Working Over El Toro Labor Deal
* Re “Airport Foes Decry O.C. Labor Pact” (Jan. 12):
I find it fascinating that the Orange County Board of Supervisors made an agreement with labor unions to assure the county’s public works projects would be dominated by union members. Like anything else El Toro-related, the numbers just don’t add up.
There are about 125,000 union members in Los Angeles and Orange counties, but only about one-fourth of them are from Orange County. And nonunion contractors account for about 80% of all workers in Orange County.
Who are the Board of Supervisors claiming to represent again? Oh yeah--Orange County. I think not.
The supervisors have traded the welfare of the taxpayers and the livelihood of 80% of all building trades workers for help in defeating the Safe & Healthy Communities initiative, Measure F. Great trade!
We shouldn’t be surprised when big money suddenly becomes available to fight Measure F. Maybe more people will realize that we need Measure F to protect ourselves against a county government that is supposed to represent the people.
I hope these supervisors don’t try trading Pokemon cards. They’ll surely get taken.
Do you think we could get Robert Citron back? He’s starting to look pretty good.
GAIL BRUNELL
Laguna Niguel
* The choice of the majority of Orange County supervisors to award larger airport construction projects to union contractors only is grossly unfair and clearly intends to foster union member support to defeat Measure F on the next ballot. Is this fair? Of course not.
From the get-go certain supervisors and private developers have been determined to ram the El Toro airport into South County.
That is despite the fact that the majority of residents there do not want it and the costs and benefits are apparently grossly skewed from the original estimates.
The airport will allegedly cost over twice as much and have less income relative to the disruptions and pollution of the county.
The not-so-private agenda of the supervisors and private interests needs to be shouted from the rooftops and used by the people to put the brakes on this flawed planning.
The whole planning process is a prime example of how democracy can be overrun by greedy people with closed minds. But we-the-people can show these schemers in county government and business that we are in control and will stop them cold.
EUGENE GAVIN
Mission Viejo
* I am outraged that those against the El Toro airport would criticize the county and unions for reaching important labor agreements.
Their negative accusations and criticisms are unfounded and apparently are just one more attempt to gain sympathy for their “no airport” cause.
It is a part of a scheme meant to put doubts in the minds of our citizens about their government and unions. Will anti-El Toro activists stop at nothing in order to sabotage the needed new airport?
I hope the good people of Orange County understand these types of negotiations between the union and county officials regarding building public projects are not uncommon.
In fact, they are beneficial and will ultimately profit not only union people but the majority of our citizens as well.
It is the best way to be assured that licensed and skilled workers are on the job and that quality work is guaranteed. Isn’t that just plain smart?
RUSS NICHOLSON
Santa Ana
* Regarding Supervisor Tom Wilson’s angry response to not being renamed vice chairman of the Board of Supervisors (Jan. 5):
Why should he be renamed?
He has not figured out how to adequately represent his own 70,000 Newport Beach constituents on the issue they have deemed their most critical: El Toro airport.
Therefore it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that his fellow supervisors have lost confidence in his ability to represent our entire county’s population.
Until he demonstrates the leadership necessary to help the cities in his own district reach a compromise and stop feuding with one another, he simply is not qualified for any added responsibilities.
ANNA OLSON
Anaheim
* The new unholy union between the ultraconservative Orange County Board of Supervisors and the AFL-CIO is another affirmation that in politics practical interests always overrule theoretical principles.
To memorialize this fact for all times and all generations, how about if we name the proposed airport “Jimmy Hoffa’s International Airport”?
HAMID BAHADORI
Mission Viejo
* The supervisors approving the El Toro labor agreement with the construction unions cited a need to prevent work stoppages through strikes.
Not one public project, one time in the last 40 years in all of Southern California, has been delayed due to a labor dispute.
With the new El Toro international airport, I expected to fly directly to Paris and Rome. I did not expect it to be constructed with French and Italian labor unions.
This action will limit the number of eligible public works bidders. This can only cost the Orange County taxpayer millions in the next five years. This increased expense is to solve a problem that does not exist.
RUSSELL PATTERSON
Villa Park
* It appears that key county proponents of El Toro have disconnected their brains and have lost all good common business sense.
The three pro-El Toro supervisors, Charles V. Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad, hastily pushed for a county requirement to use union labor, which severely jeopardizes the competitive bidding process. This quid pro quo will cost taxpayers dearly.
In December, we learned that a former county manager deemed status reports “unnecessary” on a $9.1-million airport development contract. I guess anything pro-El Toro is beyond reproach.
