Ex-O.C. Supervisor Vasquez Returning to Police Work

After only three months on the job, former Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez is leaving an executive position with Southern California Edison to become a beat cop in Orange.

Vasquez will officially leave his Edison post as division vice president Jan. 31, and is expected to be sworn in as a police officer in early February, according to Orange Police Chief John R. Robertson.

Vasquez, who backed out of rejoining the Orange Police Department full time in October, told Edison officials that “personal family considerations” prompted his departure from the Rosemead-based public affairs position.

Vasquez added that the lengthy commute from his Orange home to his Los Angeles County office took too much time away from family and community involvement. When he accepted the job, he said, he believed he would be able to work more often in Orange County.

“It was a tough decision,” said Vasquez, who though active as a reserve officer in Orange hasn’t served as a full-time police officer for more than 15 years. “But it became increasingly clear the demands of the job were going to require a full-time presence in Rosemead. I made the personal decision that I was not prepared to make that commute every day.”

An Edison spokesman expressed regret over Vasquez’s decision.

“We are very sorry to see Gaddi leave, but fully understand his reasons for doing so,” said Kevin Kelley, an Edison spokesman. “In the short time since he has returned to Edison, Gaddi has made some meaningful contributions to our department, and to the company’s overall utility deregulation efforts.” Vasquez worked in Edison’s public affairs department briefly in 1984.

Vasquez, 40, stepped down as chairman of the Board of Supervisors in September after months of intense criticism over his handling of the county’s bankruptcy. He said then that he was leaving office after eight years to spend more time with his wife and teenage son.

The job change will mean a considerably lower salary for the former politician, who was once viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party and was invited to address two Republican national conventions. As a police officer, Vasquez will make about $49,000 a year, although an exact salary will be determined later, Robertson said.

That figure pales in comparison to the reported $120,000-plus annual salary Vasquez was receiving from Edison, sources said, and is well below his county supervisor’s annual base pay of $82,056.

Under the terms of his resignation from the utility company, Vasquez will remain available to Edison as an “independent consultant,” but the firm would not say how much he would be compensated.

The Orange police chief said he was not surprised by Vasquez’s decision to return to police work.

“Forget about the bankruptcy, forget about the past few years,” said Robertson, who has known Vasquez for 15 years. “He’s always talked about becoming a police officer again. Some people didn’t view him as sincere, but I always did.”

But the news caught others off guard.

“I’m stunned,” said county Supervisor William G. Steiner. “I spoke with him yesterday and he didn’t mention it to me. His first love has always been law enforcement, and he’s found a very supportive fraternity with the police officers of the Orange Police Department.”

“To some extent, I guess I’m not surprised,” Steiner said, “because I thought he would go back when he left the Board of Supervisors.”

Vasquez was the first supervisor to become a casualty of the county’s bankruptcy. Before it tarnished his political career, he was one of the more prominent Latino officeholders in the state, and was widely regarded as a candidate for higher office.

After he resigned from the Board of Supervisors, many of his friends expected him to rejoin the Orange Police Department in October. But Vasquez later asked the department for a week’s extension to reconsider, ultimately deciding instead to take the position with Edison.

Vasquez’s career started at the Orange Police Department, where he worked full time from 1975 to 1979. At 19, he was the department’s youngest police officer ever, and was the academy valedictorian.

“Gaddi truly believes in public service in his heart, and I don’t know if all politicians feel the same way,” Robertson said. “Being a police officer satisfies his inner drive to serve.”