County to Offer Cities Compromise on El Toro Conversion : Proposal: The last-minute pitch from supervisors would give five South County communities a greater role in deciding how the military base should be used after it closes.

County officials were expected to publicly unveil today a last-minute compromise aimed at persuading key South County cities to join the county’s base conversion panel and avoid further conflict over future control of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The latest plan, developed late Monday by supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Gaddi H. Vasquez and to be offered at the Board of Supervisors meeting today, is expected to strengthen the role of the South County cities in the decision-making process on the future use of the base.

“They have made some progress, but we still have a ways to go,” said Irvine Councilman Barry J. Hammond, who has led the negotiations on behalf of South County cities, which include Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo.

Hammond said he would ask the supervisors today to postpone for one week a vote on the structure of the planning committee so that final details can be worked out.

Fearing the base may be converted to a regional commercial airport, the South County cities have sought a shared vote with the county on how the 4,700-acre site should be redeveloped.

Until now, the county has refused to give up sole authority, proposing instead that the cities join business leaders on a 21-member advisory council that would recommend to the supervisors how the base should be converted to civilian use when the military leaves in four to six years.

The Defense Department has said repeatedly that millions of dollars in federal planning grants will be frozen until competing factions can come together and agree on who will guide the future of El Toro.

The Riley-Vasquez plan calls for a three-tiered decision-making process.

The advisory panel would send its redevelopment recommendations to an “executive committee,” which would then pick a plan, and then forward the proposal to the supervisors. The seven-member executive committee would include two supervisors, representatives from Irvine, Lake Forest, Leisure World in Laguna Hills, and two delegates from cities to be selected by the advisory commission.

There is still some disagreement over whether the supervisors can change the executive committee’s recommendation. Also, the supervisors have proposed disbanding all the planning committees if they receive and reject three proposals.

“I don’t know if it will work or not,” said one official who asked not to be identified. “I don’t think anybody knows.”

Riley and Vasquez were unavailable for comment late Monday.

Some reservations were expressed Monday evening during the Laguna Niguel City Council meeting by Councilman Mark Goodman, who worried that Irvine and Lake Forest might have more influence than other South County cities because they would be on the executive committee. Irvine and Lake Forest border the base.

“We have to rely on our sister cities to do right by us,” he said.

Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates, one of the officials involved in negotiations with the county, said she expected the executive committee also would include Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo.

During a round of negotiations last week, the city of Irvine proposed a similar compromise. The difference is that the cities were seeking a Joint Powers Authority--not an executive committee--with stronger legal standing as a separate agency. The county rejected that plan.

As the supervisors were developing their compromise, county planners issued their own recommendation Monday that continued to limit the role of the cities to the 21-member advisory commission, with the anti-airport faction having seven votes.

The county planners tried to improve on their own original proposal by offering to create an agency made up of community civic leaders who would carry out the base conversion plan. The agency would be formed after the base redevelopment plan is sent to the supervisors. That plan was immediately rejected by South County city council members who were anxious to see what the supervisors would offer.

Lake Forest Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph said the council wants to decide along with the supervisors how the base will be redeveloped and “not at some point down the line, not the day after, not three seconds after the Board of Supervisors has made its decision.”

Laguna Hills Councilwoman Melody Carruth added: “The county can be in the drivers’ seat. The South County cities just want their hands on the steering wheel, too.”

One South County leader monitoring the negotiations was optimistic both sides eventually would agree. “I understand that (both sides) blinked. . . . There’s a sense that both sides are willing to negotiate rather than have a hard and fast stand.”

Times staff writer Kevin Johnson and correspondent Richard Core contributed to this report.