2 More Enter Supervisorial Races : Politics: Madelene Arakelian is challenging Sen. Marian Bergeson. Haydee Tillotson enters a race to replace Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder.

SANTA ANA —  Two Orange County businesswomen, both political novices, announced their candidacies Wednesday for separate seats on the Board of Supervisors.

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Madelene Arakelian, 60, co-owner of South Coast Refuse Corp., will challenge state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) for the South County district post being vacated by retiring Supervisor Thomas F. Riley.

Haydee Tillotson, 55, owner of a Huntington Beach-based property management company, enters a race to replace Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who also is retiring from local politics.

Both declared themselves non-Establishment candidates who would seek to rejuvenate a board long controlled by incumbents.

“I am not a career politician,” Tillotson said. “I am entering public service because I am convinced that the problems we are facing won’t be solved through politics-as-usual approaches.”

Tillotson’s candidacy has been actively promoted by Wieder. At a news conference Wednesday, Tillotson said that if elected, she would not accept a county car or the $823 per month car allowance provided to supervisors as part of their benefits package.

Wieder has recently drawn criticism for driving a new county car valued at $29,000 for use during her last year in office and for the cost of repairs on her previous county cars. The four other supervisors also drive vehicles valued at $20,000 to $25,000.

“I will not accept a taxpayer-provided car, because it is time for government to set a better example of how tax money should be used,” Tillotson said. The money “should be invested in the community, not in the perks of office.”

Tillotson, however, said she thought it would be “grandstanding” to try to impose that policy on other county supervisors.

Tillotson served on the Orange County Planning Commission last year, but resigned after three months.

Wednesday, Tillotson said she resigned to avoid any possible conflict of interest as she solicited money to run for supervisor. “I felt it would be inappropriate to solicit campaign funds from individuals and companies whose projects might come before the commission,” she said.

Campaign disclosure statements distributed by Tillotson show that she has raised $53,000 in contributions and has loaned the campaign $200,000 in personal funds.

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Huntington Beach Councilmembers Linda Moulton-Patterson and Jim Silva have indicated their intention to run for the same seat.

In South County, Arakelian, whose persistent questioning of county waste management issues has led her to butt heads with county staffers and supervisors, promised to bring a new perspective to the county if elected.

“Every year, the same rhetoric comes from the same leaders, but the problems keep getting larger,” Arakelian said Wednesday. “We constantly have the same people in power or others recycled from other government jobs. If these people have always been there, why are we in the position we are in today?”

The county is most vulnerable, Arakelian said, in developing strategies to attract or keep businesses in Orange County. “We’ve got to be more friendly to business,” she said. “Right now, we’re just driving them away.”

In her numerous encounters with supervisors, Arakelian said she has found them to be “inaccessible” or “uninterested” in the concerns of residents.

Arakelian has been particularly critical of the board for what she describes as a penchant for awarding government work to a core of businesses to the exclusion of others.

“Orange County doesn’t need a professional politician spewing the same old hot air,” she said. “This county needs tenacity and a true Californian who remembers growing up in this state with California pride.”

Arakelian, a Laguna Hills resident whose company provides garbage collection services, said she is prepared to raise about $200,000 for the race against Bergeson. While the state senator has picked up endorsements from Riley and the four other supervisors, Arakelian said she will wage a “door-to-door” campaign for the support of residents in the sprawling South County district.