Bob Wynn, meet Bob Dole

June Casagrande, Lolita Harper and S.J. Cahn

Remember how, during the 1996 presidential election, Bob Dole fell

off a stage during a campaign rally? And remember how his popularity

rating went up immediately after the incident? Well, apparently local

notable Bob Wynn remembers, too. The former city manager and current

representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on

Tuesday, attended a presentation in City Council chambers for Pieter

Bourges, who resuscitated Wynn after he collapsed at a local Ruby’s

restaurant.

It was the first time Wynn made the news since the controversial

Mormon Temple project was approved in the fall after a long and ugly

battle over the height of its steeple.

His tongue-in-cheek contribution to the proceedings: “With all the

sympathy I’m getting here tonight, is there any chance we could

change the height of the steeple again?”

Maddox gets a little more power

Assemblyman Ken Maddox got a little more power last week when he

was appointed Assistant Republican Leader by the Assembly Republican

Caucus.

“I went to Sacramento to fight for the families of my district. I

am honored to help lead my colleagues into the upcoming budget

battle,” Maddox said in a statement.

The Assemblyman, who now represents Costa Mesa and has announced

his intentions to fill Ross Johnson’s state Senate seat in 2004, will

be part of the party’s strategy sessions and will work with new

legislators to help them with their learning curve.

Putting the metal

to the pedal

Councilman Chris Steel is now leading the agency set up to

revitalize the Westside, and boy does he have some ideas for how that

should be done.

Steel was elected to chair the Redevelopment Agency, which was

created to revitalize economic and physical conditions in a specific

project area.

Steel, who has served on the council since 2000, was put into

office in large part by residents who have forcibly pushed for the

Westside to be turned from an industrial eyesore to a paradise of

high-end homes. Many of his supporters have called for the city to

rid that area of town from the various charities, liquor stores and

pawn shops that they claim lower property values.

While at the helm, Steel said he wants to target the so-called

“magnets” that he said draw illegal immigrants to the city and lower

test scores and property values. Although the position is largely

ceremonial, Steel will be charged with running the meetings, which

are guaranteed to heat up as the city gets closer to adding

territories to its redevelopment project area.

Given his penchant for letting people speak at will during council

meetings, look for redevelopment agency meetings to get longer as the

issues get more contentious.

Pledging the tough fight for his people

In his swearing-in speech this month, Orange County Supervisor Jim

Silva promised to continue to be tough on the county’s budget by

making “county government even more efficient, effective and

accountable to the taxpayers.”

But at the same time, he also pledged “to continue to meet our

obligations to the people of Orange County.”

Those obligations, notably, include high levels of public safety,

clean beaches (Silva, whose district includes both Huntington Beach

and Newport, said: “Orange County is known for our beaches. It is

part of who we are.”) and creative traffic solutions. They did not,

however, include an airport at El Toro, two words absent from his

speech.

Not that that should be taken to mean the death of the airport,

reports of which have cropped up in the media of late.