Bates defends her statements about John Wayne

Susan McCormack

Assemblywoman Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) said Friday that “blatant

lies” have been reported about her remarks at an state committee hearing

this past week in Santa Ana.

At the hearing, Bates questioned and stated several times that John Wayne

Airport could grow to accommodate the county’s increasing air

transportation demands. Friday, Bates said her remarks were not meant to

be taken as an indicator that she supports such a plan.

“I have been involved in this effort since 1993 ... and not one time

during that almost seven-year period has there been a position on the

part of [South County] elected officials and community and citizen groups

to expand John Wayne,” Bates said in a telephone interview.

Bates said her position and that of South County is the same as it has

been: that future Orange County passengers should use airports in the

Inland Empire.

On Friday, the assemblywoman’s comments were used by pro- and antiairport

forces in attempts to sway the public. They appeared in a videotape

provided at a press conference in Costa Mesa on Friday and in a

transcript of the hearing paid for by the El Toro Reuse Planning

Authority.”I believe the numbers were accurately 12 million [passenger]

growth here in the county [by 2020], and an unconstrained John Wayne can

accommodate that, so Orange County can shoulder its share if that’s what

the solution for the plan is,” Bates said at the hearing, according to

the transcripts. She added, “I don’t frankly believe that is the answer.”

Bates said that during the hearing, she was confused by the various

numbers that presenters were quoting as projected growth.

“I was trying to get a baseline to understand what the magnitude of

growth was,” she said Friday. “There’s no secret that we have an airport

with a design capacity of 15 million. It’s also a fact that it is

constrained legally and we support that.”

Bates said she is, in fact, working to get residents the right to vote on

any proposed county-issued revenue bonds for airport development --

particularly those who would be affected most if John Wayne were

expanded.

She said her bill, which didn’t fly this year, would repeal an 1988

county exemption that eliminated this voting right.

She also is supporting the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative, which

would require two-thirds of voters to approve the expansion or creation

of any new airports, jails or hazardous landfills in the county.

Despite the fact that Bates said she didn’t believe expanding John Wayne

was “the answer,” Peggy Ducey, executive director of the Orange County

Regional Airport Authority, said Bates’ intent was clear.

“The fact that she said it over and over really shows what her true

agenda was,” Ducey said at the Costa Mesa press conference. “Why would

she make her point unless she was putting it out as a possible option?”

Meg Waters, spokeswoman for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority,

dismissed Ducey’s logic, saying “So they’re psychic now, too?”