Proposal to Keep Wedaa in Clean-Air Post Opposed

Two Orange County mayors and three city council members on Wednesday rejected a compromise proposed by the mayors of Santa Ana and Anaheim that would enable the controversial chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District to remain on the board until November.

Earlier this week, Mayor Tom Daly of Anaheim and Mayor Daniel H. Young of Santa Ana wrote their fellow Orange County mayors, asking them to support a proposal severely limiting the powers of Henry W. Wedaa.

Wedaa, a Yorba Linda City Council member, has not been able to muster the votes required to remain Orange County’s representative to the AQMD, and thus continue serving as its chairman. The county’s mayors will meet again tonight to decide whether to retain or replace Wedaa, who has been criticized as anti-business for his stances on protecting air quality.

Wedaa said Monday that he agreed with the compromise offered by Daly and Young. If enough mayors agree tonight, he will automatically leave the AQMD when his term on the Yorba Linda council ends in November, since he has announced he will not seek reelection to that body.

But in a letter to members of the Brea City Council, Costa Mesa Mayor Sandra L. Genis and Orange Mayor Gene Beyer strongly rejected the proposal, saying it “is neither a compromise nor workable,” and urged its defeat.

The mayors called the proposal “terrible public policy,” saying that “the only thing it accomplishes is to delay a difficult decision for a few months.”

They were joined in their criticism by city council members Mark Leyes of Garden Grove, Fred Hunter of Anaheim and Heffrey M. Thomas of Tustin.