$60 million jeopardized in El Toro crash

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- City and county leaders pushing an airport for the

closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station have invested more than $60

million combined over the last decade, money that now may be forever lost

after Tuesday’s Measure W vote.

Over those years, the Newport Beach City Council authorized

expenditures totaling $10.94 million for airport-related matters, city

records show.

Much of that total was spent on lobbyists, legal advice, public

relations efforts and other expenses geared toward building a commercial

airport at the base, officials said.

Of course, the city played a supporting role to the majority of Orange

County supervisors, who funneled about $50 million to an airport planning

arm.

The bulk of the county money went toward developing several phases of

environmental review for the project, which the board approved Oct. 23.

“It’s incredibly unfortunate that this amount of public money has been

spent on a flawed project,” said Laguna Hills Councilman Allan Songstad,

one of the leaders in the drive to kill the airport.

The spending began shortly after the Navy tabbed the El Toro base for

closure in 1993, when county planners launched their effort.

Former supervisor and airport booster Bruce Nestande defended the

city’s spending habit. Nestande led the charge against Measure W.

“Newport Beach did what it could to educate the people,” said

Nestande, whose group Citizens for Jobs and the Economy received a bulk

of city money. “I think that job was done very satisfactorily. Where we

fell down is attracting private money to the campaign.”

Jim Silva, who represents Costa Mesa and Newport Beach; Chuck Smith;

and Cynthia Coad, ousted in Tuesday’s election, authorized the spending.

Silva could not be reached for comment.

County voters put the brakes on that eight-year airport effort Tuesday

by approving Measure W, which rezones the base from aviation to open

space. The measure passed with 58% of the vote.

Measure W nixed Measure A, the 1994 initiative voters passed that

opened the door for an airport at the 4,700-acre base. That ballot

measure was used to justify the expenditures.

Yet, as South County began to undergo an explosive growth surge in

Laguna Nigel, Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest and other areas in the 1990s, a

groundswell rose against the project.

The cities that would have felt the brunt of the noise and traffic

caused by the airport’s planes ultimately produced Tuesday’s Measure W

victory.

South County cities also weren’t afraid to open their wallets to fight

an airport near their homes. More than $40 million has been spent by that

camp. Irvine spent $15.6 million alone between mid-1999 and mid-2001.

Throughout the airport fight, South County pitted itself against

wealthy Newport Beach, the bedrock of airport support of the North County

cities.

The Newport Beach City Council passed resolutions promoting a

“twin-airport system” for the county, hired a string of airport czars and

lobbied local, state and federal power players who held the keys to an

airport at the base.

On Wednesday, city leaders were shifting their focus to John Wayne

Airport, where they have secured a tentative approval from supervisors to

extend flight restrictions to 2015.

City spending on El Toro, which had increased in the past five years,

was something the community supported, officials said.

“The City Council felt they had a mandate from the city,” Councilwoman

Norma Glover said. “We tried to make El Toro happen. We weren’t

successful.”

Three community groups and a San Francisco law firm were the largest

beneficiaries of city spending since 1993.

The Airport Working Group was given $4.35 million. The group was

founded in 1981 to stop the county’s proposed expansion of John Wayne

Airport but has zeroed in on the El Toro issue during much of the 1990s.

Working group spokesman Dave Ellis congratulated the city for spending

the cash, while other North County cities kept the rubber bands around

their wallets.

“The city has been pretty much a lone warrior on this issue,” Ellis

said. “We haven’t seen any of the other North County cities bellying up

to the bar.”

The working group, between April 1999 and March 2000, used city grant

money for mailers, community meetings, polling and a lobbyist.

The council’s most recent grant to the working group came in March,

when the group was given a grant of $3.67 million to split with Citizens

for Jobs and the Economy.

The working group has refused to release details of how that money was

spent.

Group attorney Tom Hiltachk, in a Feb. 22 letter, denied a public

records request from the Daily Pilot to see a detailed accounting of the

expenditures. Hiltachk said the records of the working group and Ellis

and Associates could not be made available because they are private

entities, not governmental agencies.

When city officials were asked how pro-airport groups spent the grant

money, they said they didn’t require detailed records of the

expenditures, but that the money was only to be used for public

information about aviation issues.

Since 1993, the city has given $1.76 million to Citizens for Jobs and

the Economy. Costa Mesa billionaire George Argyros launched the group in

1994 but has since handed over the reins to Nestande.

Argyros spent nearly $3.5 million of his own fortune before leaving

for an ambassador post in Spain last year. Argyros funneled much of his

money into the campaign to defeat 2000’s Measure F and other initiative

drives.

As for city grants to Argyros’ group between April and December 1999,

the money went for mailers, television commercials and lobbyists in

Washington, D.C., and Sacramento.

City leaders said they needed the army of lobbyists to combat South

County advocates of state and federal agencies.

“[South County] spent a lot of money in D.C.,” City Manager Homer

Bludau said. “We were faced with a situation that we couldn’t take the

chance [of not spending the money]. The stakes were too high.”

The city also handed $394,129 to the now-defunct Orange County Airport

Alliance, a group founded in January 1999 by activist Tom Wall but

disbanded about a year later.

The alliance, which began receiving grants in April 1999, hired public

relations firms, launched a Web site, produced commercials for local

cable stations and organized letter-writing campaigns.

“The idea of the alliance was to be a broader pro-El Toro [airport]

organization rather than just a Newport Beach group,” City Atty. Bob

Burnham said. “The concept was a good one, but it’s hard to develop

grass-roots support for any issue on a countywide basis.”

The city also paid Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger $476,431 between 1993

and 2001. The city has used Clement Shute, a specialist in environmental

law, for legal expertise. Shute was also a prime player in the city’s

successful bid to secure flight restrictions at John Wayne Airport in

1985.

Mayor Tod Ridgeway said he didn’t regret the expenditures, even if it

meant there would be no airport at El Toro.

“There has been community support to do what we’ve done,” Ridgeway

said. “I can’t call those wasted dollars. That was the will of the

community.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .

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