Fuentes, 2 Others Seek O.C. College District Seat

In a surprise move, Thomas A. Fuentes, the hard-line conservative head of the county Republican Party, is one of three candidates who have applied for the vacancy on board of the beleaguered South Orange County Community College District. The new board member will be announced today.

The other candidates are relative unknowns: William P. Wachal of Mission Viejo, regional sales manager for Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Los Angeles, and Joe F. Greco of Portola Hills, an assistant professor of international finance at Cal State Fullerton.

Fuentes has been a contentious figure in the county GOP in his 15 years as chairman, and his leadership has been challenged several times from the more moderate wing of the party.

He once said Democratic voters were like “good Germans denying the existence of the Holocaust” and compared Republicans’ support of President Clinton’s reelection with French politicians who collaborated with the Nazis.

Many GOP leaders began to look for a replacement after Republicans suffered several losses in the November 1998 election.

Fuentes has never run for office, other than the Republican Central Committee.

The Lake Forest resident has become increasingly active behind the scenes in the fight against an El Toro airport.

The current position on the seven-member college board will be appointed rather than elected. The seat opened when another controversial figure, Steven J. Frogue, resigned last month.

Frogue, who served 7 1/2 years on the board, survived two recall attempts and allegations that he was anti-Semitic. He was accused of downplaying the Holocaust and became embroiled in controversy when he planned a seminar on President Kennedy’s assassination featuring two speakers who wrote for an anti-Semitic newspaper.

Nancy Padberg, president of the Board of Trustees and a Republican, said she was surprised when Fuentes declared for the vacancy.

Asked if he had the inside track for the job, she replied, “I have no idea.”

Board members will interview each candidate for 15 minutes today, and the new member is expected to be appointed afterward. The winner faces an election in November.

The community college district has faced lawsuits and dissension and has been the subject of outside scrutiny in the past few years. The body that accredits community colleges placed the district on warning status last year and said it was “wracked by malfunction.” Last February, the group reversed itself and accredited the district’s schools, Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges, for six years.

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Times staff writer Jean O. Pasco contributed to this report.