Bergeson Resigns Board With Warning for O.C.

Orange County Supervisor Marian Bergeson announced Tuesday that she will step down from the Board of Supervisors next month to become the governor’s top education advisor, leaving behind unsettled issues that she said “threaten to tear the county apart.”

In her resignation letter, Bergeson said disputes over a proposed South County jail expansion and an international airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station have destroyed her constituents’ faith in county government.

Those issues, she said, deeply divide the county between north and south and have “shattered any trust that voters in South County once held in their county government. Part of restoring that trust involves both my departure and my replacement.”

Bergeson, who lives in Newport Beach, called upon Gov. Pete Wilson to appoint a successor, preferably a woman, from South County, to represent the sprawling 5th District. Many South County residents believe people from Newport Beach have sharply different political priorities, although they all share the same district.

Among the possible replacements for Bergeson: Mary Jane Forster, a San Juan Capistrano resident and member of the State Water Resources Control Board; Holly Veale, former San Clemente mayor; and Laguna Niguel Mayor Patricia C. Bates.

In accepting the governor’s Cabinet appointment, Bergeson, 71, a former teacher, will return to education, which she has championed throughout her 32 years in public office. “I see this as a wonderful chance to help implement the agenda of a pro-education governor and return to my calling,” Bergeson said.

Bergeson will replace Maureen DiMarco, a longtime Orange County educator, who resigned Tuesday after six years as the governor’s secretary for child development and education.

Wilson said Bergeson, a close political ally who served in the Legislature for 16 years before joining the Orange County Board of Supervisors, “brings to this office the best of both worlds in terms of preparation.”

“She fully understands the byzantine world of educational policy and politics,” he said. “More importantly, she is herself an educator who . . . knows what it’s like to stand in front of a classroom full of kids.”

Wilson denied reports that DiMarco had been asked to leave because of policy differences and said he will miss “the passion she brought to the effort” and her “dedication to improving the lives and quality of education for our youngest Californians.”

Bergeson leaves county government after a two-year stint on the board. She joined the five-member panel in January 1995, a month after the county declared bankruptcy.

Friends and colleagues said Bergeson, a strong advocate for governmental reform, grew frustrated by the political squabbling and public cynicism that became the financial disaster’s legacy.

“She’s very weary of dealing with so many conflicting issues in Orange County,” Supervisor William G. Steiner said. “She’s especially tired of being pulled in opposite directions on the El Toro airport issue.

“Even though she was elected after the bankruptcy, she’s caught a lot of flak and anger from people who found it difficult to separate which board members were in office before the bankruptcy and those who joined after,” Steiner added. “This distressed her immensely and she was not having a good time on the board.”

Many local observers said they are saddened to see Bergeson leave and praised her independence on the board. Some expressed concern that Bergeson is resigning because she frequently found herself on the losing end of issues ranging from increasing public access to government to stricter policies on competitive bidding.

“This reinforces the feeling that nothing has really changed since the bankruptcy,” said Irvine attorney Bill Mitchell, an advocate of government reform. “Here is an outstanding public officials who was trying to bring about true accountability. But her efforts have been thwarted.”

Supervisor Don Saltarelli praised Bergeson’s efforts to find a compromise on the hotly controversial issue of building a passenger-cargo airport at El Toro after the military abandons the base in 1999.

“I think she did a wonderful job listening to the people of her district and representing their views,” he said. “It’s a difficult task. . . . I think she leaves a legacy of class and of doing everything she can to represent her constituents.”

Wilson said Bergeson will be an important force as his education advisor.

Administration officials said the appointment of Bergeson did not signal any shift in his basic philosophy for the final two years he is in office.

Rather, they said he will continue emphasizing themes such as increasing the choices available to parents by giving them vouchers. In addition, Wilson plans to back high academic standards through the development of a new testing program, to refocus reading instruction on basic skills and to pour more money into the hugely popular effort to reduce the number of pupils in primary grades to no more than 20 per teacher.

Bergeson’s appointment to the $115,000-a-year post comes as the state’s schools are riding the wave of rising educational spending as a result of the state’s return to economic health.

“There’s a renaissance waiting to happen throughout California’s classrooms and I just can’t wait to get started,” said Bergeson, who is paid $82,056 as a supervisor.

She said she hopes to ensure that children are able to compete in the state’s competitive job market by emphasizing math, science and the use of phonics in reading instruction while bringing “the best and brightest teachers into the classroom.”

Wilson three years ago nominated Bergeson, then a state senator, to fill the post of state superintendent of public instruction after a conflict-of-interest conviction forced former schools chief Bill Honig to resign.

But in a snub that Bergeson has long regarded as a major political defeat, the Democrat-controlled Assembly, backed by teachers unions and various minority groups, refused to go along. That process, which put her in the position of denying charges that she was a racist who would introduce the biblical doctrine of creationism to the public schools, left bruises on both sides.

The new appointment, to the post of secretary of child development and education, does not require legislative confirmation.

Bergeson served on the school board in Newport Beach and, in that role, presided over the California School Boards Assn.

Bergeson was elected to the Assembly in 1978 and later moved to the state Senate before running for election to the county supervisorial seat.

The only point of contention between the governor and Bergeson during a press conference came on the education of illegal immigrant children.

Wilson is a strong backer of efforts in Congress to strip children of educational privileges if they’re in the country illegally. Bergeson, however, said pulling children out of classrooms would be difficult.

“We know that children who are in school are far better off than children who are not in school,” she said. “Every effort should be made to prevent illegal immigration, but it’s very difficult to dislodge children once they’re in school.”

* SOUTH MAY RISE: South County loses ally but may gain voice of its own. A18

* THWARTED AGENDA: Bergeson’s proposed county reforms usually met defeat. A19