COUNTYWIDE : Tollway Entity Hires Irvine Co. Aide

Michael Stockstill, a spokesman and former legislative manager for the Irvine Co., has been named manager of public affairs for Orange County’s tollway agency.

Stockstill, 42, currently serves as senior director of corporate communications at the Irvine Co., the county’s biggest landowner. He will report to the Transportation Corridor Agencies on Sept. 30 at a salary of $84,000 a year, TCA Executive Director William C. Woollett Jr. said.. He will be responsible for legislative, press and community relations activities.

The TCA consists of two overlapping boards of directors and staff that are planning three public toll roads in eastern and southern areas of the county at a combined cost of more than $2 billion.

The cost is split, with about 48.5% of the money raised through developer fees--including a big chunk from the Irvine Co.--and the rest from a combination of loans to be repaid with future toll revenue and a few government grants.

“After 13 years I was ready for a change,” Stockstill said Monday. “I’ve always wanted to head a department or a division, so I view this as career advancement.”

He will report to TCA’s Woollett, the former city manager of Irvine.

Stockstill said his departure from the Irvine Co. was unrelated to recent staff cuts. “It was my own decision,” he said.

Woollett said the decision to hire Stockstill was not related to developers’ role in the tollway projects. “If anything, that was a negative factor,” Woollett said. “He had to be better to (overcome) that.”

Stockstill is a 1971 graduate of Humboldt State University with a degree in journalism. Before joining the Irvine Co. in 1978, he worked for a variety of Orange County-based publications. He lives in Irvine with his wife, Margot, and two sons.