire. The next likely vote will be Jan. 15.