Supervisor Smith Still Off SCAG

A move to put Orange County Supervisor Chuck Smith back on a regional planning board was tabled Monday after protesters argued that he would use his position to promote an airport at El Toro.

The board of the Orange County Transportation Authority decided unanimously to refer to its committees the decision on whether Smith should be appointed to the Southern California Assn. of Governments. Designating a member on SCAG -- the authority’s first -- would cost OCTA $25,000 a year.

Smith was yanked from SCAG’s voting board last week by the Orange County Board of Supervisors and replaced by Supervisor Chris Norby. The supervisors’ anti-airport majority faulted Smith for supporting a proposal by Los Angeles to lease the closed El Toro Marine base from the federal government for an airport.

Smith has argued that his position on SCAG has no bearing on whether an airport is built at El Toro. He has served on the regional panel for 10 years and is in line to become its president in April 2004.

But several speakers, including Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Mimi Walters, insisted that Smith could use his position to promote an airport. Walters chairs a 10-member coalition of South County cities that form the foundation of opposition to an airport at El Toro.

Supervisor Bill Campbell suggested that naming Smith as OCTA’s representative to SCAG would drag the transportation authority into the fight over El Toro, which began in 1994 when voters approved an airport. Voters last year rescinded that approval.