Supervisors Order Audit of Accounts for El Toro

Orange County supervisors ordered an audit Tuesday of the county’s El Toro accounts, trying to determine whether money generated by John Wayne Airport was improperly used at the former El Toro Marine base.

The board assigned an auditor to “scrub” the El Toro accounts after supervisors discovered that a contractor hired with John Wayne Airport funds had been diverted to do work at El Toro.

John Wayne Airport money cannot be used for anything other than planning an airport at the base, but the contractor, JHTM & Associates, was also paid to negotiate a lease with the Navy and to oversee the company hired to manage the base golf course, horse stables and other services.

John Wayne officials admitted late Tuesday that JHTM’s El Toro work was paid for out of John Wayne funds. But the bulk of the work done by JHTM was aviation related, county spokeswoman Diane Thomas said. Any non-aviation work “will be paid for from the appropriate fund,” she said.

Money for non-airport work must come from general county funds, and the Federal Aviation Administration also restricts the use of its money to airport planning only.

JHTM & Associates was hired in 1997 for John Wayne Airport work. But in 1998, airport officials asked the firm to take over El Toro duties without notifying supervisors or changing the company’s contract. The company has been paid about $3 million since 1997 from John Wayne Airport operating funds, but it is unclear how much of the money went for El Toro work and how much went to John Wayne projects.

Despite the concerns, supervisors agreed Tuesday to rehire the company as one of three firms authorized for future work at John Wayne Airport.

Supervisors ordered the financial review after Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who opposes an airport at El Toro, grilled county officials about giving El Toro work to JHTM & Associates.

Airport Deputy Director Loan Leblow said airport staff “got caught” in using the firm for base-related work--assigned at the request of the county’s El Toro program office--and welcomes the auditor’s review.

“Our books are open to anybody,” she said.

County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier said JHTM was used because airport staff needed help when they assumed responsibility for El Toro aviation planning in 1998. She said she was “not familiar” with the company’s scope of work or whether it was authorized only for John Wayne Airport duties.

“I don’t think anyone was being secretive,” Mittermeier said.

But Spitzer noted that he has raised questions repeatedly after El Toro work was discovered within contracts for other county departments. That work included possible paving repair at the base within a John Wayne Airport maintenance contract and a review of base toxic contamination added to the duties of consultants hired by the county landfill system.

“This is not a misunderstanding today,” Spitzer said. “We now have to bring in our own auditor to figure out what’s going on.”

Until the audit is complete, Spitzer said, he will not support any more John Wayne Airport contracts.

The firm’s work on El Toro was disclosed Monday in a memo sent by Leblow to Supervisor Tom Wilson, whose office asked for the information. Wilson chastised airport officials Tuesday for giving the company unauthorized duties.

About $40 million has been spent since 1994 on El Toro, including $27 million from John Wayne Airport and $3 million from the Federal Aviation Administration.

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