And don’t forget how Smith, Silva and Coad pushed for an unscientific, multimillion-dollar flight demonstration; this move wasted $3 million and only resulted in more unanswered questions and concerns.
Regardless of one’s position on the proposed El Toro airport, everybody should be questioning these people, especially in the wake of reports that this project cost just doubled to $2.9 billion.
I just wonder if they used union labor rates in their estimate.
STEVE HIRASHIKI
Aliso Viejo
* The vote in Third World countries is paid for. In fact, there is only one thing on the ballot to vote for in these countries!
The Orange County Board of Supervisors would prefer to buy the vote for the airport, as opposed to letting democracy take its course. Shame on them!
JOHN SARNECKY
Coto de Caza
* The labor agreement between the county and organized labor proves, as if there were any doubt, the concept of representative government has disappeared from O.C.
The Board of Supervisors is supposed to represent the citizens of the five districts, and more important, the citizens of the county as a whole and make decisions which benefit all.
Supervisors Smith, Silva and Coad do not represent anyone but themselves and one or two wealthy Newport Beach developers.
These three make the board that put us into bankruptcy five years ago look like Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Their latest actions are but another slap in the collective faces of the people of this county.
Whether you are for or against the proposed airport at El Toro, I believe we can all agree on a few facts.
This issue has split the county in half to the point of near civil war. It has corrupted our elected officials to the point of open contempt for their constituents.
It has brought back-room political chicanery to a level not seen since Tammany Hall. It has, and will continue to, drain financial resources from the county and the affected cities for years as the inevitable courtroom battles rage on.
The issue has brought out the worst in all of us.
We must stop this insanity and make the county respond to the needs of all citizens. I urge everyone to support Measure F regardless of your feelings about El Toro.
At worst it will force a cooling-off period to allow all sides to fully and fairly consider all potential uses of this facility, whether it be a commercial airport, a planned development such as the Millennium Plan, or simply let it lie fallow.
Poor decisions made in haste may never be undone.
RICHARD SODEN
Lake Forest
* I am outraged by the county’s new plan to award contracts to only unionized shops.
As an owner of a small business that is not unionized, I currently bid (and sometimes win) contracts with the state of California and other businesses.
The process is complicated, but at least it’s fair.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors is out of control.
JOHN SANTORA
Aliso Viejo
* El Toro project manager Michael Lapin has stated that mitigation measures for the proposed El Toro airport would be as they are at John Wayne Airport.
John Wayne restrictions expire in 2005. There is no concurrence at this time from the Federal Aviation Administration or the airlines on the county’s restriction proposals.
Even with restrictions, many will be exposed to nighttime noise levels as loud as a blender or a printing press.
The current scenario with Burbank Airport and the FAA should be a lesson for us all that local government does not have the final say when it comes to flight paths or mitigation measures.
At Burbank Airport, pilots, in the interest of passenger safety, often elect not to fly over the mountains but over populated areas instead. Sound familiar?
The very people supporting an airport at El Toro may very well end up with a huge surprise when flights begin.
MIKE BARON
Aliso Viejo
* What happened to the $700,000, 20-month, taxpayer-funded study ordered by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to find a commercial airport site in the county that ended up flatly rejecting the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro as a candidate site?
The Airport Site Coalition study team of 1988-89 submitted a 312-page final report to the board on April 3, 1990. The board voted 4 to 0 to refer it to staff and it hasn’t been seen since.
Some 300 leading citizens from all parts of the county participated in the study, accepted a set of 21 criteria for evaluating 24 locations and eliminated El Toro in July 1989, ranking it 14 out of 17 possible sites for a long-haul airport.
Among the four finalists, only March Air Force Base (now March Inland Port) met the criteria and all feasibility tests.
With its 13,300-foot runway, March Inland Port is ready now to accept the largest commercial jets and wants to be the international aviation hub for all of Orange, Riverside and north San Diego counties. It is 23 miles due east of El Toro and readily accessible by car and high-speed light rail.
If Supervisors Charles V. Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad, County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier and their $170,000-a-year airport project manager, Michael Lapin, were to apply the 21 evaluation criteria used by the Airport Site Coalition, they too would be forced to reject El Toro as a viable commercial airport. Perhaps that explains why the report remains buried.
This landmark study strongly supports a yes vote on Measure F on March 7, a vote that can restore sanity to land planning in Orange County, remove it from simple majority countywide voting and begin to put it back into the hands of residents living near such environmentally and economically harmful projects as commercial airports, large jails and toxic waste dumps.
DAVE BLODGETT
Laguna Woods