YORBA LINDA : Council Names Four to Parks Commission

The City Council has filled four openings on the Parks and Recreation Commission after interviewing 12 candidates.

The new commissioners all have ties to youth sports organizations. Three council members had shown a strong interest in adding more sports facilities and had joined in creating the openings on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

The new commissioners were chosen Thursday. Each council member cast four votes; the two candidates who received the most votes will serve four-year terms, the next two vote-getters will serve two-year terms.

The four-year terms will be filled by:

* James Pickel, a member of the Esperanza High School football and baseball booster clubs and the Yorba Hills Little League board of directors. Pickel is 43 and has three children.

* Richard C. Pepin, a former vice president on the East Yorba Linda Little League and coach for Little League, Junior United Soccer Assn. and youth basketball. Pepin is director of community services for the city of La Mirada, which includes parks and recreation programs. He is 47 and has three children.

The two-year terms will be filled by:

* Paul J. Doty, a director of the Junior United Soccer Assn. Doty has lobbied the council many times for more playing fields, a request the council recently included in a list of proposed parks projects. He is 41 and has two children.

* William G. Gorman, commissioner of Placentia Yorba Linda Girls Softball Assn. Gorman is 47 and has three children.

Carol Cantwell, Dean Clark, Susan Klingaman and Wendell Bainter were removed from the commission in September in a move that opposing council member Mark Schwing dubbed the Black Tuesday Massacre.

The four angered council members John M. Gullixson, Barbara Kiley and Daniel T. Welch when they wrote letters to the editor of a local weekly newspaper criticizing the council’s lack of communication with the commission as well as comments made by then-Mayor Gullixson.

Welch and Kiley joined Gullixson in voting for their removal. Council member Henry W. Wedaa was absent from the meeting.

Pepin, Pickel, Doty and Gorman take office in January and will join Ken Ryan on the commission.