Base Motives and Bad Blood Surface in El Toro Tempest

If you’ve been uninterested so far in what’s going to happen to the El Toro Marine base, you may want to start tuning in.

This could get juicy.

I didn’t think I cared, either, until I went to a public hearing last week. By the time the two-hour meeting was over, my private musings written in my notebook included phrases like “conspiracy theories,” “entangling alliances,” and “power plays.”

The thrust of the meeting was that Orange County leaders should work together and come up with a unified plan. But all I could picture were all the potential combatants.

And I found myself asking, is this really a time in local history when we can expect county government and cities to work together?

“That is one of the very critical issues here,” said Anil Puri, chairman of the economics department at Cal State Fullerton. He has also led a group on campus studying the base closure and its impact.

“We have had a history in Orange County of the cities going their own way and the county going its own way and not coordinating action on any activity,” Puri said. “This is a challenge of leadership, both at the city and county level, to see if they can do anything in a joint coalition mode, because if they don’t, everybody will be a loser.”

That’s where the rub comes in.

Irvine and a number of South County cities already are fearful that the huge tract will become an airport. That automatically pits them against Newport Beach, in particular, but also a number of other cities that favor another airport and believe the El Toro site is a godsend.

If it were just some cities favoring an airport, Irvine and its South County allies wouldn’t be so worried. But they’re also concerned that the Board of Supervisors privately favors the airport too.

That suspicion was underscored--both during and after last week’s meeting--by South County citizens wondering about their lack of representation on an advisory council that will recommend a conversion plan for the base. They wonder why Anaheim and Newport Beach are represented but not, for example, Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

But even the would-be friends have potential squabbles.

Garden Grove City Councilman Mark Leyes, for example, favors an airport. That should put him on the same page with the county, if others are correct in thinking the Board of Supervisors also is leaning toward an airport. However, Leyes believes the county should share any future airport operation and revenue with a coalition of cities, an idea the county has shown little interest in, he said.

“Are they being selfish? Sure,” Leyes said. “Am I being selfish? Sure, but I believe it’s the right thing to do.”

And then there’s the Irvine Co.

It will be represented on the advisory council, but it obviously doesn’t represent the interests of everyone in Irvine. Business tenants at the Irvine Spectrum might love a cargo-hauling airport right next door, but what about Irvine homeowners?

The central player is county government, if only because it is the Board of Supervisors that eventually will cast the votes on the final plan. While insisting the county is “taking the high road” and has no preconceived plans for the site, Ernie Schneider, the county’s chief administrative officer, frequently reminded people of that last week.

Schneider swore the process that unfolds over the next year or so will be open and available to all interested parties. Given much of the public’s feelings about government, that may be a case of him telling the truth but nobody believing him.

“I don’t trust anybody,” said Meryl Schwartz of Irvine, adamantly opposed to a new airport next door to her city. “I have a real concern that it’s probably pretty well established that someone wants an airport there. I see a real push, and that worries me. They want every decision right now, and that’s scary.”

If only because of the size of the El Toro base and the potential revenue it could generate, the stakes are sky high. New airport? Industrial park? Housing and commercial tracts? How about a new jail?

You can take to the bank that the Board of Supervisors isn’t going to let things get mired in quicksand.

In that vein, Puri noted that the county could do some imaginative revenue-sharing with balky cities, so as to eliminate opposition to potential plans.

“People see things in black and white,” Puri said, “but often when you think about it, you can find negotiating room where there can be a compromise. I know Israel and the Palestinians are still fighting, but they are talking.”

In the Middle East, alliances have a way of shifting and allies have a way of hardening and softening among each other.

By the time the debate over the future of the El Toro base is concluded, Middle East gamesmanship may have nothing on Orange County.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.