Travel Budget to Push El Toro Plan Soars

The travel budget for Orange County officials promoting plans for an airport at El Toro has nearly tripled in a year to $98,000, yet two supervisors opposed to the project charge that scant details are provided about trips taken and issues discussed.

Supervisors Thomas W. Wilson and Todd Spitzer, who weren’t invited on the excursions, worry that pro-airport colleagues could be learning crucial information that would give the public reason to question aspects of the project--and are keeping quiet about it.

Details of most of the dozen trips over the past 15 months were kept so secret that Wilson at one point last year threatened to file requests for information under the state’s open-records law. Officials provided him with part of what he sought at the time.

“The bottom line is, they don’t want us there and they have a majority to back them up,” Spitzer said. “That’s the way of the El Toro world.”

The military is expected to leave the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in July and, under base reuse guidelines, eventually will turn the property over to the county.

The lack of detailed information about the trips has given South County activists opposed to the airport another complaint. Only one side of the issue is presented to federal officials, they say, even though county residents remain split over whether an airport would be the best reuse of El Toro.

To try to quell the growing anger, Supervisor Charles V. Smith, who took over as board chairman in July, began providing colleagues with basic information on trips he takes. The reports on three trips to Washington and one to Dallas and Austin, Texas, stated who went, whom county officials saw and the subjects discussed.

Smith said the trips are an important part of the base reuse process to communicate with Washington officials involved in making the ultimate decisions about El Toro.

“There’s no point in bringing someone to discuss building an airport when they can only say, ‘We don’t want it,’ ” Smith said. “We’re not making a decision on whether it will be an airport. That decision has already been made.”

But eliminating representatives from the areas most affected by the project is a violation of federal base reuse guidelines, South County airport foes contend. That leaves county officials’ travel little more than expensive cheerleading sessions that don’t allow for government-required consensus, they said.

“They’ve shown a pattern of railroading this process,” said Roger Faubel, a consultant for the anti-airport El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of seven South County cities.

Consensus Mandatory Under Base Reuse Rules

Federal guidelines are specific about the responsibilities of county officials planning the reuse of a closed base. Officials are required to reach consensus about the new use, specifically incorporating the views of those representing “the impacted area and its demographics.”

Smith and Supervisor Jim Silva, as well as county staff included in the trips, are staunch pro-airport voices and don’t represent South County areas, where residents are pushing a non-aviation development for the base.

As officials representing the entire county, supervisors have an obligation to communicate all sides of the El Toro debate on official trips to Washington, said Jean Askham, president of the Orange County chapter of the League of Women Voters. The league has taken no position on the proposed airport at El Toro.

Supervisors must represent all constituents in such a major public policy decision, she said. Consensus cannot be reached “by excluding those who disagree with the majority.”

“I think the Board of Supervisors has to learn how to deal with a controversy like this,” Askham said. “It would be a help, not a hindrance, to include [minority-view supervisors]. At least they’d feel that they were getting the information directly and not having it filtered through people who disagree with them.”

The county’s travel plans are increasing as the timetable shortens for critical decisions to be made by officials at the Department of the Navy. The Navy is expected to deed the property to the county sometime next year.

The El Toro program budgeted $98,000 for travel in the fiscal year ending June 30, nearly three times the $37,000 budget for the previous fiscal year. About $13,000 has been spent so far this fiscal year; only about $19,000 was spent last year, according to records in the county auditor-controller’s office.

County records show that Smith or Silva have taken five El Toro-related trips in the past 15 months. Most have been to the nation’s capital to meet with Navy and Marine brass and representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration.

In January, an eight-member contingent traveled to Texas to meet with officials from Dallas-Ft. Worth and Austin/Bergstrom international airports.

County representatives wanted to discuss “the impetus for the new airport project [in Austin], your success in building business and community support for the proposals and lessons learned along the way that might be applicable in Orange County,” according to a letter from Smith to then-Austin Mayor Bruce Todd.

Wilson and Spitzer have demanded that the county’s El Toro planning manager, Courtney Wiercioch, who coordinates El Toro-related travel, provide more information on the trips.

Last May, Spitzer asked Smith to include him in the next trip. Smith refused.

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Public funds also are used to pay for the travel of South County officials opposed to building an airport at the base. Funding for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority’s $2-million annual budget comes from its seven member cities.

In the past year, South County city officials have taken only a single trip to Washington to lobby officials against the airport, according to records. Travel expenses were $2,288 for that trip. Another trip to the nation’s capital is planned in April.

