After Circling for Hours, Board Makes a Crass Landing
The obvious way to tell who got the best of a negotiation is to see who’s smiling afterward. And darned if that wasn’t George Argyros caught on camera with a toothy grin on his face right after the Board of Supervisors moved the ball forward on the El Toro airport. Maybe if you have as much money as millionaire-developer Argyros, you smile all the time anyway, but it would have been fun to test that if the board had opted for the non-aviation use for the Marine base.
That was not in the cards, however. Apparently, out of sheer curiosity--since there’s no evidence that a current board majority really wants an airport at all--the supervisors voted to keep the momentum going for an international airport at the El Toro site. Four votes and a cloud of dust.
For some reason, I’m harking back to then-County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider standing in front of an anti-airport crowd a few years ago and telling them in no uncertain terms that the county, dammit, would have the ultimate authority over how the Marine base would be used. Now, here we are, some three years down the road from that night, and there remains no majority vision on the board as to the wisdom of building another airport.
Yes, the supes went 4 to 1 for the commercial airport option, but two of those votes came from Roger Stanton and Don Saltarelli. Stanton, who appeared mightily impressed by his ability to hammer out a compromise that, in the end, influenced mostly himself, then capped his burst of legislative wizardry by pointing out that, lo and behold, he wasn’t either pro- or anti-airport.
Saltarelli, on the other hand, did everything but wear a sandwich board with the words “Get me out of here.” At one point during the marathon session Tuesday, a TV commentator noted that if Saltarelli had sunk any further in his seat he might have disappeared from view. The short-time supervisor noted, with evident glumness, that he was appointed to the board to help out with the bankruptcy recovery, only to find himself in this airport marshland. He then welcomed new Supervisor Thomas Wilson to the board, in so many words, by wishing him luck trying to get concrete information on the airport issue--information Saltarelli said he’s been unable to get the last several months.
So, there’s the conviction behind your 4-1 majority. After keeping the audience on the edge of its collective seat with which way he would vote (the suspense was killing us!), Stanton took a deep breath and convinced himself to accept the compromise he helped create. What statesmanship! Wilson still voted no, Messrs. William Steiner and Jim Silva still voted yes, and Saltarelli continued to wish his term had expired 24 hours earlier.
Needless to say, Argyros and other airport backers couldn’t care less if the board wants the airport, as long as it keeps moving toward that goal. And that is exactly what the board did, its lack of conviction for an airport notwithstanding. In the hours leading up to the vote, Stanton and Saltarelli got assurances that this vote didn’t bind future boards to anything, which begged the question of why we were spending so much time on it this time around.
As for the much-touted compromise that puts the board on a scaled-down track, try selling it to the majority of South County residents. They might point out that compromise, by definition, means the other side signs on to the proposal. To South Countians, putting a scaled-down international airport at El Toro is like telling them that a jail is being built on their block but that it would include only nice convicts.
In short, they ain’t gonna go for it.
Stanton kept trying to convince South County to enjoy its poison. He seemed genuinely pleased with his efforts and vexed that South County didn’t realize the mixture of skill and compassion he alone brought to the table. Only he stood between them and total extinction. What eluded him was the obvious notion that, if he really wanted to help them, he could have voted against the commercial airport idea altogether.
His thought process hasn’t evolved to that point. He was probably correct in saying that many, if not most, Orange Countians still “want answers and want to know if this [an international airport] makes any sense.” We lay people can be forgiven for our uncertainty while still asking why a supervisor--who is paid to study such critical issues and who is in possession of much more information than the rest of us--still doesn’t know which side he’s on.
The board that convenes in January, with two new members and minus Stanton and Saltarelli, will have a solid 3-2 pro-airport majority. At least, everyone will know where everyone stands.
Gone will be the need to have someone with the special talents of Chairman Stanton, who convinced himself right to the end that his inability to take a position on a critical issue was not incompatible with political leadership.
No doubt he will go to his grave many years from now, still wondering why South County never realized what a friend he truly was.
Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.
