First the Election, Then the Day After

Re “Judge Accused of Sex Offenses Could Face Runoff,” March 6:

Today The Times reported that a Fullerton voter was disappointed that he didn’t know of the criminal charges against Judge Ronald C. Kline until after he voted. He thought there should have been “a lot more publicity” about Kline’s arrest.

The judge’s arrest had been extensively covered on all local TV newscasts, in both The Times and its Orange County competitor, and on all local radio news.

The write-ins who came forward to contest this election placed more than a dozen fliers in my mailbox and under my windshield wipers at shopping malls. I found it very hard to avoid all the publicity, and it wasn’t difficult at all to choose a write-in. Somewhere along the line isn’t it a responsibility to educate oneself just a little bit before going into the voting booth? Next time, those who don’t bother to learn anything about the election should do the rest of us a favor. Please don’t bother to vote at all.

Bill Bryan

Foothill Ranch

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Judge Kline is now facing a runoff election. At midnight he was still leading, but when other apparently larger districts came in, his lead was hammered. Now Orange County must determine who Kline is going to run against. Thanks for the help in ensuring that Gay Sandoval or another highly qualified candidate will run against the “good” judge.

Michael Vaughan

Network Security Engineer

Predator-Hunter.com Inc.

Cincinnati

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I found one portion of your article most disheartening. A person interviewed after casting his ballot said he learned about the charges against Judge Kline only after he voted, and said, “I’m surprised his name was still on the ballot. You would think with something like this there would be a lot more publicity.”

Just how much publicity is enough? The Times and Register ran numerous articles about the situation, and it was covered on local TV news. Does the person interviewed read a newspaper? Does he watch anything but Letterman on TV? If a democracy is to work, voters have a responsibility to inform themselves on the issues.

Unfortunately, the gentleman quoted is not alone. My wife is a schoolteacher in an affluent district, and she is amazed at how few of her students live in a home that subscribes to a newspaper. Ultimately, we get the government we deserve.

William McIntyre

San Clemente

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I am so angry I could spit nails. When reaching my polling place to vote last evening, I was given a few ballots only on the measures. I told them I was a registered Democrat and asked them for a Democratic ballot. They showed me I was in their books as a nonpartisan registrar. I have been a registered Democratic voter all of my life except for a couple years in the 1980s, when I was registered as a libertarian.

Secondly, I was never notified of the Supreme Court’s ruling that California’s open primary had been ruled unconstitutional, and my first knowledge of it was on Page 3 in the voter pamphlet. I am an avid listener to the news and read several newspapers on the Web. I believe I am above the norm when it comes to keeping myself informed of current events and world news.

I was so dejected I couldn’t vote. I came home and checked the Orange County registrar’s Web page. There was nothing stating that voters should be notified of the closed primary or what that would mean to all registered voters and nonregistered voters. It appears that it certainly was neglect, or was it intentional? Isn’t this irresponsible when political parties are calling for strong voter turnouts?

I hope there is some investigative reporting and follow-up on how many more voters and counties in California have been manipulated. Is this how elections in this country are going to take place now?

Be Ann Robbins

Garden Grove

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Re “In Jolt to O.C., Navy to Sell Off El Toro Land,” March 7:

Now we get the dirty lowdown: the truth. Democracy, hah. We never had a choice. El Toro was slated to become an airport or a development regardless of the illusion of democracy. The movers and shakers and their shills proved once again that Orange County is a disgrace to the concept of democracy. This is a banana republic. Excuse me while I go outside and take down my Stars and Stripes. This county is fouling our flag!

Mitchel Faris

Orange

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Found: 17,700 additional acres for development. Votor rejection of El Toro as an international airport has released that 4,700 acres and the approximately 14,000 acres previously held as a sound buffer where most building was prohibited.

It will now be possible to build more houses and golf courses that were not previously imaginable in this central Orange County location. Looks like about 25,000 houses and two golf courses.

What an economic boon for Orange County. I’m sure to most people that this is an unintended consequence.

Charles R. Hilton

Newport Beach

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Newport Beach may soon learn the old lesson of “Be careful what you wish for.”

For 10 years, the city has been the driving force for a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, pollution-spewing, window-rattling airport, and they just might get what they want.

Only problem is, it won’t be at El Toro, but at John Wayne.

Harry Massingill

Laguna Niguel

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The defeat of the El Toro airport proposal again shows that you cannot fool all of the people, not this time. The majority of voters simply refused to accept the big lies of the pro-airport group.

Lie 1: Landings to the north and takeoffs to the east--with crossing runways, prevailing winds from the southwest, John Wayne’s routine final approach in the middle of it all, and a forced turn to avoid the mountains to the east.

Lie 2: No one talked about the additional truck traffic in the area. The barrage of air freight and other trucks would stress the El Toro Y traffic congestion beyond the breaking point. Everyone loses if we gridlock what is already a bottleneck.

What we need is a real airport plan for Orange County. Guess what? San Diego has a serious airport problem too. The obvious solution, our great respect for the Marine Corps notwithstanding, is to build a modern new international airport on part of the property at Camp Pendleton. Why not, unless politicians are not able to work together, across jurisdictions, for the common good?

Ronald Woodruff

Laguna Niguel

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An item that has not received much notice when considering what to do with El Toro is the contamination that surely is present at the base. Bases such as El Toro are typically so contaminated with solvents and heavy metals that the hazardous waste is kept. Rather than transporting hazardous waste because of safety, environmental and cost concerns to a better burial ground, the waste is covered with a cap and left in place.

Does the top of such a cap sound like an appropriate place for the Great Park? Either the waste must be removed, which is unlikely and would involve millions of dollars, or the waste is covered with a cap. Both scenarios would involve costs associated with regulatory bureaucracies and litigation.

So, whatever happens to El Toro must be related to an industrial use. Children cannot play on top of such a cap.

Julia Kress Herrington

Costa Mesa