People / Spotlight on achievers : Laurann Cook, Fountain Valley councilwoman

Laurann Cook will soon be leading her league.

The Fountain Valley councilwoman will be installed Sunday as president of the League of California Cities’ Orange County division at the state group’s annual convention in San Francisco.

“It’s a commitment of my time and energy, which I’m more than willing to do,” said Cook, 47, who has served on the City Council since 1986. “It’s an honor to know that I’m representing the cities of Orange County.”

Cook has been on the league’s executive board for four years, holding the posts of second vice president and first vice president, as well as chairwoman of the resolutions committee, which studies proposed legislation and deals with proposals and other matters relevant to cities.

“Once I started moving up the chairs, I knew ultimately my involvement would be the president of the League of California Cities,” she said.

Laguna Hills Councilman Randal J. Bressette, who has served for the past year as the league’s second vice president and is stepping down from the post, said Cook has proved to be a strong leader who can unify municipalities.

“Laurann Cook brings the ability and the skill to overcome geographical diversity and build a lot of consensus toward those issues that affect all of Orange County cities so they can speak and act as one on important issues,” he said, “such as the bankruptcy and the restructuring of the County of Orange.

“She brings a great personality for putting together people and issues to find common ground and great solutions,” Bressette added. “She’s going to be an outstanding president.”

As first vice president, Cook was instrumental in putting the league’s plan forward to resolve the county bankruptcy.

“We wanted to make sure the cities were protected,” she said. “We lobbied and negotiated with the county. If we didn’t have an entity to bring the cities together, I don’t know if we could have reached a consensus plan. The cities worked together.”

Bressette said Cook did an outstanding job of identifying the differing views of cities and aligning a bankruptcy plan that 30 of 31 Orange County cities agreed to adopt.

“Never before on such a difficult issue have we found that kind of consensus--and it was largely due to [Cook’s] consensus building and mediating,” he said.

Among her goals as league president, Cook said, will be to take an active role in the proposed county restructuring and to continue and strengthen the relationships with the business and educational communities.

She also hopes to help remove the “imaginary boundary” of North and South county cities.

“I feel all the cities in the county have the same issues and concerns,” she said. she said. “There’s a little bit of acrimony that South County cities are not getting full representation on issues. . . . I’ve decided to make it a personal goal that I represent all cities equally.”