Hiring of El Toro Administrator Points Up Worries Over Process

The hiring of a Newport Beach attorney at $170,000 a year to help convert Orange County’s El Toro Marine base into an international airport signals deep concerns about the project’s management--and future, according to those most familiar with the project.

A divided Board of Supervisors this week approved the hiring of Michael Lapin, a longtime county airport commissioner, as the No. 2 administrator during a critical time of negotiations for airport planning that has weathered a series of recent setbacks.

Matters considered routine--including state approval for the Sheriff’s Department to patrol the base, and a lease with the Navy allowing interim use after the Marines leave in July--hit snags and still aren’t resolved.

Airport backers who pledged that cargo flights and other aviation uses would begin this summer now must watch as the base gates close on July 2 with no activity until next year at the earliest.

Blame for the delays has fallen on El Toro program manager Courtney Wiercioch, chosen for her job even though she had no previous experience in managing a public works project. Wiercioch was hired on the recommendation of County Executive Officer Janice Mittermeier, with whom Wiercioch had worked in the administrative office of John Wayne Airport.

At $102,000 a year, Wiercioch now makes considerably less than Lapin, her second-in-command.

“Mike Lapin is being brought in to bring credibility to the program office that it needs during these very critical negotiations,” said one airport supporter, who asked not to be named for fear of angering Mittermeier.

“The planning process is 18 months behind schedule,” the airport supporter said. “It’s easy to dump on Courtney, but you don’t put a 37-year-old former executive assistant to [former Supervisor] Tom Riley in charge of the largest land-use project in Orange County.”

Board of Supervisors Chairman Charles V. Smith said he has full confidence in Wiercioch. He blamed the problems on delaying tactics and lobbying by two anti-airport supervisors.

“The job she is doing is under tremendous pressure,” Smith said. “It’s very easy to point fingers when things aren’t going right.”

Lapin, who is working on a six-month contract with an option to renew for another six months, will become the second-highest-paid member of the El Toro planning team. Special airport counsel Mark Mispagel makes $200,000 a year. Both earn more than Mittermeier, whose salary is $149,800 a year.

County officials said Lapin is needed to help Wiercioch with a growing workload of time-sensitive tasks as approval deadlines for El Toro loom in Orange County and Washington, D.C. Lapin will be put in charge of overseeing the transfer of base property from the Navy to county hands, and will work with the Federal Aviation Administration on flight routes and approvals.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve environmental documents in December for construction of an international airport at the base serving 28.8 million passengers a year by 2020. The county, which has spent $23 million so far on El Toro airport planning, hopes to open a new terminal at the base in 2005 that will handle about 7 million passengers the first year.

The selection of Lapin follows months of concerns raised privately by pro-airport forces that the unresolved delays could jeopardize the airport. Only a bare board majority--three supervisors out of five--supports the airport, and the two anti-airport supervisors have done everything they can to thwart the process.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, an airport foe, said Lapin was hired foremost because he has the trust of “all of the key airport insiders,” including El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission Chairman Gary Proctor, who served with Lapin on the airport commission.

“I have no problem with Mike Lapin, but he’s being paid about twice Courtney’s salary, and he’s not even in charge of anything,” said Spitzer, who voted along with colleague Tom Wilson against hiring Lapin on Tuesday.

Spitzer and Wilson have complained about Wiercioch’s management of the El Toro project for more than two years. Spitzer said that pro-airport supporters have told him they are “fed up with the lack of sophistication in planning an airport.”

Mission Viejo Mayor Susan Withrow, who chairs a seven-city coalition opposed to El Toro, said her group has done everything it can to challenge El Toro with other lawmakers and in the courts--and intends to do more.

“We’ve managed to stop them because of one underlying reality--they’re trying to cram an international airport where it doesn’t belong,” she said. “They don’t need more so-called experts. They need a miracle.”

* NOISE DEMONSTRATION DATES: Supervisors will consider June 4 and 5 as dates for test flights of commercial airliners at El Toro. B5