NEWS ANALYSIS : El Toro Panel Poised to Take On Reuse Issue : Politics: All sides didn’t arrive at table as equals, but members together must face critics who feel board’s makeup is biased.

With a great deal of trepidation and no guarantee of success, nine local politicians on Wednesday will take their seats at a table to begin deciding the post-military use of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

And if the past holds lessons about the future--jockeying over who should sit at the table kept the matter mired in controversy for six months--then no one should expect either quick or easy solutions to the largest land-use issue facing Orange County.

So tedious and contentious is the process expected to be that there is not even agreement yet among the board members on who should be allowed to occupy the posts of chairman and vice chairman of the new El Toro Reuse Planning Authority.

The county wants its two South County supervisors to be in charge throughout the life of the agency, but Irvine, which has land-use authority over a small portion of the base, wants city officials to share the leadership positions.

Given the bigger task that the panel faces, the question of who will call the meetings to order may be the least of its problems.

With the county generally split over whether a commercial airport should be developed at the 4,700-acre site, the agency board--including the five county supervisors, three Irvine council members and one Lake Forest council member--may find its decisions constantly challenged by critics who feel the makeup of the panel is biased against an airport.

North County cities favoring a commercial airport at El Toro were left out of the decision-making process and are now trying to decide what their attitude and action plan should be. They could decide to “watchdog” the work of the agency by serving on subordinate advisory committees, or may decide to submit a competing redevelopment plan to the Defense Department, which makes the final decision.

A pro-airport coalition of business and community groups is still weighing a proposal to circulate petitions to place the El Toro issue on the November ballot. While it may not be legally possible to require through a ballot measure that El Toro become an airport, the petition gatherers could ask for another planning agency that could undo the work of the group starting work on Wednesday.

But if the board members are looking over their shoulders at their critics, they are not letting it show.

“I think we are going to do such a good job that I think everybody will be happy,” predicted Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, who is expected to be the El Toro agency’s first chairman. “If I didn’t think we could be successful, I guess I would not have voted for the plan” establishing the El Toro agency.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose district borders the base, said: “Being an optimist, I like to be a forward-looking person. . . . I think we need to move forward and focus on that and recognize that diversity of opinion is one of the strengths in our society.”

Irvine and Lake Forest officials publicly voice confidence in the work about to be undertaken, even though all sides did not arrive at the table as equal partners, and some resentment remains over the leadership issue.

The county has proposed that Riley, whose 5th District includes the base, be chairman and that Vasquez, the 3rd District supervisor, serve as vice chairman. In succeeding years, the leadership positions would shift back and forth between the supervisors from those two districts.

Since the county has land-use authority over all but 300 acres of the base, county officials argue, the supervisors have a right to the two positions.

But Irvine wants the county and one of the two member cities to share the leadership positions at all times.

“I think it sends a bad signal, and I think the county would readily agree it sends a bad signal to a lot of people” if the county insists on reserving for itself the two top positions, said Irvine Councilman Barry J. Hammond. By refusing to share these leadership posts, Hammond said, the county is essentially saying “that they are the only show in town.”

“I don’t know what the ultimate resolution is on that, so I would rather not comment on that,” Vasquez said.

In reality, the five supervisors make up a majority of the nine-member board and could easily vote to keep those titles.

It is that voting bloc that worries Lake Forest Councilwoman Ann Van Haun, who wants written assurances that no vote can be taken without a member from each agency being present.

Other cities left off the decision-making board will be invited to serve on a 50-member advisory panel that will pick the top three redevelopment options. The “executive council” will include the county, all 31 cities and representatives of seven unincorporated areas of South County, seven business groups and four universities.

While the North County cities may participate on the council, some are considering developing a competing base conversion plan.

“I would advocate an alternative plan. In order to be a watchdog, you have to have something other than to just sit there and be a watchdog,” Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner said. “The future of the county is so dependent on that base for an economic shot in the arm that the rest of us have really got to fight for our rights. It’s no longer a matter of noise, it’s a matter of economy.”

Even if there is no further controversy, the planning will take a long time. Consultants must be hired and all of the buildings on the base must be inventoried to determine their condition and future use.