El Toro Flap Goes Online After Supervisor’s Request

The debate over building a civilian airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station has reached new heights with the controversy now spilling out into cyberspace.

To the surprise and chagrin of airport opponents, County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier this week refused a request from Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson, an airport foe, to link the county’s home page with the anti-airport El Toro Airport Information Web site.

The Web-site flap sparked a flurry of cyberspace exchanges as well as an angry response from Wilson, who charged that county staff was “embargoing information” to the public.

“The county’s image continues to be contaminated by these types of decisions,” stated Wilson in a press release.

Last week, Mittermeier refused Wilson’s request to provide detailed travel and scheduling information about county lobbying trips to Washington over the airport proposal. Wilson has said he will ask Mittermeier be stripped of her duties involving the El Toro project.

Mittermeier said that the El Toro Information site Wilson proposed is not “accurate, timely and factual.”

But by December the county will provide a link from the county home page and the individual supervisors’ Web sites to the El Toro site, officials said.

For now, county officials point out, the county’s El Toro Web site is dark--taken out of cyberspace because of a lack of funding and lack of updated information.

But it will rise once again because of the volunteer efforts of Dan Wiercioch, the husband of the county’s airport project manager, Courtney C. Wiercioch.

Dan Wiercioch, an electrical engineer, has been putting in the hours compiling information to meet the December deadline.

“We are working to update our Web page on the El Toro reuse planning process,” Courtney Wiercioch said. “We will provide that link and hope that those who visit our Web page and any other Web page consider the veracity of the information provider.”

The debate has put a spotlight on the efforts of Leonard Kranser, the founder and editor of the El Toro Information site who is adamantly opposed to the airport.

Kranser, who is retired and lives in Dana Point, labors over his Web site nearly eight hours a day. His Web-site partner is Dan Finch, a professional Web-site designer who is also an airport foe and lives in Aliso Viejo.

The controversy has been the best thing that ever happened to the Web site, Kranser acknowledged.

Kranser said the number of hits nearly doubled this week from the average of 2,000 it receives daily. Kranser said he can remember those days in the beginning, when they barely reached 89 hits and it was cause for celebration.

“Public information has got to include debate,” Kranser said. “Our people can see what the county is saying and their viewers can see what they are saying. That way people can see all sides of the issue and make an intelligent decision.”