Candidate’s JWA claims questioned

S.J. Cahn

While City Council candidate Rick Taylor’s credentials as a

tireless advocate for an El Toro airport have never been questioned,

council members are challenging just how much he worked on the

extension of flight caps at John Wayne.

A mailer sent out earlier this month by Taylor’s campaign touts

that he “volunteered thousands of hours resulting in the successful

negotiation of the John Wayne Settlement Agreement.” But Councilman

Dennis O’Neil and Councilwoman Norma Glover, two of a trio of council

members who helped put together the settlement agreement ratified

earlier this summer, say the wording embellishes Taylor’s role.

“To the best of my knowledge, Rick Taylor did not contribute any

time or input into the negotiations, documentation, or in any other

manner contribute to the settlement,” O’Neil said.

O’Neil credited Glover, who led the council subcommittee that

worked out the deal, with being the driving force behind the

settlement. He also pointed out that during the many meetings the

subcommittee had on the extension, it was Glover, Councilman Gary

Proctor, himself, City Atty. Bob Burnham, City Manager Homer Bludau

and representatives from John Wayne, including airport director Allen

Murphy, who did all the work on the agreement.

Burnham, in an e-mail answer about who participated in the

extension discussions, wrote: “To my knowledge, Taylor did not attend

any meeting with city and/or county staff/representatives during

which either the scenarios or the language of the amendments were

discussed.”

He added that Taylor, as a member of the city’s aviation

committee, was part of separate discussions about the settlement

agreement negotiations.

Taylor’s answer to the charges is that O’Neil and others are

“parsing” the words on the mailer. He points to his eight years

volunteering with the Airport Working Group as evidence that he has

devoted countless hours to the airport cause.

“Everything I did, and everything [the working group] did, was

focused on the airport needing the settlement agreement,” he said,

adding that while the working group was giving presentations

throughout the county about the need for an airport at the closed El

Toro Marine base, he was stressing the importance of continued flight

caps at John Wayne. “There is no refuting that I spent thousands of

hours on that.”

Glover, however, did dispute Taylor’s description of his advocacy

for extended restrictions for John Wayne, saying that the working

group’s focus always was on getting the El Toro airport built.

“I think that [the working group] has been working on El Toro,”

she said. “I am not aware of anything they’ve done on the settlement

agreement.”

The working group was among the four original co-signers to the

1985 settlement agreement that have to agree to the extension. The

other three are Newport Beach, Orange County and Stop Polluting Our

Newport.

The extension of the settlement agreement, approved by the Board

of Supervisors in June, will raise the limit on the airport’s

noisiest flights from 73 to 85, gates from 14 to 18, the annual

passenger limit from 8.4 million to 9.8 million and cargo flights

from two to four.

The airport’s curfew also would be extended until January 2021. It

allows departures from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and

8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Arrivals are allowed from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.

Interestingly, while Taylor focuses on his involvement -- disputed

or not -- in the settlement negotiations in the mailer, he has been

vocal during the campaign in his criticism of the agreement the City

Council and county have reached.

“This is not clad in iron at all,” Taylor said in reference to

still-possible legal challenges of the settlement by the Federal

Aviation Administration or the airlines that use John Wayne. “Is it

perfect? No. It’s a start.”

Taylor, noting the contradictory nature of his stance, added that

because the settlement is not set in stone, the city needs a strong,

knowledgeable voice on airport issues.

Both O’Neil and Glover pointedly disagreed with Taylor’s

description of the agreement, emphasizing that they don’t expect a

legal challenge and, if one were to come, that lawyers have assured

them the city would prevail.

Taylor, who has the backing of Greenlight, also charged present

City Council members with not doing enough to push for an airport at

El Toro.

“I never saw Norma Glover, Gary Adams, Tod Ridgeway, Denny O’Neil,

Gary Proctor or John Heffernan out there speaking with me,” he said.

O’Neil’s answer to that was that the most important issue for

Newport Beach was ensuring restrictions at John Wayne, over and above

getting an airport built at El Toro.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He can be reached at (949)

574-4233 or by e-mail at steven.cahn@latimes.com.