El Toro Airport Measure Lags in Early Tallies

A bitterly divisive initiative to block a commercial airport from being built at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station was losing in early returns Tuesday, while a ballot measure halting construction of a huge dump in San Bernardino County moved into a slim early lead based on absentee voting.

In Ventura, a ballot measure prohibiting the city from offering tax breaks to developers appeared to be failing, as were two ballot measures to revamp Orange County government in the wake of its bankruptcy, according to early returns.

The first of the two government overhaul initiatives--Measure T--sought to establish the Orange County Board of Supervisors as strictly a policymaking body and limit members to two consecutive four-year terms. It proposed placing day-to-day management of the county with a chief executive officer and would convert several elected positions, such as treasurer and auditor, to appointed positions.

Supporters, including some county supervisors and business leaders, argued that the proposal would make government more efficient and accountable. But opponents, including anti-tax activists and leaders of local Republican and Democratic party groups, said the measure would give too much power to bureaucrats. Measure U would expand the Board of Supervisors from five to nine members.

According to absentee ballot returns, voters were soundly rejecting Measure U by a 3 to 1 margin. Measure T was barely losing.

The issue that by far generated the most debate in Orange County was Measure S. It aimed to overturn Measure A, which was narrowly endorsed by Orange County voters in November 1994 and proposed to develop a commercial airport when the military abandons the El Toro base as part of the nationwide base closure program.

Airport opponents who placed Measure S on the ballot took additional steps to prevent any future effort to put an airport at the 4,700-acre military base by having the measure require a commercial airport to meet rigid environmental guidelines and undergo yet another countywide election.

But for all its talk about environmental concerns and the planning process, Measure S has been essentially a pro- and anti-airport fight.

The reincarnation of the base also divided county residents along geographic lines and left little room for compromise.

North County residents who live farthest from the base were seen as most likely to support an airport, believing that it would bring jobs and stimulate the economy, according to a Times Orange County poll. South County residents who live nearest the base were typically opposed to an airport, fearing falling home values, noise and traffic.

In San Bernardino County, Measure L asked voters to block construction of a dump in the High Desert hamlet of Amboy, midway between Barstow and Needles along old U.S. 66. Of more than 40,000 absentee votes, the initiative was slightly ahead.

The county already had approved the landfill project, called Rail-Cycle, a partnership of Waste Management Inc. and the Santa Fe railroad, to haul trash in rail cars from Los Angeles and elsewhere to Amboy. Eventually, the rubbish would grow to a mountain-sized pile, 400 feet tall and measuring three miles by one mile at its base.

Opponents of the landfill, among them environmental groups, argued that the underground water supply could be jeopardized if toxins leaked from the landfill into the underground water basin.

With the support of agribusiness representatives, detractors worked to put Measure L on the ballot, hoping to derail the dump by prohibiting landfills within 10 miles of significant aquifers in unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County.

However, officials in Los Angeles County--which produces about half of all of Southern California’s trash--supported the measure because they saw the mega-dump as a solution to their trash disposal problems.

“There’s never before been an issue in San Bernardino where one side saturated Los Angeles television to win support,” said Paul Woodruff, spokesman for the Clean Desert Water Coalition that opposed the dump. “That’s a very expensive proposition. Nobody before has ever had that kind of money.”

A companion measure in San Bernardino County--Measure M, which would allow the county to reap up to $24 million a year in revenue from the landfill--was trailing in absentee voting.

In Ventura, voters were asked to consider banning public subsidies for developers, a move that opponents argued would inhibit Ventura from competing with neighboring cities for retailers and sales tax revenues. In early returns, the initiative appeared to be failing by a 2 to 1 margin.

Ventura and neighboring Oxnard--each with a competing auto mall and a major shopping mall--have battled over sales taxes for more than a decade. Recently, the Ventura City Council and owners of the Buenaventura Mall agreed on a $50-million expansion project that threatens to strip the Esplanade Mall in Oxnard of its two anchor department stores.

Ventura’s Measure S targeted the city’s promised tax rebate to the developer of the Buenaventura Mall. The agreement calls for the developer to pay $12.6 million upfront to improve parking, roads and mass transit and then be reimbursed by the city’s share of increased sales tax revenue over the next 20 years.

City leaders defended the agreement as a good deal, but opponents called it a government giveaway.

If the initiative passed, it would have been the first time in California that a city’s electorate has issued a blanket ban on subsidies to developers, government experts say.