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V-plan supporters, opponents exchange accusations

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Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT BEACH -- The legal wrangling over a petition drive to place an

alternative El Toro airport on the November ballot rages on as

accusations fly between supporters and opponents.

Members of the New Millennium Group, which supports the V-plan, charge

it’s illegal for the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities to try to

stop their petition drive. The group is trying to obtain 72,000

signatures by June 17, but it will not disclose how many have been

collected so far.

They also accuse the committee of disseminating false information

about the plan.

The V-plan calls for sending planes to the southwest over undeveloped

land, instead of over homes in Irvine, Lake Forest and other cities. It

is an alternative to the airport county supervisors envisioned. That plan

was defeated in March with the passage of Measure W.

The New Millennium Group has already sent the committee a letter

threatening legal action unless it stops making “damning and false

statements.”

“They’re both fine and jailable offenses,” said Bob McGowan, a group

member and former United Airlines pilot. “You can’t just say anything you

want.”

Nonsense, said Bill Kogerman, the committee’s chairman.

“I didn’t go to Vietnam and expose myself to enemy fire fighting for

freedom of speech to come back and be muzzled by silliness,” Kogerman

said.

While McGowan said the group’s attorney was going to fire off another

letter informing the committee of its illegal action, attorney Deborah

Rosenthal said she could not confirm the committee was doing anything

illegal. Rosenthal said she has not had a chance to look into the

allegations since hearing about them Wednesday morning.

An attorney for another anti-airport group, the El Toro Reuse Planning

Authority, said the New Millennium Group is misinformed about election

laws.

“The group doesn’t know anything more about election law than they do

about initiative petitions,” Richard Jacobs said. “That is as wrong as

wrong could be.”

The Millennium Group’s charges are in response to accusations the

committee has made against the V-plan, most recently in an e-mail by

Kogerman last week. The e-mail issues a call to action to raise funds to

challenge the initiative before the November election. It charges the

V-plan would “severely impact Newport Beach and other coastal cities, as

well as most Orange County cities.

“Even though our attorneys believe their proposed airport initiative

is both unconstitutional and contrary to election law, airport die-hards

continue to seek political and financial support for an airport at El

Toro. Their actions must be stopped,” the e-mail says.

Rosalyn Lever, the county’s registrar of voters, said Wednesday that

airport opponents do not appear to be breaking any election codes.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 deirdre.newman@latimes.comf7 .

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