Can Coad Lead Three-for-All?

The fact that three adds up to one more than two has been the operative simple arithmetic on the Board of Supervisors for some time. Three votes is what you need to control most everything, and that is exactly what has been happening on the important questions of the proposed El Toro airport and the tobacco settlement money, two of the big issues on the county’s agenda for the new year.

Having three votes also means that a member of the governing majority also probably becomes the chairman of the board at its annual reorganization. Counting the votes is ultimately what resulted in the selection of relative board newcomer Cynthia P. Coad of Anaheim to become chairwoman this month.

After the repeated snubbing of Supervisor Tom Wilson for his turn as chairman of the board in past reorganizations, it has become a political given that anyone representing the interests of South County cities outside the current three-member governing majority’s orbit would not have a chance at the job. After several tries, Wilson has been a good sport, but that does not make his predictable annual rejection a good thing. The gap between the governing majority and many constituents could be bridged better by a chairman attentive to their concerns. This year, the best the two minority members could do by way of protest was Todd Spitzer’s attempt during the preliminaries to nominate Supervisor Jim Silva, another member of the pro-airport majority, but one believed to have a difference of opinion with the outgoing chairman, Chuck Smith, on the airport.

Coad’s elevation thus had an air of inevitability, and she is scheduled to give a state of the county speech Tuesday. She has worked for neighborhood preservation and helped families in unincorporated areas. This grass-roots activity shows she is capable of collaborating with different groups on common objectives. But her willingness to join so readily in trying to overturn the will of voters on the tobacco settlement health care initiative, and her general go-for-broke approach on El Toro, are problematic. They suggest that she has bought into the dangerous philosophy of government by fiat in the Hall of Administration.

Her past assertions about limiting the size of an El Toro airport will be put to the test. It’s not saying much, but almost anything she does to bridge the county’s divisions in this area will be an improvement. Seven years into the El Toro reuse process, relations between the pro-airport majority and South County have never been worse.

For now, the jury will have to be out on whether she can apply the same collaborative spirit she has shown on neighborhood issues to the big countywide dilemmas.