Travel expenses for the previous fiscal year were about $8,000 for two trips to Washington, according to ETRPA records. The coalition picked up the tab on one of the trips for both Wilson and Spitzer to join a contingent of city officials.

The meetings in Washington were illuminating, Spitzer said. South County representatives were told by FAA officials that a nighttime curfew being proposed by county officials for El Toro “was an impossibility.” But when he brought information to Mittermeier, she told him that he hadn’t “talked to the right people,” Spitzer said.

“We need to know how this information is going to affect people in South County,” Spitzer said. “What we get is them telling us not to worry. That’s not good enough.”

Former Supervisor Bruce Nestande said ETRPA is spending millions of dollars to fight the airport, and has set aside public resources to pay for lobbying. While officials don’t travel as often, the coalition spends $20,000 a month as a retainer to Washington lobbyist Larry Levinson.

“The whole ETRPA operation is a mini-government financed by the cities down there,” Nestande said. “Both sides are trying to do what they think is necessary to do to sway public opinion.”

Coalition spokeswoman Meg Waters said the group probably will boost travel as the county’s activity increases.

“Whatever we’re spending,” she said, “it’s not enough.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Back and Forth on El Toro

Orange County officials have traveled a dozen times in the past 15 months to promote the planned commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Five trips were made by county supervisors. During the same time, South County city officials made three trips to Washington to fight the county’s airport plans.

From El Toro Master Development Program budget:

For year ended June 30, 1998

Budgeted: $37,000

Paid: $18,752

Balance: $18,248

For year ending June 30, 1999

Budgeted: $98,000

Paid through Feb. 28: $13,573

Balance: $84,427

County supervisor trip highlights:

* Feb. 10-12, 1999

Where: Washington

Discussed: El Toro

Who went: Supervisors Charles V. Smith and Jim Silva, County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier, El Toro program manager Courtney Wiercioch, El Toro real estate manager Gary Simon, lawyer Michael Gatzke and Smith assistant James Campbell.

Met with: Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office, Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar); Dorothy Robyn, special assistant to the president for economic policy, and Navy and Marine Corps officials.

* Jan. 13-14, 1999

Where: Dallas and Austin, Texas

Discussed: El Toro

Who went: Smith, Silva, Wiercioch, Campbell, Simon, Silva executive assistant Steve Franks, retired Col. Jim Ritchie of Cabaco as the county’s interim base manager and Thomas Merrick, Orange County Business Council.

Met with: Officials at Austin/Bergstrom International Airport and Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, Barry Brown of Southwest Airlines, Dallas and Austin city officials and the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

* Nov. 17-20, 1998

Where: Washington

Discussed: El Toro and Santa Ana River flood control project

Who went: Smith, Mittermeier, Wiercioch, Gatzke, Campbell, public affairs specialist Kathleen Freed and John Sibley, public facilities director.

Met with: Navy and Marine Corps officials; members of the Air Transport Assn., Airports International Council, Federal Aviation Administration, House and Senate Aviation Committee staff and White House aide Robyn.

* July 21-24, 1998

Where: Washington

Discussed: El Toro and federal anti-drug money for Orange County

Who went: Smith, Silva, Mittermeier, Wiercioch, Gatzke, Campbell

Met with: Sanchez, Robyn, Navy and Marine Corps officials, Air Transport Assn. officials, Federal Aviation Administration officials, aviation consulting firms, Packard’s office.

* Other 1998 staff trips:

Feb.9: Sacramento

April 22-26: Washington (with Smith)

May 8: Sacramento

June 15: Dallas

June 16: San Francisco

Aug. 7-8: Denver

Sept. 16: Newport Beach

Oct. 16: San Francisco

El Toro Reuse Planning Authority travel:

For year ended June 30, 1998

Paid: $8,000 (estimate)

For year ending June, 30, 1999

Paid: $2,288

ETRPA trip highlights:

* April 29-May 1, 1998

Where: Washington

Who went: Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Thomas W. Wilson, Lake Forest Mayor Pro Tem Richard T. Dixon, Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea, Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates, Irvine Councilman Dave Christensen, ETRPA executive director Paul Eckles, Kevin Rafferty of the South Orange County Chamber of Commerce and South County businessmen Steve Myers and Denny Harris.

Met with: Officials with the Air Transport Assn., Dorothy Robyn and Karen Skelton of the White House, Federal Aviation Administration officials, Navy and Marine Corps officials, Environmental Protection Agency staff.

Source: Board Chairman Charles V. Smith, Supervisor Todd Spitzer, county auditor-controller’s office, El Toro Reuse Planning Authority