Supervisors Aren’t Unbiased in El Toro Airport Debate

Leonard Kranser, editor of the El Toro Airport Web site--and The Times--thinks that the present composition of the Local Redevelopment Authority for El Toro, in which all county residents are equally represented by their Board of Supervisors representative, is not fair. He thinks that the way the LRA was originally constituted was fair. If that arrangement was anything, it was not “fair.”

That LRA (contrary to what Kranser says) was actually composed of the five members of the county Board of Supervisors, plus the cities of Irvine and Lake Forest, with Irvine having two votes. You didn’t have to have a doctorate to see where that arrangement was headed. The two cities were on record as being opposed to a civil airport at the former Marine Corps Air Station. That meant there were three “no airport” votes going in.

All the two cities needed was one board vote to block an airport and two board votes to kill an airport. In the end they got their two Board of Supervisors votes, but too late. Measure A in 1994 took care of that and we have the LRA as presently constituted.

If the Board of Supervisors now wants to expand the size of the LRA, fine. Let it return Irvine and Lake Forest and other South County cities to its membership. But for every South County city it adds to the LRA it must, in all “fairness,” add Newport Beach, Costa Mesa or some other North County city. After all, what becomes of El Toro is every bit as important to these cities as it is to South County cities.

NORM EWERS

Irvine

* The struggle over an El Toro airport has gone on for too long. The county has spent six years and close to $40 million--and is no closer to building an airport today than when it started, and for good reasons. It’s wasteful, not needed and will be an environmental nightmare.

Cities, groups and individuals on both sides of the debate also have spent heavily. The fight has sapped energy and resources that could have been put to better use.

The landslide passage of Measure F was a mandate from the voters that they should decide whether the airport is built. It is clear from every independent poll that the people of Orange County do not want another airport.

Stop the waste. “Radical change” is needed. Supervisors should respect the will of the people who elected them.

BOB GEISS

Lake Forest

* Chairman Chuck Smith comments, “The county must make radical changes in its plans, including reducing the size of the airport and changing the takeoff and landing patterns to reduce opposition.”

I recommend rerouting the main runways to take off directly over Chuck Smith’s house. I think Chuck will get the two-thirds vote he needs for this idea.

DENNIS THORP

Aliso Viejo

* The struggle over El Toro has gone on too long. We have already extended the lease at El Toro long after it should have expired.

Each month the lease is extended, the taxpayers lose. Only when the citizens of Orange County are shown the true costs of a non-aviation vs. aviation use of El Toro will any vote for or against an airport have any real meaning.

JEFFREY WATT

Santa Ana

* If and when a new commercial airport is built at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, I would like to submit an appropriate name. Normally, airports are named after aviators or aviation pioneers, of which Orange County has had many--Glen Martin, Paul Mantz, Eddie Martin and Doug “Wrong Way” Corrigan to name a few.

After careful consideration, the name of the airport, I propose, should be Dennis Rodman Airport (DRA). Never mind the fact that Rodman never flew an airplane. John Wayne was a popular and famous movie star and resident of Newport Beach. Dennis Rodman is a famous basketball star, also a resident of Newport Beach.

The new terminal would be named after a member of the Board of Supervisors, depending on whose turn it is to have a public building named after him or her. In the lobby of the new terminal would be a larger-than-life bronze statue of Rodman in his basketball uniform, poised with a ball in his hands ready to make a free throw.

FRANK B. MIEZWA

Santa Ana

* I can’t help but wonder what the cost of a 15-second commercial is on CNN. The El Toro reuse committee is constantly griping about the $40 million wasted by the commissioners on an airport that wouldn’t fly. For the last two weeks, I have seen this commercial at least five times a day. I wonder whose money they are throwing away.

DON DUNKLEMAN

Orange