Politics May Stand in Way of El Toro Conversion Aid : Military: To receive federal grants, county and six-city coalition must agree on one agency to handle transition.

President Clinton on Friday unveiled a program to speed economic help to localities hard hit by the new round of military base closures, but a Pentagon official said Orange County will not receive program grants to plan the conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station until city and county officials agree on a single agency to take charge of the project.

In a White House press conference, the President announced plans to streamline the process of converting bases to civilian use so that new jobs can be created quickly.

Clinton’s proposal includes increased grants, a reduction in the amount of red tape required for the cleanup and transfer of the installations, appointment of a special federal coordinator to oversee each base closing, and simplifying procedures for federal aid.

While Orange County officials welcomed the news of increased aid, there was little doubt that political obstacles stand in the way of a rapid start on the transition process at El Toro.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors and a six-city coalition led by Newport Beach are at odds over future control of the 4,700-acre site. The supervisors have pledged to study all development options, but the cities have promised stiff competition for the site if the county does not immediately begin planning El Toro’s conversion into a commercial airport and air cargo facility.

“We will not fund competing groups,” said David McKinnon, a senior project manager in the Defense Department’s Office of Economic Adjustment. “They need to arrive at a consensus on who’s going to do the planning for this thing, and agree to a forum to debate--if there are competing interests--on how that proposal is going to be developed. And they need to act like adults,” he added.

Clinton’s five-point proposal, part of which involved a repackaging of programs that the Administration already had announced, also spotlighted earlier plans by the President for appropriating about $1 billion a year in aid for environmental cleanup of the bases and for high technology. El Toro’s cleanup costs alone have been estimated at $250 million.

Provisions for new spending would require congressional approval--not at all a certainty, given the current cost-cutting mood in Congress.

The President also promised to propose legislation this fall that would enable the Pentagon to sell the surplus land and facilities to localities at a discount--or in some cases to provide them free of charge--if they are used for job-creating endeavors.

Seeking to ease local anxiety over the base shutdowns, Clinton promised that the Administration would use the money to “provide an average grant of $1 million to each community affected” by a major base closing--an effort that he described as “unprecedented.”

He also urged affected localities to take heart, contending that the job loss need not be permanent. He said his program would “ensure that when we close these bases, we also open a new and brighter economic future for the affected workers and their communities.”

The unveiling of the measures--accompanied by briefings from a bevy of Cabinet officers--came as Clinton approved recommendations by an independent base-closings commission to shut down 35 major military installations in the United States, including seven large bases in California.

Major California bases to be closed include El Toro and six naval installations--the air station and depot at Alameda, a station at Treasure Island, the hospital at Oakland, the shipyard at Mare Island and the training center at San Diego.

Also to be shut down are the naval air station at Hunter’s Point, the naval engineering command at San Bruno, the civil engineering laboratory at Port Hueneme, the naval public works center in San Francisco and the surface-ship repair and alterations facility in San Francisco.

March Air Force Base in Riverside will be scaled back to a reserve center.

Facing the loss of more than 8,000 military and civilian jobs at El Toro, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is caught in the cross-fire between those who claim a new airport would be a panacea for the county’s economic woes and South County residents who fear the disruption of their lives if commercial jets fly over their homes.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley maintains that the county will take the lead in the planning for El Toro’s future because the land is in an unincorporated area of the county.

“I am ignoring that there is any discord,” Riley said of the county’s plans to move forward with federal grant applications. “The land use authority has always been a very sacred authority.”

But Newport Beach officials, representing the Orange County Cities Airport Authority, believe a new facility matching John Wayne Airport is the only option that can boost the local economy. A new regional airport authority also would ensure that the cities and the county share in the projected revenue, they added. In addition to Newport Beach, the airport authority group includes officials from Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Stanton and Yorba Linda.

El Toro “is a federally owned facility, owned by the taxpayers,” Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner said. “Just because it’s in an unincorporated part of the county, I would argue it’s not only the county who has a say in what happens to it. The cities should have voting rights and they should also have the right to participate in the cash flow.”

But there are also signs that both sides are at least willing to listen to each other.

In two weeks, the supervisors plan to appoint a task force that will study various uses for the site. The membership is expected to include a representative of a South County group opposed to converting El Toro into a second regional airport as well as a member of the pro-airport coalition.

“Who am I to say?” Riley said. An airport “very well may be the best use for El Toro. It may be there could be several uses out there.”

And Turner said that depending on how the county sets up the planning process and on where it places a new airport on its priority list, the pro-airport cities could hold back their own federal grant applications and take a seat at the negotiating table.

“Both sides know that it’s in their best interest to step forward if they want a seat at the table,” Turner said. “What I am personally looking for is a vehicle to ensure that we get a fair shot at analyzing an airport. I think if that’s the case, the merits of the project will stand out on their own.”

The county and Newport Beach have already contacted the Defense Department seeking advice on re-use planning, McKinnon said. One request from the county that is under consideration, he said, is for the Office of Economic Adjustment to hold an instructional public hearing on how to develop a smooth transition.

In the past, federal planning grants have been made available to communities within a few months after the Pentagon’s decision to close a base. McKinnon said it was unclear how quickly the new program would get started, but the Administration’s goal is to improve the speed and efficiency of the base closure process.

While the federal funds could conceivably be waiting for Orange County once it resolves its internal differences, the time lost in a potential power struggle could be even more costly, according to those who have dealt with base conversions in the past.

“To borrow the Benjamin Franklin adage: ‘Time wasted is never found,’ ” said Sue Vander Linden, executive director of the National Assn. for Installation Developers, which links up communities and potential developers. “It’s those hours, those days, those weeks when a community could have been doing some constructive redevelopment planning and some constructive tenant recruitment and some constructive work with the Marine Corps to do some well-thought-out planning for closure.”

The President’s recommendations were also hailed by those who had complained that the slow pace of the federal operation too often left bases in limbo and impeded economic recovery in their areas.

Critics have complained that the base-closure process has been riddled with problems: Environmental cleanup regulations often have stymied shutdown efforts, bureaucratic squabbles have delayed transfer of real estate and aid programs have been fragmented among dozens of agencies.

Clinton’s new proposal contains these major elements:

* Fast-track status for communities that want to use outmoded bases for economic development. The Pentagon will speed initial screening and interim leasing of facilities and will include furniture and equipment in the bargain.

* Faster cleanup of pollution on surplus bases, with interim leasing of small parcels of land as soon as they are ready. A cleanup team will be stationed at every base.

* Reduction in the red tape involved in transfer of bases. The Pentagon will assign a full-time “transition coordinator” to each base.

* More aggressive action by federal officials in providing economic development aid, community assistance grants and worker retraining benefits to localities that are hit by base closings.

* Larger--and faster--planning grants to help local communities develop a viable strategy for using the unneeded base.