Paper Work Again Delays Airport Votes

Delays in completing legal documents Tuesday again forced postponement of scheduled votes on a settlement of legal action by Orange County and the City of Newport Beach involving expansion of John Wayne Airport.

County officials said two airport-area homeowners’ groups would meet tonight to discuss the proposed settlement. The Newport Beach City Council is scheduled to vote next Monday night, and the county Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on the settlement.

Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley said the board had received 4,800 postcards from McDonnell Douglas Corp. employees, “expressing concern about the threat to their job security” if the proposed agreement takes effect.

In addition, state Sen. David Roberti (D-Los Angeles), Senate president pro tem, sent telegrams to the supervisors, saying that the “jobs of 12,000 McDonnell Douglas employees will be gravely affected” by the compromise. And McDonnell Douglas representatives on Tuesday repeated their opposition to the proposed settlement to the supervisors.

The agreement freezes the number of daily flights of the company’s MD-80 jetliner and similar planes at 39 from now until the year 2005 because of the noise the planes make on departure. As a result, company officials said, airlines shopping to buy planes next year may buy the competing Boeing 737-300, which under certain conditions is quieter on takeoff, rather than wait for McDonnell Douglas to develop a less noisy plane.