Discerning Self-Interest on Airport Site : County Supervisors Should Know Where Developer Johns Is Coming From

It would be difficult to be active in Republican politics in Orange County and not know William Buck Johns. A charming man with a down-home manner, Johns has repeatedly opened his Santa Ana Heights estate to political events for such GOP figures as Vice President Dan Quayle and Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.). Johns also is a prominent member of the Lincoln Club, the county’s most prestigious Republican support group.

Johns’ role in the GOP gives him added credibility in certain circles, including those in which the members of the County Board of Supervisors--all of whom are Republicans--move. But Johns also is a shrewd land developer and businessman. The board must keep this in mind as it considers a proposal touted by the Transportation Alternatives for Southern California, a private group of which Johns is patron and co-founder.

Armed with pointers, maps and artists’ renderings, TASC is drumming up support for an idea to build a new international airport, which the county says is needed, in San Bernardino County. The idea would be to build the airport on what is now George Air Force Base. It would be linked with Orange County by a high-speed train envisioned as running from Anaheim to Las Vegas.

Recently, after a lengthy presentation by TASC, the Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 (Harriett M. Wieder was absent) to support the idea. But later one supervisor, Thomas F. Riley, said he was surprised to learn that Johns had his own Riverside County development interests in mind when TASC made its presentation. “It made me wonder about what they were telling us,” Riley said.

Riley and others on the board shouldn’t have had to wonder. They should know where Johns is coming from. The selection of a new international airport site in Southern California to serve Orange County is one of the region’s most important and vexing questions. It must be answered strictly on the basis of public need-- never on who might personally benefit.

Johns hasn’t hidden his private interest in this decision. He says, “My motives are simple: I’m trying to make a profit.” But that wasn’t the message given by TASC when it made its presentation to the board.

It’s possible that what TASC is proposing is best. But public officials must be aware that the information they are getting may be weighted in favor of those with something to gain. Whatever the board decides, it should know that TASC’s proposal is motivated by self-interest.