Reactions mixed on competing measures

Susan McCormack

NEWPORT-MESA -- While antiairport forces lambasted a recent proposal that

the county Board of Supervisors place three alternatives to an

antiairport initiative on the March ballot, local El Toro supporters had

mixed reactions.

Los Alamitos Councilman Ronald Bates, who heads a new pro-airport group

called the Citizens Right-to-Vote Committee, is expected to urge the

board at its Tuesday meeting to place the three pro-airport initiatives

on the ballot.

Bates was unavailable for comment Thursday.

The Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative, which hopes to derail the

proposed El Toro airport, earned its spot on the ballot after South

County proponents gathered almost 200,000 signatures. The initiative, if

passed, would require two-thirds of voter approval to allow additions to

or the creation of new airports, jails and hazardous waste sites.

The three proposed initiatives differ from the Safe and Healthy

Communities Initiative because they would:

* Allow the supervisors to decide with a majority vote if jails and

hazardous waste landfills -- but not airports -- should be submitted to

voters.

* Require only majority approval by voters for jails or landfills only,

not airports.

* Ask voters if the board should transfer airport planning to a

joint-authority power made up of cities and the county, such as the

Orange County Regional Airport Authority.

“There have always been rumors there would be a counter proposal,” said

Newport Beach Mayor Dennis O’Neil, who said he would not comment on the

proposals until he knew the exact details.

But he questioned the motives behind the proposed initiatives. “Is this

intended to confuse the voters ... or a good faith effort on the part of

citizens?”

Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan and Dave Ellis, spokesman for the Newport

Beach-based Airport Working Group, said they, too, are waiting to see the

actual language of the proposed initiatives until making a judgment.

“We’re in a wait-and-see mode,” Ellis said. “We haven’t really analyzed

[the proposed initiatives] yet. We have an open mind, but really have

come to no decision on it.”

Tom Edwards, a member of the city’s El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission,

said he believes all of the initiatives are hindering the airport

planning process.

“I don’t even think we need the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative.

We’ve voted twice on this,” Edwards said. “Let the process go forward.”

Tom Wall said he was speaking for himself -- not the Orange County

Airport Alliance, of which he is executive director -- in supporting

additional initiatives on the upcoming ballot.

“By adding more initiatives to the ballot, we will give people more

choices,” Wall said. “The [Safe and Healthy Communities] initiative is

very restrictive and, in this case, why not give people these choices?”

Peggy Ducey, executive director of the Orange County Regional Airport

Authority, which could be given joint-authority powers over airport plans

if one of the proposed initiatives is passed, was unavailable for

comment.

While the board has the legal right to place initiatives on the ballot

without voters’ consent, Len Kranser, one of the Safe and Healthy

Communities Initiative’s leading proponents, blasted the attempt and said

it would be self-defeating for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa voters to

approve them instead of his initiative.

“[My] initiative gives protection for people who live near John Wayne

Airport by allowing one-third of voters in the county to stop any

expansion of John Wayne,” Kranser said. “If [Ron] Bates’ proposal passes,

there will be no protection whatsoever for people who live around John

Wayne because the requirement that airport expansion go to the public has

been excluded.”

Supervisor Tom Wilson, who opposes El Toro, released a statement Thursday

while he was in Washington, D.C., calling the proposed initiatives

“manufactured ... to confuse voters.”

“These initiatives detract from the validity of the Safe and Healthy

Communities Initiative, which was placed on the ballot by the citizens of

Orange County, not the Board of Supervisors,” Wilson said.

However, Wall said Bates was simply exercising his rights.

“Any citizen dissatisfied can propose an initiative,” he said.