Letter to the Editor -- Russell Niewiarowski

Burnout or realization?

Some have said that the reason I have stepped aside from the El Toro

fight is because of a severe case of burnout or that the New Millennium

Group failed to sell its V-Plan alternative (The Last Word, “Watch out

for airport burnout,” Sunday). I don’t see it that way. I see it as

coming to a realization that the pro-airport groups really didn’t want El

Toro in the first place.

The New Millennium Group did not fail; it succeeded. The group’s

function was not to build an El Toro airport, but to prove that El Toro

could be built in accordance with modern Federal Aviation Administration

standards, receiving not only the FAA’s blessing, but also the blessing

and support from the FAA’s Air Traffic Control division, the commercial

Airline Pilots Assn., the airlines, the Orange County Regional Airport

Authority (OCRAA) and a majority number of Orange County residents.

The county Local Redevelopment Agency’s airport plan received no such

praise or support; in fact, it was opposed by even OCRAA.

But despite the V-Plan’s acclaim from the industry, the pro-airport

leaders in charge simply refused to admit that the V-Plan had any merit,

and failed to admit that anything was wrong with the county’s plan, even

after the FAA spokesman reviewing the county’s plan called it a backward

plan in need of serious redesign.

One by one, the pro-airport leaders silently walked away from El Toro.

First to walk was El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission member Tom

Edwards, then George Argyros, followed by many Newport Beach council

members and leaders.

The passing Measure W snowball also appears to have wiped out

supervisors Cynthia Coad and Jim Silva in one pass, as well as countless

El Toro supporters and sideline leaders.

Few El Toro leaders remain standing other than the New Millennium

Group and the Airport Working Group. Under the leadership of Tom

Naughton, the Airport Working Group still holds fast to the county’s

flawed airport plan and believes it will overturn Measure W only to bring

back the status quo as if nothing happened, still refusing to see fault

in the whole political corruption stemming from the flawed plan.

Coad, the one-time strong advocate of El Toro, now appears to be on

the verge of ending El Toro’s slow death by handing over the 4,700 acres

to Irvine to annex. If that happens, it will be El Toro’s final, fatal

blow.

Since the supervisors, like the Costa Mesa and Newport Beach city

councils, have turned a deaf ear to our initiative, refusing to allow the

reasonable and responsible V-Plan alternative to be brought to the people

for a final vote, what more is there to do?

The sad reality is that the greatest El Toro opponent always has been

and remains the pro-airport leaders, and their actions of late only

suggest that they never really supported an El Toro airport. If they did,

they would stand behind the V-Plan as the pilots, FAA, FAA’s Air Traffic

Control division, OCRAA and countless residents have, and stop Irvine’s

land grab by allowing the people to vote on the right airport plan. That

is the county Local Redevelopment Agency’s job, not mine.

Until that county agency takes a stand to do what is right and place

our initiative on the November ballot for Orange County’s future, there

is nothing more for me to do than to step aside and shake my head at the

$71 million pro-airport leaders lost and forever unanswered question as

to why they refused to support the right airport plan, allowing El Toro

to die.

RUSSELL NIEWIAROWSKI

Santa Ana Heights

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Russell Niewiarowski is the former president of The

New Millennium Group.