ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Now Boarding in the Red Zone : Supervisors: In upbeat moment amid gloom, Bergeson and Silva are sworn in. Both vow a governmental overhaul.

The nation’s fifth-largest county, mired in an unprecedented financial crisis, turned for help Wednesday to two former schoolteachers from its coastal cities.

Marian Bergeson, a former teacher and veteran state legislator, and Jim Silva, only last month a high school economics teacher, were sworn in as the newest members of the political pressure cooker that is now the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Despite the gloom of widespread employee layoffs and the increasing uncertainty of the county’s fiscal standing, the mood of the ceremony was upbeat.

“It’s quite an overwhelming experience for me when I look at the duties we’re about to tackle,” said Bergeson, a Newport Beach Republican who spent 16 years in the California Assembly and, later, the state Senate. “But I’m very anxious to get started.”

Bergeson and Silva, along with Supervisor William G. Steiner, who was beginning a second term, took their oaths of office in front of an overflow crowd and the army of cameras and reporters camped out at the Hall of Administration for the past month since the county declared bankruptcy.

The packed boardroom was filled with the supervisors’ families and friends and a virtual who’s who of recent Orange County politics. Former Supervisor Bruce Nestande introduced Bergeson while Wes Bannister, a former colleague on the Huntington Beach City Council and onetime candidate for state insurance commissioner, introduced Silva.

The new supervisors, both fiscal conservatives, talked of their desire to convert Orange County to a charter government and to reinvent the county governing structure, a theme they say will dominate their agendas.

“There must be deep and lasting changes, not just in personnel and procedures, but critically in attitude,” said Silva, 50, who represents the county’s 2nd District that includes Cypress, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa. “The government serves people, not rules people.”

Silva, a resident of Huntington Beach, also promised to be a friend to the county’s police and district attorney, particularly after the murder of one of his staff members last week in her Laguna Niguel home.

“Believe me when I say my first commitment, my first priority, is public safety,” Silva said. “A government that cannot protect people is worthless.”

Bergeson, 69, who is taking over the county’s 5th District stretching along the south coast from Newport Beach to San Clemente, called her new job “a challenge unlike any challenge I’ve faced in my life.”

She promised to conduct, delegate and debate policy “in the open,” a direct response to the oft-repeated criticism of the past board for allegedly hiding in closed executive sessions since the county plunged into bankruptcy Dec. 6.

Of the two newcomers to the board, Bergeson is undoubtedly the best known.

She began her political career on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board of trustees and then went on to Sacramento where, in 1992, she was named the second most effective Republican in the Senate by the Capitol Journal.

As a popular state legislator, she authored bills that helped create the county Crystal Cove State Park and preserve Upper Newport Bay, to name a few.

“She has tenacity. She has bulldog determination to see a job through to success,” Nestande said of Bergeson in his welcoming speech.

What the county will need in this tumultuous time is her experience, said Gary L. Hausdorfer, a former San Juan Capistrano councilman who seriously considered running for her supervisorial seat. Hausdorfer called her “the best qualified and experienced individual ever to hold the office of county supervisor.”

“She has experience that is simply invaluable to the county right now,” Hausdorfer said. “She understands government from the local school district level all the way to the state Senate. Not only does she have the experience, but she has the trust of the citizens of the county.”

Much less is known about Silva, at least outside of Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, where he was a teacher at Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley for the past 26 years.

He is known by his friends and colleagues as a family man, hard worker and longtime activist in the county Republican Party.

Wendy Weber, a Golden West College official who worked on his campaign, called him “a man of integrity and sincere commitment.”

“I call it a moral compass,” Weber said. “He listens. That’s one of his strengths. You have to scratch the surface with Jim, but when you do, you find there’s a lot there.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile: Marian Bergeson

Position: 5th District supervisor

Hometown: Salt Lake City

Residence: Newport Beach

Age: 69; born Aug. 31, 1925

Family: Married, four children, five grandchildren

Education: Attended UCLA; bachelor’s degree, Brigham Young University

Achievements: Former elementary school teacher, trustee on Newport-Mesa Unified School District and president of California School Boards Assn.; state Assembly, 1978-84; state Senate, 1984-94, where she chaired the Local Government Committee; named second most effective Republican in the Senate by Capitol Journal, 1992.

Source: Marian Bergeson

Researched by LEN HALL / Los Angeles Times

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile: Jim Silva

Position: 2nd District supervisor

Hometown: Fullerton

Residence: Huntington Beach

Age: 49; born Jan. 15, 1944

Family: Married, two children

Education: Bachelor’s degree, San Jose State University; master’s degree, Chapman University; graduate work at UCI

Achievements: Taught high school economics and civics in the Garden Grove Unified School District for 28 years, most recently at Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley, where he was named Teacher of the Year in 1970-71; Huntington Beach Planning Commission, 1987-88; Huntington Beach City Council, 1988-94; longtime Republican Party activist

Source: Jim Silva

Researched by LEN HALL / Los Angeles Times