10 Join Expanded OCTA Board

Ten elected officials have been appointed to the Orange County Transportation Authority board of directors, which was recently enlarged to give cities more influence.

Under recently passed state legislation, the OCTA board was expanded from 11 voting members to 17. The reconstituted board will have all five county supervisors, two public members and 10 city representatives -- two from each of the five supervisorial districts.

The county’s City Selection Committee, a group of municipal officials with appointment powers for local boards, met last week and picked nine City Council members for the expanded 18-member panel, which includes one nonvoting member.

They are Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan, Huntington Beach Mayor Cathy Green, Lake Forest Councilman Richard T. Dixon, San Clemente Mayor Susan Ritschel and Yorba Linda Councilman Michael Duvall.

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, Buena Park Councilman Art Brown and Orange Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Cavecche were reappointed to the board.

Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), who was recently elected to the Board of Supervisors, also will be seated on the panel. He joins Supervisors Bill Campbell, Jim Silva, Tom Wilson and Chris Norby.

The OCTA board is planning to select two public members in January. Another appointment for the 1st Supervisorial District is expected to come this month from the City Selection Committee, which is administered by the Orange County chapter of the California League of Cities.

The board’s 18th member is Cindy Quon, director of Caltrans’ Orange County division based in Irvine. She has no voting power, however.

Missing from the roster of reappointments was Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Cathryn DeYoung, who was narrowly defeated in her bid to be reseated.

“This was purely political,” said DeYoung, who had pushed for improvements on Interstate 5 through south Orange County. “It’s really hard. I loved working on transportation issues. There were so many big projects I was looking forward to.”

DeYoung intends to run for county supervisor in the June 2006 election against Assemblywoman Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel), who will have been termed out of her Legislature seat. They will be competing for what will be Wilson’s open seat.

The legislation expanding the board was written by Correa. Previously, the board had just 11 voting members: four county supervisors, six city representatives and a public member.

Because of the change, OCTA board chairman Gregory Winterbottom of Yorba Linda must seek reappointment as a public member.

Besides DeYoung, the other OCTA board members who will not be returning are Supervisor Chuck Smith, Anaheim Councilwoman Shirley McCracken and Cypress Councilman Tim Keenan as well as alternates Denis R. Bilodeau and Brea Councilwoman Bev Perry.