Wilson case jumps to higher authority

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- A Newport Beach attorney has bypassed the usual legal

routes and is taking his case against a South County supervisor to the

state attorney general.

With the request, employment attorney and El Toro airport booster

Richard Taylor bypassed the Orange County Grand Jury, county counsel and

district attorney as he pursues conflict-of-interest charges against

Supervisor Tom Wilson.

“They’re just going to stonewall,” Taylor said. “You can’t get a fair

hearing.”

Taylor, the vice president of the pro-El Toro Airport Working Group,

has accused Wilson of sharing sensitive information obtained as a

supervisor with his South County colleagues on the board of the El Toro

Reuse Planning Authority.

Wilson also holds a seat as a nonvoting “ex-officio” member of the

authority, a coalition of cities fighting the county’s plans for an

airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

In a Nov. 5 letter to Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, Taylor demanded that

“the citizens and taxpayers of the county of Orange deserve no lesser

than a full review of this conflict.”

Wilson, who represents Newport Coast and much of South County, said

the accusations are evidence of a “personal vendetta” and said he is

unruffled by Taylor’s campaign to bring him under investigation.

“It’s a wild, unsubstantiated charge,” Wilson said Wednesday. “It’s

another desperate measure by an individual who is not getting his way.”

Lockyer, since his election in November 1998, has developed a

reputation as an active investigator. But Lockyer spokesman Nathan

Barankin, who said the office had not yet received Taylor’s letter, said

his boss wouldn’t rush to lower the sights on Wilson.

“As a general matter, the attorney general’s office doesn’t get

involved unless there is a conflict with the local prosecutor’s office,”

Barankin said.

Along with his letter, Taylor sent 66 pages of letters and documents

he said support his claim.

The planning authority invited Wilson to join its board in April 1997

to provide “additional insights from a countywide perspective,” according

to a letter sent to Wilson by then-authority Chairman Richard Dixon.

In an April 29 response, Wilson agreed to join the board and

“participate in a manner which is both appropriate and productive.”

Wilson and other members of the planning authority have said the

supervisor has never shared closed-session information with them. Wilson

reiterated that stance Wednesday.

“There is nothing being discussed in closed session that I can share

that will help anyone,” Wilson said. “The anti-airport group has its own

strategies. They don’t need me.”