STEVE SMITH -- What’s Up?

In California, politicians are dropping like flies.

In the same week that Orange County CEO Jan Mittermeier announced her

resignation, state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush decided that

July 10 was a really good day to seek employment elsewhere. His

announcement a few days ago was odd. Quackenbush is under fire, but

instead of bailing out right now, we have to endure almost two weeks of a

lame duck.

Locally, Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Garofalo is in hot water. Among

other things, it seems that Hizzoner’s handoff of a former magazine he

owned may have been the kind of monkey business we’re used to seeing in

Washington, not down here by the beach.

And even closer to home, we’ve got a mayor in Newport Beach who has not

only declared his involvement in the abduction of his two children 24

years ago, he also declared that he will not be running for reelection in

November. But, as he announced, the two events are not related.

In Mittermeier’s case, the dreaded El Toro airport appears to have been

her downfall. And while I’ve never been a fan of Mittermeier, I can’t

help but support her should she declare that she has been set up as the

“fall gal.” Someone’s head had to roll after the drubbing that the

airport took in the vote last March. And because the county supervisors

are still hanging on to a slim thread of hope that the big, smelly, noisy

facility will appear, they could not go on with the same crew leading the

way. It was a rare instance of government deciding that “business as

usual” was not good business.

But what of our local bodies? The city councils of Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa, as well as the school board, all declared their support for a

new airport prior to the vote. Now that the people have spoken, are we to

see more time and resources spent chasing this dream? Or will our leaders

become followers of the county’s voters and move on? Some folks know when

they’ve been licked and they move on. Others retaliate, even after a fair

fight.

It has been eight months since county Supervisor Tom Wilson offered to

coordinate a coalition of Newport-Mesa airport proponents and South

County opponents to fight the expansion of John Wayne Airport without an

El Toro airport in the picture. And it has been five months since the El

Toro Reuse Planning Authority passed a resolution offering the same deal.

But eight months later, eight months closer to the lifting of the JWA

moratorium, which restricts flights, we are no closer to stopping the

expansion. In fact, we’re moving farther away.

The supervisors are probably going to appoint an airport czar in order to

breathe new life into this very bad idea. So, they’ll dump more of your

money into this pit, and unless civic officials tell the supervisors that

they’re dropping out, the county government will assume their support.

And as the moratorium clock ticks, we try to push a piece of string along

the table, hoping for a change in public opinion.

This is not a good way to stop the expansion of JWA. Now that Measure F

has passed, now that Mittermeier has resigned, and before the supervisors

get a chance to hire someone else to head the airport task force, our

local governments should urge them to bail out and convince them to pool

their resources with the South County folks who are still willing to help

them stop a bigger, badder JWA.

The El Toro airport is dead. Mittermeier as much as said so in her Los

Angeles Times interview when she commented that “the only way the

[airport] will succeed is if proponents work together and manage to get

the public to believe in it.”

Given the Herculean effort proponents made prior to the March vote, and

the subsequent outcome, it’s not likely that opinion will change any time

soon.

The only question that remains is whether the school board and the cities

have enough sense to start an anti-expansion plan that does not include

an El Toro alternative and start it right now.

And to those who think the El Toro proponents are resting, think again.

On Aug. 26, they are hosting a walk/fun run to raise money to keep up the

fight. The location? Why, the El Toro airport, of course.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Replies can

be sent to the Daily Pilot at (949) 642-6086, by e-mail at o7

dailypilot@latimes.comf7 , or to Steve at o7 stsmth19@idt.netf7 .