Selling JWA to increase Orange County coffers

Orange County Supervisor Charles Smith recommends selling John Wayne

Airport to raise money to pay off the county’s bankruptcy debt

(“Supervisor suggests possible JWA Sale,” May 8).

One possible buyer would be Los Angeles World Airports, the Los

Angeles agency that already owns and operates Los Angeles

International, Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys airports. Last year,

Smith actively supported Los Angeles’ unsuccessful attempt to take

over El Toro and run it as a satellite of LAX.

Who would win and lose from such a transfer of control? Clearly,

Los Angeles political leaders and LAX neighbors might hope to gain.

Their goal is to limit the use of LAX -- going so far as to reduce

its number of passenger gates -- and push more air traffic onto

surrounding areas including Orange County.

Orange County groups who advocate for more local aviation capacity

might get their wish since Los Angeles would be unlikely to continue

the flight restrictions at John Wayne when they expire. Los Angeles

might be inclined to dust off plans for lengthening John Wayne’s

runways -- an idea that has been discussed for years. Those who hoped

for more flights -- at El Toro -- might get their wish at an expanded

John Wayne.

The losers would be those who live under the flight paths and near

the road traffic of John Wayne. Having fought for years to spare

South County communities from the negative impacts of an airport at

El Toro, I would not want to see these impacts imposed on our

neighbors in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa by Los Angeles bureaucrats.

LEONARD KRANSER

Dana Point

A sale of John Wayne Airport to the highest bidder to get money to

pay off Orange County’s bankruptcy can be done in a variety of ways,

all running afoul of federal law, (“Supervisor suggests possible JWA

Sale,” May 8).

Under arcane federal rules, the government has essentially said

that owners of an airport can’t sell it, can’t close it down and

can’t go out of business. Thus legislation is needed to get around

these roadblocks in order to turn the airport over to Los Angeles,

Newport Beach or Irvine.

John Wayne Airport turns a profit. It is well run and is bringing

funds into the area through commerce. Orange County already is

benefiting from this business, but JWA can not expand because it has

people in the noise zone.

By contrast, there is a greater reason to open an airport El Toro,

which would have no one in the noise zone. If the county is serious

about paying off the debt, it should look to El Toro, not John Wayne

Airport. Selling John Wayne requires going to Washington D.C. but

opening El Toro is strictly a local detail. We are being held hostage

by the 89,000 votes for Measure W.

Certainly we can get rid of that hijacking, instead of going all

the way to Washington to sell John Wayne Airport. It’s the patriotic

thing to do in this time of, trade gridlock, travel gridlock and

global terrorism.

DONALD NYRE

Newport Beach

Oh my, “the O.C.” is still bankrupt after all these years. So now

our esteemed supervisors are considering putting John Wayne Airport

on the auction block to raise some money (“Supervisor suggests

possible JWA Sale,” May 8).

Well for starters, our esteemed supervisors could easily eliminate

the $1 million plus in salary and benefits buy simply getting rid of

themselves. Besides, they serve no real purpose other then to rubber

stamp projects for developers -- most notably, the Irvine Co. Let’s

just eliminate this facade of so called democracy, and simply put

Irvine Co. Chief Executive Officer Donald Bren in charge of the

county for no salary.

Besides, the Irvine Co. always gets what they want anyways. With

this arrangement, the status quo is preserved, yet our bankrupt

county saves a few bucks on five puppet politicians.

REX RICKS

Huntington Beach