Steel to lead pro-El Toro contingent to Washington

Paul Clinton

COSTA MESA -- Councilman Chris Steel is leading a delegation of North

County officials that will head to Washington, D.C., today to lobby for

an airport at the closed El Toro Marine base.

Steel and the other members of the group, who represent the Orange

County Regional Airport Authority, have scheduled several meetings with

high-ranking legislators and other officials, including acting Secretary

of the Navy Robert B. Price.

“We’ll meet with some people to try to expedite El Toro,” Steel said.

The delegation also has lined up meetings with officials in the Office

of Economic Adjustment, the division of the Department of Defense that

oversees the transition of closed military bases to other uses, as well

as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and Rep. Maxine Waters

(D-Los Angeles).

Steel said he was unable to pin down Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport

Beach) for any time to discuss El Toro’s future.

Debate over the base’s future -- after being relatively quiet for

several months -- has heated up in recent weeks, with the anti-airport El

Toro Reuse Planning Authority printing newspaper ads and mailing out

leaflets that promote an expanded John Wayne Airport as the solution to

the county’s future airport needs.

In response, pro-airport groups including the airport authority have

vowed to step up their battle to get an airport built at El Toro. They

have promised to unveil their counterattack by the end of the month.

The pro-airport group also hopes to meet with the two highest-ranking

members of the Senate’s aviation committee -- Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

In addition to Steel, the delegation includes Garden Grove Councilman

Mark Rosen, Buena Park Vice Mayor Patsy Marshall and the newly appointed

executive director of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority, Art

Bloomer.

Steel represents Costa Mesa on the board of the 15-city authority, a

loose coalition of North County cities seeking to raise their profile in

the El Toro debate.