Political Folly in Tustin Over Base

* The ongoing battle by the city of Tustin to acquire the former Tustin Marine base for its proposed Tustin Legacy development has been used as a local political football by cynically opportunistic city politicians for six years, including the claim by virtually every incumbent since 1994 that without their experience the project is doomed.

Consider one example.

When the City Council voted March 20 not to join an anti-El Toro airport coalition, the highly sensitive nature of the city’s dealing with the Navy on the transfer of the Tustin base property was cited.

It was claimed that joining the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority could “jeopardize” negotiations with the Navy because ETRPA, a large coalition of anti-airport cities, may initiate litigation with the federal government over El Toro base reuse matters.

Just days later, city leaders exposed just how specious their argument was.

Frustrated at a lack of movement on the Tustin base transfer, city officials very publicly and forcefully asserted their unconcealed hostility toward the Navy.

The mayor and other officials publicly accused the Navy of “stalling,” “stonewalling,” “dragging their feet” and using “coercion techniques” in dealing with the transfer. This prompted terse official reactions from the Navy such as “We have a law to comply with. That’s not dragging our feet, that’s doing our jobs.”

We are expected to believe that publicly impugning the motives of Navy officials is not damaging to sensitive negotiations, but merely becoming a nonvoting associate member of a large coalition of cities involved in legitimate legal challenges over issues that will impact the entire county beyond our life spans will “jeopardize” our relationship with federal officials on unrelated matters.

KEN MORRISON

Tustin