El Toro Solutions

* The “Wilson Says He’ll Fight Pro-Airport Appointee” article (Sept. 26) advises that Chuck Smith, Orange County Board of Supervisors chairman, in his usual style and total disregard for the voices of the people, nominates Tom Naughton, an El Toro airport proponent, to replace Charles Zoffer, the only opposing member of the seven-member Air Land Use Commission.

The outrageous and callous disregard for the majority of Orange County’s voters by Smith is a situation that isn’t even tolerated by former Iron Curtain countries. It is obvious that Smith is not inclined to address and support the wishes of the people but instead impose his own self-serving will.

We need to stop all the discussions of the pros and cons of the airport--that issue has already been addressed and decided by the voters of Orange County. What needs to be addressed is the Board of Supervisors and which members are entitled to carry out the will of the citizens of Orange County. Clearly, Chuck Smith and several other members of the board have lost our trust. We need to address this in a most urgent and serious fashion, so that the future is not held victim to the will and dictates of a few. Is a recall of the Board of Supervisors an option that we should seriously consider?

HANS ROEHRICHT

Lake Forest

* How’s this for weird? The Irvine City Council will spend $4 million plus this year to promote for the former El Toro Marine base a “great park” we don’t need and can’t afford, and to kill the county’s plans for an airport there we do need and which won’t cost the taxpayers a dime.

At the same time the council is giving $650,000 to the Irvine Chamber of Commerce for its “Destination Irvine” project designed to attract tourists and new business to Irvine, which will . . . ? That’s right: increase demand for the airport the council is trying to kill. Weird. Weird, indeed.

NORM EWERS

Irvine

* The Founding Fathers understood the necessity of limited government. Large, leviathan government not only has the ability to abuse its power over its citizens, it also has the ability to bring out the worst in them.

Witness the competing interests groveling for the tobacco tax and tobacco settlement proceeds. Witness the competing interests shamelessly claiming their self-interest is more important than the next’s for Tustin and El Toro airports.

While I have no quick remedy for the ill-gotten tobacco money or the Tustin Marine base property, I do for El Toro. I say give it back to the Irvine family (not the Irvine Co., as it didn’t buy the base when it bought the rest of the family’s holdings).

Now that the property is no longer going to be used for the purpose for which the government “bought” it (national defense), the government should give it back to the family. Anything else amounts to a time-delayed bait-and-switch scheme.

Not only would this disposition restore ownership to the rightful party, but also it would put an end to the constant bickering among people who have no legitimate claim to the property.

BRUCE CRAWFORD

Fountain Valley