Supervisors’ Confidence Ratings Dip

Residents’ confidence in Orange County government plummeted by 11 percentage points over the past year, according to an annual survey released Monday by UC Irvine.

Just 29% believe county government does an excellent or good job solving problems, down from 40% the previous year, the Orange County Annual Survey found.

Mark Baldassare, a UCI professor of urban and regional planning and co-director of the poll, said the

low numbers stem from the supervisors’ handling of the El Toro airport issue.

Both supporters and opponents of the airport gave county government low approval ratings, though opponents were more critical.

According to the poll, just 31% of people favoring the airport and 26% of those opposing it say county government does a good or excellent job solving local problems.

“I think the fact the supervisors have argued among themselves, argued with the [county executive officer] and have been in battles with many of the city officials in the county has painted a picture of a government not particularly responsive or accountable or efficient,” Baldassare said. “The process has been very ugly, and it has taken its toll.”

County supervisors agreed.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, an airport opponent. “All of our bickering is leading the average taxpayer in Orange County to rightfully conclude that we are not providing the level of leadership we need to as a political body.”

Said Supervisor Tom Wilson, an airport supporter: “I have to assume it must have something to do with El Toro and the planning and the expenditures that have been kind of thrown over the side, and we still don’t have a plan.”

These aren’t the lowest approval figures given county government in the poll, which has tracked attitudes among Orange County residents since 1982. In 1996, soon after the county declared bankruptcy, just 24% of residents believed the county was doing a good job. In 1997, the number was 26%. But then, as the economy improved and the county worked its way out of many bankruptcy-related problems, approval ratings rose--until this year’s survey polled residents in May.

Negative feelings increased on all three questions pollsters asked about county government.

The percentage of those who believe the county wastes a lot of tax money jumped to 42% this year, while feelings that the county pays attention to what people think dropped to 54%.

The UCI survey previously has reported that 54% of county residents oppose an El Toro airport while 35% favor it.

Controversy has followed the airport issue since the federal government announced plans to turn over the air station to the county. Several South County cities have actively opposed it and offered alternate plans for the 4,700 acres, including museums, a park and a sports complex.

Although the majority of supervisors favor the airport, 67% of the voters approved Measure F in the March 7 election. The anti-El Toro initiative requires two-thirds voter approval before the county can build airports, large jails near homes and hazardous-waste landfills.

In addition, a fight has broken out over the supervisors’ attempt to take away County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier’s control over El Toro planning and hire a manager to direct the project.

Mittermeier was given unprecedented power to run the county when she was hired after the 1994 bankruptcy and doesn’t want to give it up. Mittermeier has said that taking away El Toro from her portfolio would violate her contract, effectively firing her, and she would be owed $170,000 severance.

Chuck Smith, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, agreed the poll results were a reflection of the airport controversy.

“The biggest thing that the Board of Supervisors gets any publicity on is the El Toro thing,” he said. “Take that out of the equation, I would say we probably get pretty high marks on everything else because as far as county government is concerned people only read about bad things in newspapers.”

But some observers also bring up such issues as beach closures and the supervisors’ fight with health care advocates over how to spend the county’s share of the national tobacco companies’ settlement.

“There is some leadership by some supervisors on certain issues,” said Tricia Harrigan, county government observer for the League of Women Voters, “but there is also total intransigence on other issues, and a lack of leadership on how to solve the conflicts.”

The UCI survey found that county government ranked lowest in the South County, where anti-airport sentiments are highest. Just 23% of those polled said the county had done an excellent or good job at solving county problems, while 31% in the North County felt that way.

The survey was conducted May 3 to 14 and included telephone interviews in English and Spanish with 1,005 adults. The sampling error is plus or minus 3%. That means the chances are 95 out of 100 that the poll results will be within 3 percentage points if all residents of the county were surveyed.

Fred Smoller, director of the Ludie and David C. Henley Social Sciences Research Lab at Chapman University, said that while the county government had regained much its credibility in recent years, the bankruptcy had left a base of residual distrust that is easily tapped.

“From El Toro airport stumbling and bumbling, the vote of no confidence over Measure F and turbulence over Mittermeier, I think that alone will knock you down 10 points,” he said.

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* LIBERAL SHIFT

County surprisingly liberal on gun control, gay issues. B4

* INTERNET USE

Web use higher than state average, but Latinos lagging. C1

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County Views

The 19th Orange County Annual Survey showed that the views residents hold of county government have tumbled in the past year, mainly as a result of supervisors bickering over the proposed international airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.