Pro-airpot fliers come under fire

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- Hoping to stunt a burgeoning public relations

campaign by pro-El Toro advocates, South County cities say they will sue

to stop mailers and a television advertisement.

Without giving a timetable, board members of the El Toro Reuse

Planning Authority at an emergency meeting Tuesday directed their lawyers

to sue Newport Beach. Authority members hope a Superior Court judge will

declare recent fliers -- deriding Irvine’s Great Park plan for the closed

Marine base as “misleading junk” -- to be an improper use of public

funds.

South County unveiled its Orange County Central Park and Nature

Preserve Initiative on April 30. The measure, which would appear on the

county ballot in March if the group secures the required signatures,

would change zoning at the 4,700-acre base to allow only open space,

parkland or other non-aviation uses.

A week after that announcement, groups financed by Newport Beach began

circulating a round of fliers. The fliers criticize the park proposal as

financially unsound, quoting a former Irvine councilman as calling his

own city’s economic study “misleading, premature and overly optimistic.”

Authority attorney Richard Jacobs would not say when the suit would be

filed.

“With the park initiative in the qualification process, the rules of

the road change,” Jacobs said. “Public agencies can’t spend money for or

against the initiative.”

County cable stations also began showing a pro-EL Toro, 30-second ad

called “Bunny and Daisy.” In it, a rabbit gobbles up a dollar bill. The

flier promises “higher property taxes, more public debt” to pay for a

central park at the base.

Newport Beach City Atty. Robert Burnham could not be reached for

comment.

The city has not directly produced the fliers or cable spot. However,

the City Council has allocated money to several airport advocacy groups,

including the Airport Working Group. The ad includes a mention that it

was paid for by the city. The fliers include the city’s name, listing a

post office box in the front upper left corner.

Group spokesman Dave Ellis defended the fliers, saying the South

County lawsuit was the pot calling the kettle black.

“They’re trying to intimidate anybody who has a different view of

life,” Ellis said. “We’re not lobbying for or against the initiative.

Nowhere on that mailer do you see ‘vote yes’ or ‘vote no’ on anything.”

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, the chief architect of the park plan, called

the flier “ludicrous.” Authority spokeswoman Meg Waters was also

unimpressed.

“I think we’ve already won the hearts and minds of the people of

Orange County,” Waters said. “Everybody just wants to vote on this.”

To back up their claim, South County lawyers cited Stanson vs. Mott, a

1976 case in which a state judge ruled that public agencies could not

spend taxpayer funds to fight or back initiatives.

On Wednesday, the authority ran an ad in a Washington, D.C.,

congressional newspaper, The Hill, deriding an airport at El Toro.

Ellis said the ad was an example of South County hypocrisy. Jacobs

said it was apples to oranges.

“Anything published in a magazine in Washington, D.C., is not designed

to influence the voters of Orange County,” Jacobs said.

In addition to announcing it would sue Newport Beach, the authority

also said it would sue the Southern California Assn. of Governments over

its application for federal transportation grant money. The group has

advocated for an airport at El Toro that would serve 30 million

passengers annually.