Final Pre-Vote Airing on Measure F

* Re “Money Would Go a Long Way in Quieting Airport Woes,” Feb. 27:

The column by Steven B. Frates does an excellent job of pointing out the schism between the county government and large segments of the county’s population.

I do not believe that charging fees for an El Toro airport use as outlined in the article is practical. When this money gets into the hands of the county government it is doubtful that it would be doled out to the affected individuals and cities properly, especially in view of the mind-set of the majority of the present Board of Supervisors.

My major problem with this column and many others related to the airport is that it has focused on noise. While it is a significant factor in not wanting an airport at El Toro, it is not as worrisome a problem as air pollution.

The South Coast air basin extends along the coast from Huntington Beach to San Clemente and inland to Yorba Linda. Which means that people living in Newport Beach and North County would be breathing the same polluted air as those in Irvine and South County.

DR. GEORGE C. HARPER

Laguna Beach

* I read with interest Steven B. Frates’ column regarding a surcharge to flights out of El Toro airport. Incidentally, I resent the statement that the airport is being shoved down the throats of South County people. Lest we forget, the entire county voted twice and South County lost both times. Please excuse the digression.

I think that the surcharge idea is a good one, but it does not go far enough. The flights out of John Wayne Airport should also have a hefty surcharge placed on them for those of us who live in that flight path.

For the people who have lived here for several years, the charge should be retroactive. I live two miles from the runway of John Wayne Airport. I experience noise every day, rain or shine, whether I am sick or well, whether I am alone or have guests.

Are we, the close neighbors of John Wayne Airport, less important and worthy than the people of South County?

FLORENCE STASCH

Newport Beach

* Steven B. Frates writes that paying the most-impacted homeowners $10,000 per year would assuage their anger over El Toro. This is disingenuous. We will not give up our existing South County quality of life for a “fee.” We will fight at all costs an unneeded El Toro airport, to save our communities.

Would Frates suggest we put the $2.8 billion [cost of building an El Toro airport] into John Wayne Airport, apply a surcharge there, and allocate the collected fees to Newport families? How far would this idea fly in Newport?

The solution to future Orange County air travel growth is neither an El Toro airport nor an expanded John Wayne. Let the existing Ontario airport absorb the growth, where the jobs are needed.

MICHAEL E. SMITH

Mission Viejo

* Steven B. Frates has obviously worked with government too long. His long-winded Feb. 27 column should have been condensed to: Let’s offer to buy off the folks we [El Toro airport] proponents have determined would be the most directly affected and the area governments.”

Not only is this cynical view off-target, it’s also like saying the folks who are responsible for the lost quality of your lives want to offer you a small token of what they’ve offered the folks who are doing it to you.

The real compensation from an El Toro airport is for the builders and developers who want it. Once it happens, the county is responsible to make it work.

DEREK QUINN

Laguna Niguel

* I’ve been involved in commercial aviation for most of my 40 years of professional life. I live in Laguna Niguel and I want to protect our already deteriorating quality of living.

I haven’t decided whether the proposed airport is good or bad. I do believe there are other issues far more significant than the airport, like crime, illegal immigration and road vehicle pollution.

I believe a properly defined and developed airport at El Toro can be an economic engine and a good corporate neighbor.

If our South County “leaders” had only spent as much time and money working within the system, trying to develop the best possible airport plan, as they have in mindlessly opposing any plan that includes an airport, maybe by now we poor ordinary citizens would have enough knowledge to make an informed decision.

As it is, I don’t trust information from either side.

Now the opponents have concocted a new weapon, Measure F, guaranteed to deadlock county development--all major development, not just airports. If it passes, the economic growth of Orange County will be stunted.

I suggest requiring Measure F to pass by the same two-thirds majority it seeks to enforce. That’s fair, isn’t it?

Second, all anti-airport South County cities should turn their heads around right now and join the planning process. Seek to influence the planning process from within, where they ought to be and where they will be better placed to inform the rest of us.

Third, ban every South County city that does not join the planning process from ever annexing any of the closed El Toro base and from ever receiving one cent of tax revenue from whatever use is eventually made of the base. And I mean forever.

FRED BEARDEN

Laguna Niguel

* South County communities cry foul over the El Toro airport plans because that airport would generate pollution and noise and severely impact the learning ability of children in schools under the flight paths.

But children and adults suffer from the same problems under the John Wayne Airport flight paths. To make matters worse, the city councils of Irvine and Lake Forest just faced an extremely hard decision in allowing a huge expansion of the Musick jail facility.

North County cities right now feel safe and immune from the burden of a new airport or a jail expansion in their backyard because the current political climate at the Board of Supervisors favors that part of the county.

But that can change tomorrow. Does North County have the guarantee that the majority of supervisors will always be behind it?

If we have learned anything from the county’s bankruptcy and the El Toro reuse planning process, it is to not blindly trust the county government.

Instead, voters have a chance Tuesday to take matters into their own hands, where they belong. Measure F requires voter approval for new or expanded airports, toxic landfills and large jails close to residential communities.

By design, Measure F provides protection for all communities that would be impacted by a future expansion of John Wayne Airport and by an airport at El Toro or anywhere else in the county.

