Countywide : Human Rights Panel Names Chairman

Huntington Beach resident Kenneth Inouye this week was elected chairman of the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

The vice chairman is C. William Wood of Laguna Beach. They will serve one-year terms.

Inouye is managing partner of Inouye, Shively and Longtin, an accounting firm in Laguna Hills. He is internal vice president of the Orange County Japanese American Assn. and a past district president of the Japanese American Citizens League. He is active with the United Way and the Orange County Hate Crime Network.

Inouye was appointed to the Human Relations Commission by the Board of Supervisors.

Wood, who was appointed to the commission by the League of California Cities, is vice president of community relations for PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. in Cypress. He serves on the boards of the American Cancer Society, Cypress College Foundation, Orange County Food Distribution Center, United Way, Goodwill Industries, Orange County Partnership for Children and Boys and Girls Club of Laguna Beach.

Rusty Kennedy, director of the Human Relations Commission, characterized Inouye as a dedicated board member who plans to take “a very active” role as chairman. Kennedy described Wood as a corporate executive who is personally involved with community causes rather than someone who just writes checks to charities.

The Santa Ana-based Human Relations Commission was created by the Board of Supervisors in 1971 and charged with the mission of helping eliminate prejudice, intolerance and discrimination in the county.

Kennedy said the most difficult challenge facing the commission “is how to build sensitivity toward our diverse residents.”

“Some feel quite left out and discriminated against, and some people don’t see that at all,” he said. “We want diversity to be a source of our strength, rather than our undoing.”