Pro-Airport Measures Moved Aside

Orange County supervisors gave tepid support at Tuesday’s board meeting for three new measures aimed at blunting an anti-El Toro airport initiative, which could halt plans for the controversial airfield.

The 3-2 majority that has pushed along plans for the airport showed little enthusiasm for the pro-airport measures as the supervisors voted to send them, along with the initiative, to the county legal and financial staffs for review.

Board Chairman Charles V. Smith said gaining board support for the new proposals is “certainly a longshot.”

“It depends on what answers we get [from the reviews] and whether the pro-airport groups latch onto them,” said Smith, who leads the pro-airport majority.

Betraying their attitude toward the new proposals, the board majority left the deadline for reviewing the three measures open-ended, while ordering the analysis of the initiative returned by Nov. 23.

Supervisors must decide by Dec. 10 whether to put the measures on the March ballot. The anti-airport Safe and Healthy Communities initiative is headed for the ballot anyway because supporters obtained sufficient voter signatures, unless the board does the unexpected by adopting it as a local law.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who with board colleague Tom Wilson opposes the airport, predicted the three measures will “die a slow death.”

“The people the pro-airport supervisors are listening to are providing leadership, [and] there isn’t a lot of room right now to experiment with competing . . . measures,” Spitzer said. “They have to pick a strategy and stick with it.”

Among those questioning the three countermeasures Tuesday was Bruce Nestande, former county supervisor and chairman of the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy.

Though praising the pro-El Toro effort, Nestande said his group opposes all four measures because “you don’t amend a bad piece of legislation.”

Last week, the group’s founder and primary financial backer, wealthy businessman George Argyros, called the concept “terrific.”

Several speakers at Tuesday’s meeting urged supervisors to give voters an uncluttered choice without adding confusion and rancor to the airport debate.

“You need a chance to think this whole thing through,” said Jean Askam, president of the League of Women Voters of Orange County, which also opposes all four measures. “This would add a lot of confusion to an already confused situation.”

Several anti-airport speakers said moving ahead with the alternatives would be an insult to about 5,000 volunteers who gathered 192,000 signatures over the summer for the Safe and Heathy Communities Initiative.

But Los Alamitos Councilman Ronald Bates, advocating the new measures, said voters deserve choices other than the initiative, which would require two-thirds voter approval to build or expand airports, large jails near homes and hazardous-waste dumps.

One alternative measure would require--the other would allow--supervisors to get voter approval before building or expanding jails and hazardous waste landfills, but not airports. Both measures were written to overturn passage of the anti-airport initiative should either receive more votes.

The third proposal is an advisory vote on whether the board should turn over airport planning and operation to a joint-powers authority, a partnership of cities and the county.

All four measures will be reviewed for their impact on county finances, the county’s general plan and John Wayne Airport and for any legal problems.

Auditor-Controller David Sundstrom will write a separate 500-word fiscal-impact statement, to be included in ballot materials.

Political consultant Frank Caterinicchio, who has been working with Bates, said voters already are being asked to vote on the anti-airport measure, and should have other choices.

“[Airport foes] should be for everyone having a right to vote, not just them,” Caterinicchio said.

In other El Toro-related matters Tuesday, the pro-airport board majority voted to boost efforts for lobbying and public education for El Toro plans. Spitzer and Wilson dissented.

Board Chairman Smith and Supervisors Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad agreed to hire a third advocacy firm in Washington and to nearly double the salary of its main El Toro spokesman, Tom Wall, to $5,000 a month.

The new lobbying firm, Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, will make $180,000 a year, bringing the county’s total for lobbying in the nation’s capital to $590,000. The county will spend about $1.3 million this fiscal year to push its position on El Toro.