Airport authority to seek city funds

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- Gen. Art Bloomer is headed to the Newport Beach City

Council meeting with the tin cup in his hand.

Bloomer, the newly appointed executive director of the Orange County

Regional Airport Authority, said he will lobby tonight for $150,000 to

help mount an information campaign to build support for an airport at the

closed El Toro Marine base.

He won’t stop there. The former base commander said he would also head

to the 14 other member cities with requests for financial help.

“If they want to be part of the organization, it seems like they

should be committed enough to support it” financially, Bloomer said.

He isn’t likely to encounter any obstacles in Newport Beach.

Historically, the city has been the group’s primary benefactor. Newport

Beach has written $374,521 in checks to the group since 1994, though only

$10,000 was paid before 1999, according to Richard Kurth, administrative

services deputy director.

The authority, during the past year, hasn’t played much of a public

role in the El Toro debate. Bloomer said he hopes to bring broader

support to the group.

Newport Beach Councilman Dennis O’Neil supports that effort.

“OCRAA needs to be supported, but it needs to be supported by all the

member cities,” O’Neil said. “They should be funded. And there should be

a forum for the pro-airport position.”

The authority stayed in the background during 2000, but has reemerged

this year under Bloomer’s leadership. Bloomer, a former Irvine

councilman, secured a grant from the Orange County Board of Supervisors

on March 6 for $5 million to counter South County’s advertising campaign

against an airport at the base.

Bloomer said the airport authority also secured a $25,000 grant from

the Anaheim Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Even with the county’s big check, the airport authority can’t match

spending by South County cities via the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority.

The planning authority spent more than $2.87 million during the 1999-00

fiscal year, records show. Irvine spent $8.1 million during the same

period.

Planning authority spokeswoman Meg Waters said her North County

counterparts won’t pony up like Lake Forest and Irvine.

“I’d be very surprised if anybody besides Newport Beach and Anaheim

put any money into it,” Waters said. “It’s Newport Beach’s private club.”

However, Costa Mesa officials, including Mayor Libby Cowan, have said

they would support the airport authority’s funding request.

“If it’s for the day-to-day operations of OCRAA, it has a better

chance of being supported,” Cowan said. “I don’t have any intention of

funding any propaganda war.”