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.