Newport Beach sued by anti-El Toro group

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- To halt funding for a pro-airport public information

campaign, an anti-El Toro coalition of cities filed suit Friday as

promised against the city and the Airport Working Group, according to

statements by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority.

In the suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, the authority

accused Newport Beach of illegally spending money to influence the

outcome of a March election on South County’s Great Park plan.

The authority, a 10-member coalition of South County cities fighting

the county’s plan for an airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air

Station, is seeking a restraining order and also is asking that the

working group pay back any money it has received.

“It is a sad day when a public agency such as the city of Newport

Beach spends public funds in likely violation of law trying to influence

public opinion on a now-pending ballot measure,” Irvine Mayor Larry Agran

said. “If liability is found here, there is personal liability.”

The City Council on March 13 authorized a $3.67-million payment to the

working group to inform voters about the benefits of the airport and

critique Agran’s Great Park plan.

Since that time, the group has sent out several mailers and paid for

cable television spots deriding Agran’s park plan as an economic

albatross for the county, using the slogan: “Great Park? Great Tax.”

Councilman Gary Proctor said the fliers have been effective, calling

the lawsuit frivolous.

“We expected that South County would play this kind of dirty trick

methodology,” Proctor said. “We are abundantly aware of the law. We are

in full compliance with the law.”

The city also issued a press release statement defending its contract

with the working group.

The city’s attorneys reviewed the mailers and spots before they were

allowed to go public, Councilman Tod Ridgeway said in the statement.

Proctor and others said they were appalled by the suit, considering

the amount of money spent by South County on an anti-airport campaign.

In the 1999-00 fiscal year, Irvine and the El Toro authority spent

$8.2 million and $6.2 million, respectively, on consultants, mailers and

other expenses to fight the proposed airport.

South County has spent about $40 million overall to stop the airport.

“The irony is that they spent $40 million to put out misinformation,

and then they tell us to be silent,” Proctor said. “They just don’t want

voters to know the truth.”

Authority attorney Terry Dixon said his group has stopped sending out

mailers since it put together the Orange County Central Park and Nature

Preserve Initiative, which they hope to get qualified for the March 5

ballot.

Dixon said Newport Beach’s spending was improper, because the rules

have changed.

“From the bunny ads and the weasel ads, they are mounting a political

campaign against the park initiative that’s being circulated,” Dixon

said.

Several of the television spots have depicted a rabbit munching on a

dollar bill.

Working group attorney Tom Hiltachk also defended the mailers, saying

the group is legally within the free-speech freedoms of the Constitution.

“Luckily for us, the 1st Amendment applies to us and not just the city

of Irvine,” Hiltachk said.