Factions Struggle for Consensus on El Toro Base : Closures: Representatives from North and South County meeting at Anaheim Stadium agree that failure to break impasse in political fight over conversion planning would harm the economy.

Representatives from North and South County cities, locked in a battle for control of planning for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, agreed at a meeting Thursday on one point: that failure to work together could cost them long-term economic benefits.

City Council members from three North and four South County cities met at Anaheim Stadium in an attempt to begin breaking the impasse in the four-month political struggle over who should lead the base conversion planning.

“We discussed a couple of potential compromises,” Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said after the meeting. “I think we agreed about the importance of this base property to the economy of Orange County.”

Neither Daly nor Irvine Mayor Michael Ward provided details of the fledgling efforts to reach consensus, but both mayors said a compromise would have to be reached eventually.

“It’s something that has to happen,” Ward said. “We have to arrive at a solution or El Toro will lay vacant and won’t benefit any of us. And we don’t want the federal government, we don’t want the state government coming in to determine the use of it.”

South County cities, fearing the intent of North County cities to convert the base to a commercial airport, negotiated a plan with Orange County Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Thomas F. Riley that would give them veto power on any base redevelopment plan.

But North County cities rose in opposition because not all cities would be equally represented on the proposed panel, and urged the three remaining county supervisors to reject the Vasquez-Riley plan. Instead, Daly and other North County city officials suggested that the five supervisors, five city representatives from each supervisorial district, and the city of Irvine select the base conversion plan.

“We expressed concerns that each group had with each others’ plans,” Ward said.

Daly also said there would be “a lot of discussion during the next week on how to resolve this,” adding that the “lines of communication are very wide open.”

North County representatives joining Daly at the negotiating table were from the cities of Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In addition to Ward, South County officials represented the cities of Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Lake Forest.

County officials, who also have maintained their right to control the base’s future land use, were not invited to the meeting, but will be advised of progress in the talks, Daly and Ward said.

The base’s current contribution to the local economy was not lost on the civilian workers who met earlier Thursday at El Toro with state and federal officials to discuss job retraining in case they lose their jobs when the base closes in four to six years.

Supervisors and union leaders representing the 2,200 civilian employees at the El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station--also scheduled for closure--were told that some workers will be offered new jobs when the military operations move to the Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.

Officials from the Department of Defense, the Labor Department and the California Employment Development Department outlined steps being taken to help find jobs for those workers who will not be relocated.

Don A. Balcer, regional administrator for the Labor Department, said that the federal government plans to spend millions of dollars over the next few years on job retraining in California. Officials said some military job skills are not easily transferred to the civilian work force because of changing technology and other factors.

But they tried to be optimistic, pointing out that time is on the side of many El Toro workers because they have several years to find new jobs and the economy could improve in the meantime.