Cooling Off a Witch Hunt

The mayors of Orange County’s two largest cities have fashioned a pragmatic compromise that will keep a county representative on the board of the powerful South Coast Air Quality Management District. That’s helpful to Orange County, and to the whole region.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly and Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young say that they have been consistent critics of Henry W. Wedaa because in their view he has been anti-business in his seven years at the AQMD, the last two as chairman. That’s ridiculous.

Even so, the mayors won’t be appeased and propose that seven members from city councils throughout the county be chosen later to form an Air Quality Steering Committee to reach consensus positions. Those positions will be binding on Wedaa, who, under the agreement, is expected to serve out his term’s final year.

Without the accord, which Wedaa accepts, Orange County on March 1 would have lost its representative on the four-county AQMD board, which also represents L.A., Riverside and San Diego counties.

Wedaa has bruised some feelings over the years. But he also worked to get AQMD bureaucrats to show sensitivity in enforcing regulations and was instrumental in forming a commission to examine the impact of agency regulations--like those mandating car-pool plans--on job losses in Southern California.

The fight by those more conservative than Wedaa to dump the moderate Republican has lasted too long and taken up too much of the energy of the county chapter of the League of Cities, which appoints the county’s AQMD representative.

The witch hunt falsely labeled Wedaa as anti-business and hurt Orange County by diverting his attention from the important matters the agency handles. The compromise keeps Orange County’s voice before the AQMD, but if the new committee hamstrings whoever succeeds Wedaa it will do nobody any good. A representative needs latitude when dealing with the AQMD and should not be expected to check in with seven individuals before every vote.

The AQMD will never win popularity contests among business people through car-pooling requirements and other rules of that sort. But the agency has a tough job figuring out how to clean up the region’s foul air, and when its programs make sense it deserves its board’s full support.