Freeway Foe Named as Aide to Highway Administrator : Transportation: Evelyn Fierro says it’s a political career move, and vows to be objective on the proposed 710 expansion. But some local leaders question the timing and what it may mean for the ‘missing link’ roadway.

Former Mayor Evelyn Fierro, an outspoken opponent of the plan to extend the Long Beach Freeway through South Pasadena, will start in January as assistant to the federal highway administrator who will decide the fate of the “missing link” in the Southland’s freeway network.

“Secretary of Transportation (Federico F.) Pena has appointed Fierro special assistant to Federal Highway Administrator Rodney Slater,” Elizabeth Montoya, the secretary’s White House liaison, said in a brief statement Wednesday.

Fierro, a 45-year-old partner in a Pasadena public relations firm, will start work in Washington on Jan. 10, transportation officials said.

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As early as February, Slater is expected to decide whether the Federal Highway Administration will approve the 6.2-mile extension of the Long Beach (710) Freeway from the San Bernardino Freeway to the Foothill Freeway. The north-south route would run through Los Angeles, Alhambra, South Pasadena and Pasadena.

In South Pasadena, where 315 homes are threatened by the freeway, city leaders downplayed the significance of Fierro’s appointment.

However, in Alhambra where the freeway gap has led to commuters clogging city streets, the news was the nightmare before Christmas. Leaders questioned the timing of the appointment and wondered what it means for the proposed freeway’s future.

Fierro, who as a South Pasadena councilwoman from 1988 to 1992 turned the freeway fight from a grass-roots campaign into a professional lobbying effort, said her decision to take the federal job was a career move, and vowed to put aside her anti-freeway stance.

“Personally, I don’t want the freeway to go through, but I am a professional,” said Fierro, a former KNBC producer and writer who was mayor from April, 1990, to April, 1991. “I have been trained as a journalist and a lawyer and I believe I can be objective.”

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But Alhambra officials, who last year saw Fierro crash a press conference they held in support of the freeway, dismissed the idea that she could stay neutral.

“Are they going to appoint someone from a supporter’s side to even it out?” said Julio J. Fuentes, Alhambra city manager. “Why would anyone appoint a person opposed to one of the most needed highways in the nation to a position overseeing roads throughout the nation?”

Fierro insisted her selection is not a signal of the Clinton Administration’s leanings on the freeway. “My appointment has more to do with politics and transportation than South Pasadena and Alhambra,” she said.

Fierro has in recent years sought to advance her political career. At present, she is president of the Arroyo Democratic Club. In 1990, she lost a bid for the 42nd Assembly District. Two years later, she was a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention, served as regional director for the East Los Angeles headquarters of the Clinton campaign and was chairwoman of the Democratic headquarters in Pasadena.

Fierro will work in an office where two years ago she told the previous federal highway administrator that the freeway was a waste of money and would decimate her tiny city.

However, she rejects the idea that she will now influence the outcome of the freeway battle, and said she expects to be working on other projects with the Administration’s recent pledge to spend several billion on highways.

“Whatever Mr. Slater decides, it has been in the works for years. Evelyn Fierro is not going to make any difference at this point,” she said.

Fuentes said he believes Fierro is a very qualified candidate for a position in the Clinton Administration, but her appointment as the right-hand person to the administrator who will make a decision on the freeway is wrong and ill-timed.

“If the (freeway decision) is not in their favor, proponents are going to call foul on the Clinton Administration,” he said.

In South Pasadena, officials praised Fierro’s abilities.

“She’s a professional. Her appointment is a tribute to her knowledge of transportation and public affairs,” said Joanne Nuckols, former chairwoman of the city Transportation Commission and a longtime freeway fighter. “She knows about the freeway and I hope they talk to her about it.”