Public Challenges and a Private Showdown

A showdown is expected to explode behind closed doors this week at the Hall of Administration over the hiring of a private attorney to represent the county against three lawsuits challenging a commercial airport at El Toro Marine base.

On its face, it appears to be an administrative matter--whether San Diego attorney Michael Gatzke, who for 15 years has represented the county on John Wayne Airport, was properly hired to handle the new El Toro lawsuits.

But the flap over Gatzke is part of a larger pattern of public challenges by two county supervisors, opposed to a commercial airport at El Toro, over how county staff is planning the base’s reuse when the Marines leave in July 1999.

The tactic--which one airport foe labeled “guerrilla warfare”--comes as Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson find themselves continually on the losing end of 3-2 board votes supporting the planned airport.

Led by Spitzer, the pair have fought back the only way they can: with laser-like public scrutiny on every decision made, every dollar spent, every study and statistic released.

“We’re in a war of attrition over the airport and it’s clear that support is slowly but surely eroding as good information about the airport and its alternatives counters the bad information being put out by the county,” said airport foe Larry Agran, former mayor of Irvine. Spitzer “is doing justifiable damage.”

Even airport supporters said the continual pounding is taking its toll, if only on county staffers who find themselves hammered at public meetings.

“Anyone can find an error here or there and make people look bad,” said former Supervisor Bruce Nestande, president of the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy. “The harder thing is to build a consensus. Spitzer may be correct on a given issue but that doesn’t take away from the broader issue, and that is, the county needs another airport. If not at El Toro, where?”

Political science professor Mark Petracca, an airport opponent who teaches at UC Irvine, said republican government is structured so officials representing the minority can still influence public policy “if they’re clever and smart and know how the rules work.”

“The best way to stop something, when you don’t have the votes, is to challenge the process,” Petracca said. “The staff’s perception of Spitzer is that he’s a speed bump, and he’s smart enough to know that none of these things alone are going to stop the train. But over time, the public is being given reasons to increase their suspicions about the planning process, and having an El Toro airport. That’s a much greater benefit about his strategy.”

The latest dispute erupted two weeks ago when County Counsel Laurence M. Watson, usually quiet and easygoing, exploded over Spitzer’s questioning about Watson’s decision to hire Gatzke for the El Toro lawsuits without a board vote--something Spitzer contends violates state law.

Protesting that he wouldn’t stand for his professional reputation to be maligned publicly, Watson asked that the issue be discussed in closed session. Watson won’t comment about it, but friends say he’s looking forward to taking Spitzer on at Tuesday’s closed session.

The lawsuits were filed by South County cities claiming that the county’s environmental approvals and planning process for the airport are flawed and inadequate. A judge ruled that the county hadn’t fully studied the airport’s traffic and environmental impacts, but allowed planning to continue. The ruling will be appealed.

Other spats over El Toro haven’t been quite as dramatic.

Last month, Spitzer challenged a staff decision approving a review of contamination at two landfills on the El Toro base without the board’s knowledge. Spitzer discovered it during a separate El Toro briefing and protested, saying such an important public health issue should have been discussed by the elected board. The board eventually approved the review but capped its cost.

Wilson has raised some dust of his own over El Toro expenditures, demanding last year to review travel documents by El Toro staff that Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier said didn’t exist. A separate request by a coalition of South County cities for El Toro information was denied by the county; a judge later ordered the documents released.

In another move, Spitzer and Wilson succeeded last year in slicing the budget for a public relations firm the county hired to promote El Toro, arguing that tax dollars shouldn’t be spent for pro-airport propaganda.

Last week, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of South County cities opposing the airport, released a non-airport alternative for the base, including a huge public park, a university, housing and a high-tech business complex. Supervisors have said they’ll include the non-airport alternative in final environmental studies for the airport, expected to be completed in the fall of 1999.

Spitzer and Wilson insist that their motive is not to derail El Toro but that the scrutiny instead fits a broader goal of good government and accountability. The county is spending millions on airport planning--on its way to spending billions to build the airport--and those public investments deserve to be constantly monitored, he said.

It’s no coincidence that Spitzer rarely discusses his oversight without mentioning the debacle of the county’s 1994 bankruptcy, which resulted in civil charges filed--and later dismissed by a judge--against outgoing Supervisor William G. Steiner and former Supervisor Roger R. Stanton.

But Spitzer insists there’s a larger issue at work: Who controls public policy, Mittermeier or the elected Board of Supervisors. Spitzer has long criticized Mittermeier--in a battle she refuses to publicly join--for making decisions he claims are outside her authority.

Now the sparring is likely to get rougher as Spitzer challenges the county’s attorney over hiring Gatzke. It is the first time the supervisor has accused a county official of violating the law, let alone the person charged by supervisors with the duty of keeping them within the law.

Researching the issue like the prosecutor he formerly was, Spitzer cites state law, a 1988 court case (Harvey v. County of Butte) and a 1991 attorney general’s opinion spelling out that sole authority for hiring outside litigation counsel rests with supervisors, who must approve by a two-thirds vote on a case-by-case basis.

Watson contends that a policy approved by the board in 1991 gave his office management responsibility over outside counsel. He said a 1994 expansion of Gatzke’s contract gave him the leeway to make the hiring call without going to the board, where he would have needed to persuade four of the five supervisors to hire Gatzke.

Spitzer refused to speculate about the consequences of a board decision that Gatzke was improperly hired to represent the county in the suits. Gatzke couldn’t be reached for comment. Watson and Mittermeier also have declined to comment.

Airport foes say Spitzer simply is following through on his campaign promises to make county government more accountable. They said it is no surprise that he is focusing on El Toro, considering that it is arguably the county’s biggest and most expensive land-use decision into the next century.

“He campaigned to do exactly what he is doing, and that is to revisit the way the county has been conducting business,” said Mission Viejo Mayor Susan Withrow, who ran unsuccessfully against Spitzer two years ago.

Withrow pointed out that Spitzer has taken a risk in opposing the airport planning effort because his district contains the staunchly anti-airport city of Mission Viejo and the pro-airport city of Fullerton.

“I’m really disappointed that some people are more interested in shooting the messenger than listening to the message,” said Richard Dixon, chairman of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the cities’ coalition opposed to the airport. “We are dealing with one of the most important land-use issues that has faced Orange County, and to have this kind of out-of-control stuff happening without supervision from the board is just unconscionable.”

Other, pro-airport observers said their beef isn’t necessarily with the specific issues highlighted by Spitzer, but his approach.

“He’s making scapegoats out of county staff who have been following the direction of the board,” said John W. Hedges, a Newport Beach councilman who is running against Wilson in the June 2 supervisorial election.

There is another way airport foes can attempt to change the direction of county policy on El Toro, Petracca said: Get a third anti-airport vote on the Board of Supervisors. Then supervisors could revisit the issue at the ballot box, with a board majority opposed to a commercial airport at the base.