New County Office Urged for El Toro

County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier, reacting to criticism that the El Toro planning process has been closed, has proposed opening a new county office designed especially to deal with El Toro planning and also called for monthly board meetings, public hearings and weekly media briefings.

Mittermeier proposed the changes after recent public hearings on the future of an airport at the former Marine air station. Allegations of a closed and secretive planning process emerged as a “consistent theme” at the hearings, she noted.

“Both the public and a majority of board members have the perception that the planning process has been closed and secretive,” Mittermeier said in a memo given to each of the five board members on Friday.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who could not be reached for comment, has placed Mittermeier’s suggestions on the board’s agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.

Mittermeier’s proposed changes were hotly criticized as patronizing by Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for a South County anti-airport coalition.

“What is she talking about with this perception thing?” Waters said. “We had to sue for every scrap of information that we’ve gotten from the county. I don’t think there’s a perception. There’s a fact that most people and groups don’t have to sue for information. If anyone has a perception problem, it’s Ms. Mittermeier.”

Waters said the county has taken outlandish action against her and the coalition’s vice chairman, L. Allan Songstad Jr., who is also a Laguna Hills City Council member.

“All we wanted to do was see the county’s press conference on an El Toro noise study but they threw me and Songstad out of that meeting,” she said.

Mittermeier could not be reached for comment regarding Waters’ statements.

Staffing for the new office will be borrowed from other departments, though it will include its own public information function. Reorganization includes creation of the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro Program Planning Office as a separate department headed by Tom Mathews, who is now director of the planning and development department.

Mittermeier proposed the office because of the board’s recent direction to engage in planning related to both “aviation and non-aviation” activities at the former El Toro Marine base.

The new office would expire at the end of planning.. Its budget will be from both county general funds and aviation money.

Mittermeier also proposed that monthly meetings should be held by the board which sits as the panel to determine base reuse. But she also suggested the meetings be conducted as public hearings in the community for greater public participation.

Instead of weekly meetings with supervisors on the airport subcommittee, Mittermeier proposed that Mathews have weekly briefings for the five supervisors to permit “all board members to have an opportunity to ask questions and provide direction to staff.”

Her final proposal was to include the media in the El Toro process by having the new program director offer the media weekly access.

However, Waters said, rather than media, the briefings should be made available to South County residents or their representatives, such as coalition leaders.

“After all, these are the people who are going to have to live with these decisions and they have a right to know what’s happening,” Waters said.