Many Women Feel Slighted by Appointment

For many women in Orange County, it is a kick in the teeth. A bad flashback to the late 1970s.

When Thomas W. Wilson pulls up a chair at his first Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting next Tuesday, it will be the first time since 1978 that there hasn’t been a woman at the dais.

“I think it’s an absolute slap in the face for women in this county,” said former Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who retired in 1994 after 16 years as the county’s first female supervisor.

All white. All male. All registered Republicans.

And that’s tough to swallow for many women who had hoped--all things being equal--that times had changed.

Gov. Pete Wilson dashed those hopes Wednesday, appointing Thomas Wilson to replace Marian Bergeson, only the second woman to serve on the board. This, despite Bergeson’s pleas that a South County woman take her seat.

“I gasped. I was totally taken by surprise that it was a man,” said political scientist Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of Claremont Graduate College.

“Lest we [think] that the 20th century has reached Orange County, it hasn’t,” added political consultant Eileen Padberg. “Orange County is still a male-dominated system. I think the people Wilson looks to help him make his decisions in Orange County--[developer George L.] Argyros, Donald Bren, the Irvine Co.--are much more comfortable sitting around a table with a man than a woman.”

Women aren’t the only ones grousing. With the stunning win of Loretta Sanchez over Rep. Robert K. Dornan last month, some in the Latino community too were hoping for a little more consideration.

They haven’t had a representative on the board since Gaddi Vasquez stepped down in 1995--and Wilson replaced him with Don Saltarelli, another white male.

“There’s a general feeling of basically disappointment ranging all the way to disgust,” said Jess Araujo, a Santa Ana attorney and Latino activist who is general counsel to the Mexican Consulate.

“At a minimum, an effort could have been made to publicly consider other [Latino] candidates,” Araujo said. “More than 25% of the county is made up of Hispanics and more than 50% are women. [The board] is not representative of what the constituency is.”

For Gov. Wilson’s part, his office stressed that it chose the best candidate for the job, period--with no undue pressure from Orange County’s movers and shakers. Indeed, outside Orange County, the governor has a respectable record of appointing women and minorities to prominent posts.

The advice of Argyros and Irvine Co. officials carried no more weight than that of other advisors in Orange County, said Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh. “To say that the Irvine Co. or George Argyros is what drove the governor’s decision-making process is to not understand how that process works.”

But many women and others in local political circles say they understand only too well.

“They just don’t get it,” said Wieder, recalling that there was not even a bathroom for women in the supervisors’ private corridor when she came on the board. “There is a difference with gender.”

Laguna Niguel Mayor Patricia C. Bates, thought to be Thomas Wilson’s chief rival for the job, accepted his appointment with resignation.

“I would have liked to have seen a woman chosen. I would have liked to have seen the board represent the female side of the constituency,” she said. “If we are all equally qualified, the pick should have been a woman.”

Bergeson said that despite her interest in having a woman serve on the board, she was still pleased with the selection of Wilson.

Her top priority, she said, was that a South County resident be selected to the post, whether it be a man or woman.

“I would have liked to have seen a woman,” she said. “But Tom will be an excellent supervisor.”

Bebitch Jeffe said that by not appointing a woman, Gov. Wilson hurts the ability of women to get on the board in the long run.

“Once you have a woman as an incumbent, it makes it easier for her to win [office] in her own right,” she said. “If you put them in there by appointment, it gives them that leg up. It’s one way to achieve the diversity of a governing body.”

Evelyn R. Hart, a Newport Beach mayor and councilwoman from 1978 to 1994, agreed.

“I am disappointed,” she said. “I don’t think it’s Pete Wilson’s fault. But I think he had a chance to keep women in the limelight and decided not to do so.”

But San Clemente Mayor Steve Apodaca, a Latino who was briefly mentioned as a possible candidate for the post, said he doesn’t believe race or “the male-female thing is as important to voters as it is portrayed in the press. In the decision-making process, we should be blind to whether someone is one gender or another.”

Also contributing to this report were staff writers Shelby Grad, Rene Lynch and Eric Bailey.