2 Sue El Toro Base Reuse Group

Two South County residents on Monday accused a group of South County cities of mismanaging nearly $500,000 in the fight to block a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

A claim filed by Irvine attorney Guy E. Mailly and citizen activist Robert W. Forsberg of Lake Forest demands that the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority repay taxpayers $435,000, which the pair say was spent on shoddy work and biased reports intended to ground an airport.

“The money was improperly spent and really wasted with no benefit,” said their attorney, Bradley W. Hertz.

The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority is made up of several South County cities that have no authority over the base but are concerned that a commercial airport will mean noise from flights overhead and traffic nightmares on the freeways.

The group contends that the county, the only entity with the authority to decide the base’s future, is determined to build an airport at El Toro despite their concerns. The group has spent more than $1 million in recent years on consultants and other reports to bolster their arguments.

Laguna Niguel Mayor Patricia C. Bates, a member of the planning authority, said, “My reaction is ‘Hurrah!’ We must be doing something right if they are upset enough to sue.”

She and other authority members say the money was spent on work done well.

Legal support for the claim comes from Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, the key group backing the airport.

Orange County voters have twice endorsed a plan that could put an airport at El Toro.