Navy May End Services at El Toro If Lease Not Complete

Orange County is anticipating that the Navy might lock the gates of El Toro Marine base July 2, dislodging thousands of users of the base golf course, horse stables, three child-care centers and a recreational vehicle storage lot, according to a report prepared by County Executive Officer Janice Mittermeier.

The Navy’s concern is money, according to the report: The base cost the federal government $4.5 million to maintain this fiscal year. That includes a $2-million subsidy for utilities, plus police and fire protection for a half-dozen community services approved in May 1999 at the urging of Orange County officials.

The contract keeping those services going expires July 2 and “there are no provisions for extensions beyond that date,” the report said. “The Navy has indicated that, due to the high cost of maintaining the base, it is their intent to close the base to all activities on July 2, 2000, if a master lease is not in place.”

Navy officials said Wednesday that they hope to have a master lease--allowing the county to take over the base until the property is conveyed--by July 2 but won’t automatically shut the base without one.

“We haven’t made that decision yet,” Navy spokeswoman Jeanne Light said.

Maintaining the services on the base, meanwhile, is expected to push the county $623,000 into the red by June 30, the end of the fiscal year. County officials, who expected to earn $500,000 from the program, now face the prospect of propping up the losses out of the county’s ever-stretched general fund.

Frustrated county supervisors said Wednesday that they want the base to stay open but acknowledged that the Navy may pull the plug.

County staff has been negotiating with the Navy for a base master lease for nearly two years. The process has been snagged by opposition from south Orange County cities to the proposed airport or any other type of aviation use at the base.

Two supervisors accused county staff Wednesday of essentially sabotaging the programs at the base by inflating its deficit and refusing to allow some uses at the base that would have brought in more money, such as leasing housing and office space.

Chairman Charles V. Smith said he and Supervisor Tom Wilson fought to keep the services open at the base.

“The real strong airport proponents on staff--I won’t name any names--wanted to just shut [the base] down a year ago” if aviation wasn’t allowed, Smith said. “Wilson and I won out. Staff didn’t agree with us on that and they still don’t agree with us.”

Supervisor Todd Spitzer said county staff inflated the losses from community uses to justify the decision to close the base to any uses.

“They’ve wanted to make non-aviation fail so they could argue that it could only be an airport” to make money, Spitzer said.

Supervisors are expected to discuss the future of services on the base during a May 3 workshop on El Toro. The workshop was scheduled to wrestle with planning for the base’s reuse in light of the March 7 passage of a county initiative that mandates a public vote before an airport can be built and bars the county from lobbying for or advocating an airport.