Neighbor Cities Demand a Say in El Toro Plan : Base closure: Irvine quits county advisory council and Laguna Hills says South County deserves majority of seats on it. Supervisors’ hope of countywide consensus on conversion dim.

Frustrated by a lack of influence, Irvine and Laguna Hills have moved for a stronger voice in what happens after the 4,700-acre El Toro Marine Corps Air Station closes because of federal military cutbacks.

The Irvine City Council has decided to abandon the county’s fledgling El Toro advisory council, hoping instead to form a joint powers authority that would give Irvine and South County cities the power to craft a redevelopment plan for the base.

“We believe that (Irvine and South County cities) should be a big player in this decision. We want to be the majority player,” Irvine Mayor Michael Ward said Wednesday, a day after the council approved a resolution seeking to form an authority.

“We don’t mind getting input from North County and central county cities,” added Ward. “But we feel the final decision should be made by the cities that are impacted.”

Meanwhile, the Laguna Hills City Council voted 4-0 Tuesday for a resolution supporting the county as the lead agency in the planning process for the base, and asking that a seat be reserved for a Laguna Hills representative on the advisory council.

But, in a related action, the council recommended that the advisory panel be limited to only 11 seats, with a majority set aside for Laguna Hills, Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Newport Beach and Leisure World.

South County cities, Councilman Randal J. Bressette said, “have been behind the power curve for too long on this issue. It’s time we got ahead of it.”

Yet Irvine’s was the more dramatic move, coming a week before the County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the advisory panel.

Irvine’s decision might also complicate the supervisors’ efforts to form a countywide consensus on the future of the base, which is on the list of military bases recommended for closure by the federal Base Closure Commission. President Clinton has approved the list and Congress is expected to do the same.

Irvine council members said Wednesday that their action was prompted by fears that the city would only be a “token” on the county panel and that its concerns about noise and traffic problems would not be seriously considered.

If the joint powers authority is formed, it would be one of three bodies seeking to chart El Toro’s future. Besides the county, Newport Beach and several other cities have formed a group that advocates converting the base into a commercial airport.

Many Irvine residents oppose that airport idea, and city officials said the legally binding joint powers authority would examine a wider array of development ideas for the land than the Newport Beach group.

Once the base receives final approval for closure, the Department of Defense will select one of the El Toro panels to be the “planning entity” for the cleanup and redevelopment of the base, said Irvine City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr.

As conceived by Irvine officials, one-third of joint powers authority members would come from Irvine, a third from the county and a third from South County cities.

Brady said that, if the county and Irvine can form a partnership, the joint powers authority has a good chance of being chosen by the federal government.

The city is now monitoring reaction to the move and hopes it will spark county interest in joining with Irvine.

“We hope this pulls things together,” Ward said. “That’s why we included the county. We want to show a united front.”

But some leaders from neighboring cities questioned whether Irvine’s move further fragments efforts to plan El Toro’s future.

“It’s imperative that we display a united front,” said Phil Sansone, a Newport Beach councilman. “First we had the county doing something. Now Irvine is doing something else. Unless the region gets together . . . it’s going to be the Department of Defense that decides this.”

Pentagon officials have stressed the importance of cities working together on El Toro and probably won’t release millions of dollars in grants designed to move the process along until some sort of countywide agreement is forged.

Both Irvine and county officials said they will continue to work closely on the closure issue. Kenneth Bruner, an aide to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, emphasized that the county’s advisory council is designed to collect reuse ideas and won’t make any final decisions.

The county might consider forming a joint powers authority once the advisory council has completed its work, Bruner said.