Some haven’t dropped their gloves for the El Toro fight

Let me see if I have this straight.

According to a list of expenditures submitted to the Newport Beach

City Council by the Airport Working Group, consultant David Ellis was

paid $458,061 by AWG to defeat Measure W, designed to replace an

airport at El Toro with a mythical park -- which has become even more

mythical since Measure W won big.

Several weeks ago, I got a newsletter from AWG describing its

efforts to carry on the fight for El Toro in spite of this setback.

The newsletter applauded the volunteers who “continue to stick with

us in our pursuit of El Toro Airport” and said of those who bailed

out prematurely: “It is disappointing that some of the politicians we

have supported are waving the white flag. Maybe they need to be

replaced.”

Chief among AWG’s white flag wavers are the members of the Newport

Beach City Council. Several of those members are facing election this

fall, and two of them -- Tod Ridgeway and Gary Adams -- have hired

Ellis to manage their campaigns. So we have Ellis as a hired gun

working for the reelection of two public officials whom the

organization that paid Ellis almost a half-million dollars has

branded as politicians who “need to be replaced.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Councilman John Heffernan is

catching all kinds of heat for suggesting that he’d like to see an

accounting of the $3.7 million of our money turned over to the AWG

and the Citizens for Jobs and the Economy to defeat Measure W. A

large bite of this, of course, went to David Ellis & Associates.

With the possible exception of Councilwoman Norma Glover, there is

very little enthusiasm among other council members -- including

Ellis’ current clients -- for the accounting sought by Heffernan. And

the three major recipients of the city’s grant -- Ellis, Bruce

Nestande for Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, and attorney Barbara

Lichman -- have responded with outraged statements that we were lucky

to get their expertise at bargain prices.

Not unexpectedly, Lichman also took a shot at the messenger,

saying of Heffernan in a Pilot news story: “He is just creating

controversy within our community. Controversy’s the last thing we

need. I challenge him to show that he has defended the people of

Newport Beach the way we have.”

All this leads to a headache, so I went to the Newport Beach City

Council meeting on Tuesday night to try and sort it out -- and to see

if anyone was talking to Councilman Heffernan. That didn’t help. I

left early when Mayor Tod Ridgeway said from the dais: “I just met

with the president of the United States and told him we are

supportive of everything he’s doing.”

That made my headache worse. So I turned back to El Toro and to

Bonnie O’Neil, an unpaid AWG board member who has long been an

active, articulate and tireless volunteer worker for a commercial

airport at El Toro. Bonnie has no hidden agendas or divided

loyalties. She simply doesn’t want the noise overhead to get worse

for those of us who live under it. I talked with her just before the

passage of Measure W, and it seemed time to talk with her again.

She isn’t personally concerned about the criticism -- some of it

mine -- being directed at AWG for the manner in which the airport

cause was marketed. “Blame doesn’t matter,” she said. “The reason for

every effort I made was the feeling that it was important to try and

protect our city. I don’t feel myself involved in the rehashing or

recriminations. And I welcome the audit.

“If we’re going to start pointing fingers, we shouldn’t lose sight

of the fact that Measure W failed in every North County city. We lost

because of the fervor in South County. We lost because of the low

turnout in cities where it wasn’t made an issue and because of

citizens who didn’t vote.”

She feels strongly that what we were lacking can be summed up in

two words: leadership and passion. “However misdirected and

wrong-headed it may have been, South County felt real passion to

defeat this airport and had the leadership to build and sustain it.

We didn’t. We never found that one person, that passionate leader to

drive our effort. Nobody stepped up with the charisma to energize us,

to give marching orders to eager troops.

“I don’t know who to blame for that -- or if we should even try.

If we do, it doesn’t seem fair to start with AWG. It was the only

organization to do anything on our side.”

And, it should be pointed out, the only one to continue the fight.

Does that add up to windmill tilting?

“No,” said O’Neil, “because we still need to be up for a good

fight. If the people who want to expand John Wayne think that is the

only possibility left, we’re sunk. All the communities under the John

Wayne flight path need to unite in putting every effort into

preventing the enormous problems that would come with expansion.

Slowing down El Toro is still our best option. We’re in the same

position South County was in three years ago. They turned it around.

We can too.”

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.