Reporter’s Notebook -- Paul Clinton

Nothing wrong with taking a shot in the dark, but Irvine’s bid to stop

an airport at the closed El Toro Marine base Wednesday was about seven

years too late.

The city had successfully lobbied Bay Area Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda)

to carry a bill that would have added six Irvine representatives to the

five-member Orange County commission handling the reuse of the base.

Irvine would have had more of a case objecting to the commission’s

makeup in the mid-1990s, when the Department of Defense recognized the

county as the Local Redevelopment Authority -- a designation giving the

Board of Supervisors power to decide the future of the base.

The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority had been stripped of its LRA

status in the months after the 1994 passage of Measure A -- the

initiative that changed zoning at the base to aviation.

South County folks had a legitimate beef when county officials kept

Irvine and Lake Forest away from the table -- by pulling out of the

authority in January 1995. But by now, May 2001, this was ancient

history.

So, as part of their war-on-all-fronts strategy, Irvine lobbied

Perata, who oversaw the reuse of the Alameda Naval Station into

affordable housing, to carry Senate Bill 703.

The bill, which Perata pulled from its scheduled committee vote

because of lack of support, would hand base reuse decisions to Irvine.

Newport Beach Councilman Gary Proctor said the bill was a “sneaky

maneuver.” Supervisor Chuck Smith, who flew to Sacramento on Wednesday to

lobby against SB 703, dismissed it as “an irritant.”

Of course, the county’s single-minded obsession to build an airport at

El Toro without South County input has cost it credibility.

Is sneaking a bill through the back door in Sacramento any nobler?

As Proctor accurately points out, the bill died on arrival before it

faced a vote in the senate’s six-member local government committee.

Perata, a member of the committee, must have felt the political winds

blowing full force in his face.

A spokesman of committee chair Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) said the bill

never reached his boss’ radar screen. Sen. Dick Ackerman (R-Tustin), also

on the committee, said he wouldn’t have supported it.

“I want to keep the state out of it,” Ackerman said. “There is a

federal process that has to be followed.”

Ackerman touches on the heart of the issue -- the Department of

Defense determines who controls base reuse. It is that agency that will

ultimately issue a Record of Decision, the document that formally hands

over the base.

Newport Beach and the three pro-airport supervisors weren’t the only

ones lining up to oppose SB 703. A legislative analysis criticized the

bill’s “coy and convoluted language” and blasted it as a “power play” by

South County cities.

Perata can revive the bill by June 8, but don’t count on that

happening.

I can’t blame South County for pursuing every avenue possible to keep

an airport out of their backyard. But correcting a wrong with another

wrong just isn’t good public policy.

***

In a clever public-relations move, South County is kicking off its

Great Park ballot initiative today with a member of the U.S. Women’s

Olympic Soccer team.

Joy Fawcett, whose team won a gold medal in Sydney, will join

Supervisors Tom Wilson and Todd Spitzer at a 3 p.m. ceremony held at

Florence Griffith Joyner Park in Mission Viejo. Wilson’s district

includes Newport Beach, as well as wide stretches of South County.

At the event, South County will launch its petition drive for the

Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve Initiative.

Just don’t show up ready to sign your name.

A last-minute review of the petition revealed several glitches,

discovered by South County lawyers. Forced to resubmit their measure

Thursday, signature gatherers won’t have time to print copies for the

ceremony. Names will be collected starting next week.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment and John Wayne Airport for the

Daily Pilot.