O.C. SUPERVISOR VASQUEZ STEPS DOWN : Vasquez Up Close and Personal

The following are remarks by Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez during an interview Monday:

“Come the end of September, I will have essentially completed the major tasks that one would engage in as a chairman of the board--in addition to all of the other things that I’ve had to do for the last eight months, which is live, walk, talk, breathe this recovery since it started, virtually seven days a week.”

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“No one will ever appreciate what I have had to sacrifice--in time, in energy I will never be able to get back. I certainly don’t seek anyone’s sympathy in that regard, because I accepted this job--no one ever said this job would be easy--and I’ve always had a very strong and hard work ethic. My father always taught me that you have to work hard every day so that you have a job the next day. That’s been my motto, my creed. I’ve been working since I was 12 years old, nonstop. I started as a shoeshine boy and I’ve never stopped.”

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“My mother reminded me, just a few weeks ago, that when she was going to have me she was in labor for 52 hours and the doctors predicted that I probably would not survive. But I did. I was born. My father named me Gaddi, which, translated, means ‘fortunate.’ And I’ve never stopped being fortunate in many, many ways.”

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“Every step I’ve ever taken in my life--having been raised in a migrant farm-working family--has been difficult, has been painful, has been challenging. Nothing has come easy. And, so, while this has been challenging and it has been difficult, I have recognized and come to the conclusion that at this particular point in time in my life, it is in my best interest for me to step aside.”

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“I’ve had a lot of people who have said to me, ‘If I were you, I would have left months ago. There’s no way I would have withstood the kind of pummeling that you’ve been taking.’ When people were saying we should leave, or should have left, long ago, I didn’t. I stayed here. And I fought the fight. Many long nights. Endured it. Stayed here. Put the pieces together.”

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“How would you feel when you’re killing yourself Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays even sometimes, and you pick up the paper and [it says] you’re overpaid, you’re making too much money, and you’re [getting] perks. . . . What perks? It’s not fair. I have lived by the creed that I would never shortchange the people.”