RECIPE FOR SUCCESS:

I admire brave people who stand by their convictions. I was at the Airport Working Group (AWG) meeting when Supervisor John Moorlach spoke. In reading all the newspaper articles, no one mentioned how brave his speech was.

Supervisor Moorlach had the chutzpah to speak openly about his frustrations with his predecessor, Supervisor Jim Silva. As chairman of the Santa Ana Hts. Redevelopment Agency Project Advisory Committee (PAC), I witnessed first hand that Silva was more interested in his run for Assembly than actually doing his job. I was delighted when incoming Supervisor Moorlach convinced Silva to step aside early and let him take the lead on PAC projects. The result, projects moved forward at record speed with Silva out of the way.

When people say Moorlach’s making “back room” airport deals, I laugh. He’s the most transparent guy around. He’s all about accountability and fiscal responsibility.

Moorlach has no history of misleading the public, quite the contrary in fact. He continues to work on his own recipe for success encouraging neighboring cities to work together looking for broader solutions to county issues. So why the distrust?

My guess, he’s not the stereotypical politician and can’t be bullied. That makes people nervous. He’s not planning his next run for higher office; so asking him to support an annexation issue he’s not on board for, then threatening to back a candidate to run against him if he doesn’t, probably isn’t a good idea.

But rumor has it that tactic was applied at the Newport Beach City Council level when, all but Don Webb voted to support the annexation of the Santa Ana Country Club and area south of mesa to Newport. A vote clearly slapping both Moorlach and Costa Mesa.

Is Webb the only council member who actually grasps the fragile relationship between Costa Mesa and Newport? Or did he know that it wasn’t Costa Mesa’s idea to make a grab at partial annexation of Banning Ranch; it was actually LAFCO’s, so he harbored no resentment as some of his colleges apparently did. Or is it as simple as he understands, that Costa Mesa and the county will never let the country club be annexed by Newport, and any areas attached to that annexation won’t fly either.

I understood that a long time ago and fought successfully, convincing both cities and LAFCO to finally let the West Side Santa Ana Hts. annexation application stand alone. The country club attached itself to our annexation before I was PAC Chairman.

The Newport City Council had to weigh the risk of ostracizing potential voters versus Moorlach and Costa Mesa. This issue will likely die at the LAFCO level and that gets them off the hook. But will their continuing schizophrenic approach in dealing with Costa Mesa and the county cost us dearly in the future?

As Moorlach said in his speech, South County is still looking at growth at JWA as an answer to regional air transportation problems. Newport’s elected should start looking at the big picture before it’s too late. They should start focusing energy on building relationships with their neighbors and the county, not slapping them around.

BARBARA VENEZIA is the chairman of the Santa Ana Hts. Redevelopment Project Advisor Committee and was the co-creator of the cooking show “At Home on the Range” with John Crean.