$60 million jeopardized in El Toro crash
Paul Clinton
NEWPORT BEACH -- City and county leaders pushing an airport for the
closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station have invested more than $60
million combined over the last decade, money that now may be forever lost
after Tuesday’s Measure W vote.
Over those years, the Newport Beach City Council authorized
expenditures totaling $10.94 million for airport-related matters, city
records show.
Much of that total was spent on lobbyists, legal advice, public
relations efforts and other expenses geared toward building a commercial
airport at the base, officials said.
Of course, the city played a supporting role to the majority of Orange
County supervisors, who funneled about $50 million to an airport planning
arm.
The bulk of the county money went toward developing several phases of
environmental review for the project, which the board approved Oct. 23.
“It’s incredibly unfortunate that this amount of public money has been
spent on a flawed project,” said Laguna Hills Councilman Allan Songstad,
one of the leaders in the drive to kill the airport.
The spending began shortly after the Navy tabbed the El Toro base for
closure in 1993, when county planners launched their effort.
Former supervisor and airport booster Bruce Nestande defended the
city’s spending habit. Nestande led the charge against Measure W.
“Newport Beach did what it could to educate the people,” said
Nestande, whose group Citizens for Jobs and the Economy received a bulk
of city money. “I think that job was done very satisfactorily. Where we
fell down is attracting private money to the campaign.”
Jim Silva, who represents Costa Mesa and Newport Beach; Chuck Smith;
and Cynthia Coad, ousted in Tuesday’s election, authorized the spending.
Silva could not be reached for comment.
County voters put the brakes on that eight-year airport effort Tuesday
by approving Measure W, which rezones the base from aviation to open
space. The measure passed with 58% of the vote.
Measure W nixed Measure A, the 1994 initiative voters passed that
opened the door for an airport at the 4,700-acre base. That ballot
measure was used to justify the expenditures.
Yet, as South County began to undergo an explosive growth surge in
Laguna Nigel, Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest and other areas in the 1990s, a
groundswell rose against the project.
The cities that would have felt the brunt of the noise and traffic
caused by the airport’s planes ultimately produced Tuesday’s Measure W
victory.
South County cities also weren’t afraid to open their wallets to fight
an airport near their homes. More than $40 million has been spent by that
camp. Irvine spent $15.6 million alone between mid-1999 and mid-2001.
Throughout the airport fight, South County pitted itself against
wealthy Newport Beach, the bedrock of airport support of the North County
cities.
The Newport Beach City Council passed resolutions promoting a
“twin-airport system” for the county, hired a string of airport czars and
lobbied local, state and federal power players who held the keys to an
airport at the base.
On Wednesday, city leaders were shifting their focus to John Wayne
Airport, where they have secured a tentative approval from supervisors to
extend flight restrictions to 2015.
City spending on El Toro, which had increased in the past five years,
was something the community supported, officials said.
“The City Council felt they had a mandate from the city,” Councilwoman
Norma Glover said. “We tried to make El Toro happen. We weren’t
successful.”
Three community groups and a San Francisco law firm were the largest
beneficiaries of city spending since 1993.
The Airport Working Group was given $4.35 million. The group was
founded in 1981 to stop the county’s proposed expansion of John Wayne
Airport but has zeroed in on the El Toro issue during much of the 1990s.
Working group spokesman Dave Ellis congratulated the city for spending
the cash, while other North County cities kept the rubber bands around
their wallets.
“The city has been pretty much a lone warrior on this issue,” Ellis
said. “We haven’t seen any of the other North County cities bellying up
to the bar.”
The working group, between April 1999 and March 2000, used city grant
money for mailers, community meetings, polling and a lobbyist.
The council’s most recent grant to the working group came in March,
when the group was given a grant of $3.67 million to split with Citizens
for Jobs and the Economy.
The working group has refused to release details of how that money was
spent.
Group attorney Tom Hiltachk, in a Feb. 22 letter, denied a public
records request from the Daily Pilot to see a detailed accounting of the
expenditures. Hiltachk said the records of the working group and Ellis
and Associates could not be made available because they are private
entities, not governmental agencies.
When city officials were asked how pro-airport groups spent the grant
money, they said they didn’t require detailed records of the
expenditures, but that the money was only to be used for public
information about aviation issues.
Since 1993, the city has given $1.76 million to Citizens for Jobs and
the Economy. Costa Mesa billionaire George Argyros launched the group in
1994 but has since handed over the reins to Nestande.
Argyros spent nearly $3.5 million of his own fortune before leaving
for an ambassador post in Spain last year. Argyros funneled much of his
money into the campaign to defeat 2000’s Measure F and other initiative
drives.
As for city grants to Argyros’ group between April and December 1999,
the money went for mailers, television commercials and lobbyists in
Washington, D.C., and Sacramento.
City leaders said they needed the army of lobbyists to combat South
County advocates of state and federal agencies.
“[South County] spent a lot of money in D.C.,” City Manager Homer
Bludau said. “We were faced with a situation that we couldn’t take the
chance [of not spending the money]. The stakes were too high.”
The city also handed $394,129 to the now-defunct Orange County Airport
Alliance, a group founded in January 1999 by activist Tom Wall but
disbanded about a year later.
The alliance, which began receiving grants in April 1999, hired public
relations firms, launched a Web site, produced commercials for local
cable stations and organized letter-writing campaigns.
“The idea of the alliance was to be a broader pro-El Toro [airport]
organization rather than just a Newport Beach group,” City Atty. Bob
Burnham said. “The concept was a good one, but it’s hard to develop
grass-roots support for any issue on a countywide basis.”
The city also paid Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger $476,431 between 1993
and 2001. The city has used Clement Shute, a specialist in environmental
law, for legal expertise. Shute was also a prime player in the city’s
successful bid to secure flight restrictions at John Wayne Airport in
1985.
Mayor Tod Ridgeway said he didn’t regret the expenditures, even if it
meant there would be no airport at El Toro.
“There has been community support to do what we’ve done,” Ridgeway
said. “I can’t call those wasted dollars. That was the will of the
community.”
* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may
be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7
paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .
QUESTION
Did the county and Newport Beach spend enough money to get El Toro
built? Too much? Call our Readers Hotline at (949) 642-6086 or send
e-mail to o7 dailypilot@latimes.comf7 . Please spell your name and
include your hometown and phone number, for verification purposes only.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.