Another Twist in Battle Over Use of El Toro : Litigation: Two South County cities hired politically connected Washington lawyer Charles Manatt to represent their interests. They didn’t know he is a director of Federal Express.

The feud over who will develop El Toro Marine Corps Air Station took an interesting twist this week when South County officials unknowingly hired a member of the Federal Express board of directors to lobby for them in Washington.

Irvine Councilman Barry Hammond said the city set aside $500,000 to hire Charles T. Manatt, a prominent attorney and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, to represent South County cities with White House and Pentagon officials and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Hammond said that Irvine officials were not aware of Manatt’s ties to Federal Express this week when they agreed to hire his firm, which has offices in Los Angeles and Washington.

“How interesting. I anticipate that we’ll have to discuss this some more with our city manager,” Hammond said.

Lake Forest City Atty. Jerry Patterson, who persuaded local officials to hire Manatt’s firm, said that he did not know of Manatt’s ties to Federal Express, which has supported a commercial airport at El Toro.

Patterson said that Manatt might not have known about Federal Express’ interest in an airport at El Toro when his firm agreed to represent the cities.

“I will be talking to Manatt to see if in fact there is a conflict of interest,” Patterson said.

Manatt on Friday asserted that no conflict exists.

“The four corners of our assignment,” he said, “is to keep this group intact” as the appropriate planning authority for El Toro. “It isn’t to represent the group on not having an airport or having an airport; I don’t see that as a conflict at all.”

Stephanie Silverman, a legislative adviser at Manatt’s law firm, agreed.

“Federal Express is not actively engaged in lobbying on this issue and there have been no signs that they might be. Our firm would never engage in legislative activities where there was a known conflict of interest.”

In a Feb. 6 memorandum to officials from both cities, an attorney from the firm--Manatt, Phelps & Phillips--wrote about the office’s ties to both Democratic and Republican politicians in Washington. In addition to Democratic ties, the memorandum also listed the firm’s ties to Republican officeholders, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a probable contender for the GOP presidential nomination.

Officials of Federal Express said Friday that Manatt sits on the company’s board of directors. Federal Express and United Parcel Service, which currently fly out of John Wayne Airport, want a new commercial airport at the Marine base when it closes.

Irvine, Lake Forest and other South County cities oppose a commercial airport at the Marine base. Lake Forest has joined Irvine in a legal battle with Orange County for the right to plan the reuse of the Marine base when it closes.

The memorandum from Manatt’s office to the South County cities said the firm could use its political contacts to get them recognition as the planning agency for El Toro.

Recognition by U.S. officials as the planning agency is crucial because the Pentagon has agreed to contribute almost $1 million to the sanctioned agency for the development of the facility.

On Jan. 31, the Board of Supervisors withdrew from the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority after the passage of Measure A, which requires the county to build an airport at El Toro. The authority’s nine-member board, which was recognized by the Department of Defense as the planning agency for El Toro, was made up of five supervisors and three officials from Irvine and one from Lake Forest.

After withdrawing from the authority, the Board of Supervisors declared itself the new planning agency for the base. Irvine and Lake Forest were left as the only members of the diluted planning authority.

On the same day that the county withdrew from the authority, Department of Defense officials informed Irvine Mayor Michael Ward that the Pentagon no longer recognized the group as the planning agency for the base because “of the Board of Supervisors’ action.”

The memorandum from Manatt’s office promised to “target key Navy and Department of Defense officials” to reverse the Pentagon’s decision not to recognize the planning authority and “obtain renewed federal funding for (the authority) or another planning authority sanctioned by officials of the cities.”

The memorandum also cited the “considerable lobbying” by both the county and millionaire developer George Argyros, who wants to build a commercial airport at El Toro, to cut off funds for the authority. Argyros was a heavy contributor to the Measure A campaign.

“I don’t know why they’re continuing to fight this instead of joining the county in planning for the best airport we could have in the future,” Argyros said Friday. “In light of the election (where Measure A was approved by voters) and the county’s bankruptcy problem, they should join with the county in building an airport and getting the county’s financial house back in order.”