Supes Dribbling Away Airport Support

You almost feel sorry for them, don’t you?

Watching the three-member Board of Supervisors majority try to keep the proposed El Toro airport on track is like watching the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team take a lead into the fourth quarter.

You just know they’ll find a way to blow it.

Indeed, as we speak, and with the clock winding down, Supervisors Smith, Coad and Silva give every indication of throwing up an airball in crunch time or dribbling the ball off their feet and out of bounds.

In a short four-year span, they’ve somehow managed not only to intensify the opposition but to erode their own base of support. Cynthia Coad has been in office less than two years, but she’s apparently learning fast from Messrs. Smith and Silva.

A 1996 Times Orange County Poll indicated county voters were evenly split on the airport question. This week, the poll shows 52% of voters countywide oppose converting the Marine base to an international airport, with only 33% favoring.

Worse, North County support for the airport has declined in the last year from 53% to 39%.

At this pace, the three supervisors eventually will talk themselves out of supporting the airport.

Which leads me to scream out:

“Timeout, supes!”

It’s become quite clear the board majority doesn’t understand Big Mo. It’s what we in the real world call momentum, and the board majority has lost it.

And now, with the anti-airport initiative, Measure F, on the March 7 ballot, the three stand the chance of taking another sock in the face.

Call me the Compassionate Columnist, but I can’t sit by and watch this any longer. What kind of person would I be if I didn’t try to help the beleaguered supes?

Keep in mind I’m doing this free of charge and without any real stake in the outcome. I’m a North County guy (Huntington Beach) whose passion for or against the airport is about 1.4 on a 10-point scale.

In Search of a Plan

But you have to ask: Why hasn’t the board majority been able to sell the airport to Orange County? If it’s so darn important, why can’t they build any consensus for it, even after accounting for the natural opposition of people living closest to it?

The painful answer is that they apparently went into this battle without any marketing strategy. The board majority seemed to think people would do cartwheels for a new airport simply because El Toro had some runways already in place.

Instead, the anti-airport forces unleashed a barrage of legal and marketing attacks that have left the three supes and their supporters dazed and confused. So much so that, even now, their “strategy” has been to complain that the other side is distorting the truth.

Pretty wimpy, huh? Like the Clippers, what they’ve forgotten is that you have to play both offense and defense.

OK, how to sell an airport.

Here’s my four-pronged TV campaign for the board majority:

1) Get real. Instead of talking about some abstract monstrosity, trot out some renderings of a futuristic-looking airport, something the Jetsons might use. Make people feel they’re part of history being made.

2) Get someone with credibility and get personal. Have him or her address, point by point, the noise and all other concerns from the anti-airport side. How about a call to retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf?

3) Appeal to people’s pocketbooks. Trying to convince Orange County residents that they have an “obligation” to help regional air traffic needs is a loser. They don’t think like that. Instead, prepare charts comparing air fares out of a new international airport with those out of John Wayne. To neutralize the cheaper fares which people now can get at LAX, pound away at the hassle of getting in and out of LAX.

4) Get positive. You’re never going to convince everyone that an airport is needed, so go after those on the fence. Sell them on the future. You might even adopt a slogan, “Fly Into the Future.”

Take it or leave it, but remember:

It’s the fourth quarter.

You’re out of timeouts.

You’ve got to score right now.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com