O.C. Lessons From Burbank Vote

* The Board of Supervisors should take a lesson in political etiquette from the Burbank City Council. The Burbank Airport expansion issue has been kicked around for years and the council finally put it on the recent ballot and it passed big time.

Passage of the measure does not signal support for or opposition to expansion, but only the right of residents to ultimately decide the issue. Any agreement between the city and the Airport Authority to relocate or expand the airport terminal now requires Burbank voter approval. Such considerate concern for the will of the people is an anomaly to us in Orange County, where the board majority routinely fails to get the message delivered by Measure F.

JIM DAVY

Dana Point

* The Burbank City Council has put the Orange County supervisors to shame. To solve a long-running dispute over Burbank Airport, the City Council put the matter up to the people.

The council placed a measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, requiring that all action to relocate or expand the airport terminal must receive Burbank voter approval. No ballot argument was submitted opposing the proposal and it passed easily. “It gives the people the last say” on airport expansion matters, Burbank Councilman Bob Kramer said.

Meanwhile, here in Orange County, Supervisors Chuck Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia P. Coad do everything in their power to thwart the will of the people. The county is suing to block implementation of Measure F, which passed by a landslide in March, and subjects any airport expansion to a vote of the people.

LEONARD KRANSER

Editor, El Toro Airport Web site

Dana Point

* The Times editorial (“FAA’s Flight Plan,” Nov. 12) astutely questions why FAA manager Henry Bliss claims an earlier MITRE Corp. report cannot be released because it is a draft report, yet offers an “FAA opinion” which contradicts that MITRE study. Obviously, the FAA political machinery is hard at work spinning the results of a technical study, to reach a conclusion favoring building an El Toro airport.

But the editorial errs in saying there is a question about which airport plan the county will submit to the FAA. The county has made it clear that it will submit the 38-MAP plan. Likewise, the editorial errs in questioning whether the county voters will approve any airport plan in the event that Measure F is upheld by the courts. They won’t, as the vote on Measure F and more recent polls by UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton make abundantly clear.

All levels of government derive their power from the people. The Measure F and Greenlight votes in Newport Beach show that voters feel disenfranchised by land-use planning at the city and county levels, and now feel they must take back that responsibility from elected officials. If city and county governments do not begin to listen to the voters, voters will undoubtedly take further actions.

MICHAEL SMITH

Mission Viejo

* Re “Political Hardball Season Is Over,” (Orange County editorial, Nov. 12):

I would like to add “The Second Season” is just beginning: Voters are more informed and willing to participate in the planning process of their environs and warming up.

Airport proponents are still spinning a smaller, cuter airport along with the FAA’s Herman Bliss spreading conflicting information regarding the feasibility and safety of El Toro. Whom should the public trust? The ballot box has shown more than once that people don’t trust their county supervisors from voting in unnecessary and unwanted major developments unless we can have a say in the planning process also. We no longer want to fight uphill battles. That is what Measure F and the other city measure for control are about.

MARY SCHWARTZ

Santa Ana