El Toro airport no takeoff politically
Paul Clinton
Even though she has spent nearly two years promoting a regional
airport plan that includes an El Toro airport, Costa Mesa City
Council candidate Heather Somers says the issue is a non-starter.
Somers, a former councilwoman hoping to get back onto the dais,
says she recognizes that an airport for the closed Marine base is
unlikely even though a lawsuit challenging Irvine’s park plan has
been filed.
“It’s not going to be a centerpiece [issue] for anybody [running
for council],” Somers said. “It’s on the backburner until the
lawsuits are resolved.”
Longtime El Toro airport advocates, including the Newport
Beach-based Airport Working Group, have sued to overturn the March 5
passage of Measure W. That measure rezoned the base for open space,
halting nearly a decade of county planning for an airfield.
After four years on the council, Somers lost her seat in 2000 by
only 32 votes, trailing Councilwoman Karen Robinson. In early 2001,
she went to work as a paid consultant for El Segundo, a city fighting
to keep a cap on flights at Los Angeles International Airport.
Somers began pushing a regional airport plan that called for as
many as 29 million passengers a year at a theoretical El Toro
airport. The plan, a projection for 2025, was developed by regional
planners.
Current council members, on March 19, endorsed the idea, which
Somers had brought forward.
Newport mayor fires back at Greenlight candidates
As the first salvo against the “pro-development majority” on the
Newport Beach City Council, Greenlighters sent out a letter asking
supporters to “open up your hearts, bring your checkbooks” to a
fund-raiser held Monday.
In the letter, the slow-growth crowd called out Mayor Tod Ridgeway
and Councilman Gary Adams and vowed to match the amount Ridgeway
raised during his 1998 campaign. The mayor raised $69,764 during that
campaign year, records show.
The letter raised the ire of the city’s mayor.
Ridgeway bemoaned the group’s slate-of-candidates approach, saying
it violated the city’s campaign contributions laws in spirit. While a
candidate can only receive $500 per contribution, a political action
committee such as Greenlight can collect much larger amounts.
“It’s a money grab,” Ridgeway said about the letter. “They think
it’s OK to violate the rules.”
At the Monday event, the Greenlight crowd announced candidates for
the four open seats, including Madelene Arakelian for Ridgeway’s
District 1 seat. Attorney Rick Taylor is running against Adams in
District 4.
“To say that he’s an underdog in fund-raising is just ludicrous,”
Phil Arst responded. “We’re trying to catch up.”
As for the claim he is cozy with developers, Ridgeway said he only
accepted campaign donations from out-of-town builders and wouldn’t
support a project that would be harmful to the city.
“The majority of them do not do work in the city of Newport
Beach,” Ridgeway said. “I would not support an irresponsible
project.”
Johnson seeks transcript
on state’s energy crisis
State Sen. Ross Johnson is turning up the heat on a Democratic
colleague to release the transcript of testimony in the ongoing
fallout from the state’s energy woes from the summer of 2001.
In a letter to state Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), Johnson demanded
his fellow lawmaker release testimony from David Freeman, Gov. Gray
Davis’ nominee for the chairmanship of the California Public Power
Authority.
Questions have arisen about Freeman’s role as the head of the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power. The agency allegedly used
controversial “ricochet” trading techniques to artificially inflate
the price of power on the spot market.
A Senate committee chaired by Dunn questioned Freeman on Aug. 1.
The Senate must confirm or deny Freeman by Tuesday.
“I believe Freeman was evasive during the deposition, and that’s
very telling,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday. “We cannot
allow a gouger to be placed in charge of the state’s energy simply
because senators were not allowed access to vital information.”
Dunn, in a response letter Wednesday, promised to make the
transcripts available to Johnson. Dunn also said he never received a
request from his Republican colleague and said the testimony would be
made available between 15 and 30 days of Freeman’s public remarks.
“I am a little troubled at how this unfolded and the tone of your
letter,” Dunn said. “Your office was well aware of that date, yet we
received no such request.”
Wilson lobbies for Web map of sex offenders
County Supervisor Tom Wilson, who represents Newport Coast in his
5th District, is readying a proposal that would allow county
residents access to a “pin map” of registered sex offenders living in
their area.
Wilson, who is working with Supervisor Todd Spitzer on the idea,
has submitted the item for the board’s consideration at the Tuesday
meeting.
Under the plan, residents could browse a Web site that would show
how many “serious” or “high-risk” offenders are living within a
half-block radius of any specific address. No names would be
provided.
The information is already publicly available at the Orange County
Sheriff’s Department.
Wilson modeled the proposal on a similar one already in place in
San Diego County, a spokeswoman for the supervisor said.
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