An opportunity not to air again

JOSEPH N. BELL

I had coffee late Tuesday morning with Newport Beach City Councilman

John Heffernan to talk about the impending efforts of that city to

take over the operation of John Wayne Airport. We were sitting

outside, and our conversation was put on hold 11 times because we

couldn’t talk over the noise of planes climbing out of John Wayne.

(The only person who could dispute that number is Heffernan, and he

wasn’t counting.)

The planes offered a cacophonous counterpoint to our discussion,

and I couldn’t help wondering how many of those flights we heard had

been added as a result of the last cap agreement that will carry us

to 2015.

And -- even more important, since we live almost close enough to

the airport for the Angels’ new outfielder, Vladimir Guerrero, to hit

one of the runways from our back yard -- whether turning the airport

over to Newport Beach would give us a better shot in 2015 at stopping

the bleeding where it now stands.

Heffernan served on the council’s aviation committee and was one

of three council members chosen for an ad hoc committee to explore

the issue with the county. (He has since withdrawn from the latter

committee to focus on some of the legal and financial ramifications

that might come up.) So I asked Heffernan if I should be pulling for

the city in its quest so we could be sure that aircraft interruptions

in late morning would never exceed 11?

I think his answer was what qualifies for lawyers as “Yes.” So

then I asked him why.

“First of all,” he said, “because there is more citizen leverage

on the City Council than on the county Board of Supervisors. It’s a

lot easier for citizens to connect with the city to press their views

than it is with county officials. Then, because the city has stronger

relations with people directly affected by airport noise, there is an

added ability to resist efforts to squeeze out small concessions that

add up to big ones.

“I also think it is important for the city to control the real

estate under the airport. That way we would have some control of

airport expansion toward Costa Mesa and the protection of private

aviation. But the bottom line is always going to be how to deal with

the leverage of the airline industry, the U.S. Department of

Commerce, the pilots’ union and all the other parties directly

involved.”

By one of those remarkable coincidences that favor God-fearing

columnists, I was having breakfast with Robert Shelton at my friendly

neighborhood Coco’s a few days before my coffee with Heffernan, so

absorbed in discussing the new acquisitions of the Angels that I

didn’t notice some familiar faces at an oversized table nearby. But

Jean Watt stopped to say hello, and when I saw her companions

streaming out, I asked what mischief they were up to. She said it was

an informal gathering of a group called Air Fair, a registered

political action committee dedicated to spreading the word throughout

Orange County about holding the line at John Wayne Airport.

“We all feel,” she said, “there is a piece missing in this airport

maneuvering, a missing link among the airport activists. So we’re

focused only on JWA while we try to build a base among people all

over the county who agree that JWA must not expand anymore.”

She said the Air Fair group -- with its slogan “10.8 and Shut the

Gate” (interpretation: don’t ever exceed the current passenger limit

at JWA) -- wanted to wait until it had 500 contributing members

before going public. So with only a hundred at this point, our talk

might be premature.

“We have no position on the efforts of Newport Beach to take over

JWA. We don’t want to be disruptive of something better that is

working. But we also don’t want to get caught making a commitment

without people in the community knowing what it is. There is some

fear among city officials that our slogan may be a deal killer, but

we see no point in Newport Beach taking over JWA with any other goal.

“We must quite simply commit to no more expansion, and we are

reaching out to spread this message. That may sound very idealistic,

but we feel our best answer can be found in the reverberations of a

broad, strong public demand that will convince office holders that we

mean business. We believe that a strong constituency can make a

difference. But we can’t waffle on this issue.”

So I find myself waffling on whether we’re going to be better off

if Newport Beach pushes its airport agenda. I freely admit to strong

bias about the performance on the airport issue by both cities

covered by this newspaper. As I’ve said often before -- inspiring

angry letters from the former mayor and stern lectures from the city

attorney -- Newport Beach turned its full attention to John Wayne’s

caps when El Toro was still very much in play, thereby abandoning the

only real solution to this festering problem while Irvine was

successfully hawking its mystical Great Lake.

Meanwhile, Costa Mesa never awakened from its deep sleep on this

issue, apparently convinced that skateboarding is a more critical

problem than the imminent pressure to further expand John Wayne.

There are signs of stirring from the new council members, but the

rest of the council still seems comfortable in the back seat.

So onward and upward. Since we’ve now blown El Toro, we have to

select the next best thing as free of bias as possible. If that turns

out to be Newport Beach operation of the airport, we’ll listen.

But, as John Heffernan said firmly: “The city needs to tell people

sooner, not later, exactly why and how we should do this.”

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

appears Thursdays.