A yes on Measure F will protect all of Orange County.

ACHIM KRAUSS

Foothill Ranch

* On Tuesday, Orange County voters will have the opportunity to vote on two separate propositions which involve minority rule: Proposition 26 and Measure F.

A vote for Proposition 26 would remove the two-thirds vote requirement for enacting school bonds, while a vote for Measure F would establish a two-thirds requirement for approving airports, jails and hazardous waste landfills.

The arguments for F and against 26 are that taxes and airports are so important that they should be undertaken only if a super-majority approves them.

The reality is that the votes of opponents of taxes and airports get to count twice that of proponents, thwarting the ability of the majority to work its will.

Proponents of minority rule for taxes argue that it is essential because renters could impose taxes on property owners, ignoring the fact that property taxes are reflected in rents and also ignoring that renters are far less likely to vote than homeowners.

Our founding fathers did not fully trust democracy and placed anti-majoritarian features in the Constitution.

Although our government has become more democratic over the years, anti-majoritarian features, both formal and informal, still exist, including the apportionment of the U.S. Senate, filibusters and the two-thirds rule in the California Legislature for budget approval.

Often this results in unpopular decisions or gridlock, leading to frustration with government and our political system. What is the point of electing a majority of Republicans to the Senate if a minority of Democrats can block their actions?

The trade-off is that the status quo is allowed to continue, for better or worse. In the short run greater stability is ensured, but in the long run the ability of government to address the important issues facing society is undermined.

Fundamental political freedoms necessary for the functioning of democracy, such as freedom of speech, should be beyond the reach of a simple majority, but few would include school bonds and facilities planning among these freedoms.

Those who believe that democracy is based on majority rule where the votes of all citizens are equal should oppose minority rule provisions. If your vote is not equal to mine, the principles of democracy and the functioning of the political system are undermined.

VINCE BUCK

Professor of political science

Cal State Fullerton

* We have been trying to convey to the public that the county has not been forthright in showing the damages that an airport at El Toro would cause. When you see the videotape of the county’s flight demonstration, you realize that 747s would fly 1,000 to 1,500 feet over the homes of thousands of residents, and that this would not be a loving thing to do to our neighbor. Nor would it be loving to increase flights at John Wayne or LAX as a solution to not having El Toro. The solution is not an either/or situation. That is why I would encourage all Orange County residents to vote for Measure F. Measure F will protect Newport Beach as well.

In addition, I call on the Board of Supervisors to think “outside the nine dots” and find a win-win solution. Develop an airport in the desert with a bullet train like they have in Europe. If we pass Measure F, we force the politicians to find better solutions.

PASTOR JOHN R. STEWARD

Clergy for Wholesome Communities

Mission Viejo

* Re “Airport Takes a Religious Turn,” Feb. 22:

This has to be the lowest, most base, most intellectually corrupt argument against an airport at El Toro ever conceived.

An airport at El Toro would not be “the loving thing to do.” Yes, these religious people may be right. It may be “right” to expand the John Wayne Airport and absolutely ruin the quality of life these zealots enjoy when in Newport Beach.

Let these religious zealots, political neophytes, drive to L.A. to catch their next flight from their homes in Orange County. But I am tired of listening to any more of this anti-airport stupidity regarding El Toro.

PAUL JAMES BALDWIN

Newport Beach

* Re “General Attacks Anti-Airport Ad,” Feb. 23:

Former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station commander Gen. William A. Bloomer has misinterpreted the significance of the 1965 crash at El Toro.

Because the cause of the crash was listed as human error, he wrongly concludes that this means the county’s proposed runways are sufficiently safe.

What it really means is that pilots are human beings and human beings can make errors. Because those errors could cost dozens of people their lives, pilots have a duty to maximize their margin of safety, so that they have time to recover from errors, mechanical problems, weather conditions or other unforeseen problems.

Are the county’s proposed runways the safest? No, according to the president of American Airlines. No, according to the commercial airline pilots. No, according to internal Federal Aviation Administration memos. No, according to the county’s own experts.

None of this is news. The pilots have been telling the county the truth about their runways since 1996. No one seems to be listening.

ARNOLD BURKE

Lake Forest

* I am appalled by the misinformation being distributed by some obviously well-financed opposition to the proper use of the El Toro airport.

First of all they claim that rich developers are promoting the commercial airport at El Toro when, in fact, it is the rich developers (mainly the Irvine Co.) that are drooling over the prospect of so many acres becoming available for more shopping centers and homes if the airport is closed.

They also claim that three people are frustrating the will of the majority when, in fact, more than half the county voters, as represented by these people, are in favor of having a useful, convenient airport in Orange County.

In the past year, the whole county has been flooded with the well-funded fliers and mailers that lie, misrepresent facts and tell half-truths about the proposed airport.

Many people, not willing to spend the time investigating the claims in this literature, may have been swayed by the emotional attacks.

I am pessimistic about the outcome of the arguments about the airport unless thought and intelligence suddenly appear to counter the emotions and misinformation flooding the county.

DAVID FEIGN

Santa Ana