Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COUNTY : Herman Resigns as Aide to Supervisor Riley

For 11 years, Peter F. Herman had been an aide to Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, and his influence in county land-use decisions was reflected in his back-room moniker: “the sixth supervisor.”

Even his appreciative boss once conceded that “occasionally, over the years, I’ve had to remind Peter that I wear the stars in this office.”

But at age 39, Herman has decided to resign from his $63,000-a-year job. Criticism of him recently has become “especially ugly,” he said in an interview.

Herman, a former newspaper reporter, was Riley’s liaison with developers seeking to build projects in Riley’s district, where most of the county’s development has occurred in recent years.

He prided himself on wringing from developers the maximum concessions for open space and parkland. He pushed for expansion of the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, green belts in Aliso Viejo, the proposed U.S. Fitness Academy in Aliso Viejo and other recreational areas.

But some have criticized him for heavy-handed, arrogant use of power.

Ironically, Herman was criticized for taking too much from developers--in the way of gifts and free meals and favors, such as staying at a developer’s home in Hawaii while on vacation. His 1985 declaration of gifts in excess of $50 totaled $5,852.60 from lobbyists, engineering companies, consultants and developers having business with the county.

Supervisor Harriett Wieder called Herman’s acceptance of such gifts “inappropriate.” But last year, the Orange County Grand Jury and district attorney investigated Herman’s activities and cleared him of any wrongdoing.