Dissident Mayors Excluded From Base Reuse Panel

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to exclude two South County mayors from an advisory commission that is helping to plot the future of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, acknowledging that plans for an airport there have dashed any hopes of cooperation.

Irvine Mayor Michael Ward and Lake Forest Mayor Richard T. Dixon have refused three previous requests to join the El Toro Airport Citizens Advisory Commission, in part because they fear the county is determined to develop a commercial airport at the base despite heated opposition from South County residents.

Voting 4 to 1, with Supervisor Marian Bergeson casting the dissenting vote, board members agreed to find other community representatives to place on the commission, leaving Irvine and Lake Forest without any elected official on the panel. In the past, the Pentagon has insisted that the two cities be included in any planning process, because they would be directly affected by any new development at the base.

Newly appointed Supervisor Don Saltarelli, whose district includes Lake Forest, said Ward and Dixon are only hurting themselves. He lamented that South County residents will not have the benefit of elected representation on the advisory panel, but he said it was time to move forward.

“Three strikes and you’re out,” said Saltarelli, who has been criticized in some corners for being too pro-development. “The people of South County deserve to have some excellent representation. It has nothing to do with whether you’re for or against the airport--it has to do with representation.”

Ward agreed that the crux of the debate centers on representation on the airport issue. But he said the advisory commission is biased from the outset and does not give enough consideration to those areas that will be most directly impacted by an airport.

“My vote should be in a decision-making body only,” Ward said. “We should have a say about what goes there. I have no intention of ever taking a part in that advisory committee.”

Dixon could not be reached for comment.

Bergeson, whose district includes Irvine, wanted the Board of Supervisors to once again extend an invitation to Ward and Dixon to join the commission, despite a lack of any evidence that they were willing to come around.

“I do believe it’s a mistake to ignore the duly elected representatives of those cities,” she said. “The stakes are very high for the impacted residents of South County, and I think their concerns are legitimate. . . . We need all the players at the table.”

Todd Nicholson of the Orange County Business Council, which supports an airport, said he hopes Ward and Dixon change their minds.

“I don’t think there is any question that it’s important for those two cities to be represented,” Nicholson said. “But I don’t blame the board for deciding it’s time to move forward.”

Almost from the moment it was announced that the 4,700-acre Marine base would be closed by 1999, it has been dogged by intense disagreement over its future and who should lead the way.

The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the agency that first began to chart the base’s future, was effectively dismantled when the county withdrew its involvement.

County voters last year narrowly approved Measure A, an initiative that called for construction of a commercial airport at the base. Voters gave the Board of Supervisors the authority to become the new planning agency and created the 13-member advisory commission. It includes five city representatives--one from each supervisorial district--two aviation experts, two members of community groups that deal with aviation issues, and representatives from labor and business. Ward and Dixon would have filled the last two seats.

Many neighboring cities oppose an airport because of the noise and traffic that would come along with it, and some are working on legal challenges and a rival initiative to defeat the airport plan, Ward said.

The planning process was dealt a potential setback last week when federal authorities raised doubts about whether the county failed to follow Pentagon guidelines in awarding a contract to a firm to oversee the planning process. While still being disputed, such a violation could jeopardize a $1-million federal grant for a base reuse study.

The Pentagon said the contract will have to be rebid if the county wants to qualify for the grant, causing further delays in the planning process. County officials said they believe the dispute is caused by differing interpretations of the government code and hope the issue will be resolved without the county losing the grant.