Dannemeyer Stripped of Monorail Role

WASHINGTON —  Orange County officials fighting to reverse last year’s loss of $1 million in federal start-up funds for a six-city monorail system have adopted a new game plan this year: They’ve cut Rep. William E. Dannemeyer from their team.

Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), one of the most outspoken fiscal conservatives in Congress, angered members of the House Appropriations Committee last year when he voted against a transportation bill that included, partially at Dannemeyer’s request, $1 million for preliminary design work on an Orange County monorail system. He was the only Orange County congressman to vote against the bill when it reached the House floor.

This year, the official lobbying effort is scheduled to include only two House members: Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who represent four of the six cities that would be served by the proposed $1-billion, 18-to-23 mile system--Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine and Costa Mesa. The other two cities, Orange and Fullerton, are in Dannemeyer’s district.

Cox and Dornan are to testify on behalf of the project today at a hearing before the Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on transportation.

Dornan said Tuesday that he believes that Dannemeyer’s vote was not solely responsible for the loss of the monorail funds. All five members of the Orange County congressional delegation voted for an earlier, unsuccessful bid to cut the transportation bill by 2%, Dornan noted.

Nevertheless, Dornan acknowledged that neither Dannemeyer nor the other two congressmen who represent the county, Reps. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), will participate in the lobbying effort this year.

“It’s just a cleaner shot,” he said. Neither Packard nor Rohrabacher represent areas involved in the monorail project.

Cox said he had not discussed the monorail lobbying effort with Dannemeyer or any other members of the Orange County delegation. Last year, Cox said, “I requested the opportunity to testify and I was given it. I think Bill is the person who will determine Bill’s role.”

Dannemeyer said he had not been asked to testify on behalf of the monorail appropriation and had not planned to appear at today’s hearing. But he hinted that could change.

“It’s not on my schedule right now, but it may be. We’ll just see,” he said.

Last year, all five Orange County representatives signed a letter formally requesting the money. But Dannemeyer, citing concerns over federal spending, voted against the transportation measure when it came before the House, even though it included the monorail funding. When the legislation emerged from a House-Senate conference committee, the $1 million for the monorail design had disappeared.

“The chairman of the committee has long held that if you want something from the bill, you should support it,” said one committee staff member, who asked not to be named. He was referring to Rep. William Lehman (D-Florida), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee on transportation.

Committee members “don’t want to be seen as patsies,” said a lobbyist familiar with the appropriations process. “And they perceive themselves as patsies if they give something to a member and the member votes against the bill.”

The decision to cut Dannemeyer out of this year’s official lobbying effort illustrates the extent to which a lawmaker’s convictions occasionally can work against the interests of the area he represents.

“He shouldn’t have been brought into it to begin with,” said a congressional aide, who insisted on anonymity. “I think the theory (last year) was that there’s strength in numbers, but given the Appropriations Committee’s unofficial policy, we should have just got it done with Dornan and Cox. That’s the strategy this time.”

Despite his opposition to much of the spending that Congress approves, Dannemeyer said he has been successful in bringing federal money to Orange County, especially through programs sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Even though I’ve taken the position that I have . . . I’ve been able to work with the people running the system to get the share that I think Orange County deserves,” he said.

Dannemeyer defended his vote against last year’s transportation measure and criticized the conference committee’s subsequent decision to strip the monorail funding from the bill.

“When you carry that kind of mentality . . . to the ultimate, it results in a level of spending that is out of control,” he said. “Is there a big enough trough in the United States to accommodate all the faces that want to feed? That is the issue.”

Dannemeyer suggested that the lawmakers responsible for removing the funding last year might live to regret their action. “The people on that transportation subcommittee--what goes around comes around, and those who live by the sword, ultimately they’ll die by the sword,” he said. “These things have a way of working themselves out.” He declined to elaborate.

Dannemeyer won a major political victory last year when he won a coveted seat on the House Budget Committee, which sets overall spending ceilings for the government. In addition, he recently became the ranking Republican member of the health and environment subcommittee of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The six cities that would be served by the monorail have formed an agency, the Orange County Fixed Guideway Project Joint Powers Authority, to begin planning for the project.

As much as $430 million to build the monorail system could come from the half-cent sales tax increase approved by county voters last year for transportation projects, said Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young, one of the leading proponents of the monorail plan.

In addition, Proposition 116, a $1.9-billion rail-bond measure approved last year, specifically sets aside another $125 million to build about 4.5 miles of the monorail system within the city of Irvine.

But Young said the federal appropriation is needed to quickly produce the early design work that would enable the monorail agency to begin attracting private investment in the system. Those investments might take the form of developing concessions at monorail stations, or nearby retail enterprises, he said.

As envisioned, the monorail system would be an integral part of a futuristic, $9.4-billion regional transportation system that would include the Anaheim people-mover, a high-speed, magnetically levitated train to Las Vegas, and a large regional transportation station near Anaheim Stadium.

Young has consistently refused to estimate the total cost of the monorail system, saying that must wait for further design work. However, Anaheim officials who came to Washington in February to describe the regional transit network to members of Congress projected the price tag at $1 billion.