Cities Threaten to Form Rival El Toro Panel

SANTA ANA —  South County city officials threatened to break ranks with the county and seek future control of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station after the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to create a planning agency that gives sole final decision-making authority to the county.

Although the latest county proposal gives the South County cities more authority than they had under the county’s original plan, officials of the cities said Tuesday that the supervisors’ plan does not go far enough in sharing ultimate power over El Toro’s future.

If the South County cities make good on their threat to create a rival agency, it would be the third local group contending for control of the 4,700-acre base, flying in the face of strong Defense Department admonitions that local governments must unite behind one planning agency or risk losing millions of dollars in federal grants.

Just last week, the cities of Garden Grove, Los Alamitos and Stanton, miffed that they had been excluded altogether from the advisory committee originally envisaged by the county, created the Orange County Regional Airport Authority. Yorba Linda has been weighing a decision to join this group. Anaheim, which has been wavering between keeping its seat on the county advisory panel, or joining the fledgling airport authority, postponed a vote for the second time Tuesday evening to study the county’s latest plan.

“We will not participate (with the county),” Irvine Councilman Barry J. Hammond said after the supervisors’ vote. “The city of Irvine and the South County cities are very disappointed. We will probably be meeting in the next few days to look at alternatives to create our own land-use authority.”

The county plan approved Tuesday was formulated by Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Gaddi H. Vasquez in an 11th-hour attempt to appease the cities. Going into the meeting, city officials said the proposal was “a step in the right direction,” but discontent reached a boiling point when the supervisors refused the cities’ request for a two-week postponement to continue negotiations.

The supervisors’ action, taken in a 4-0 vote with board Chairman Harriett M. Wieder absent, effectively escalates a bureaucratic power struggle that has been raging for weeks.

In light of the disagreement, Vasquez said he did not know if the county’s application to the federal government as the lead planning group for El Toro conversion would be diminished. “We have never been through this process before,” Vasquez said.

As adopted, the county’s new plan provides for the appointment of a 21-member task force consisting of city, county and business leaders, with South County cities guaranteed seven votes. Recommendations from that panel would be passed to a seven-member executive committee--to include three South County representatives--that would in turn offer a final redevelopment plan to the Board of Supervisors.

The cities’ opposition stems from a provision that would allow the county to change the executive committee’s recommendation. Under the county plan, supervisors give the committee three chances to come up with an acceptable proposal. If none are approved, supervisors, by a four-fifths vote, could modify the plan themselves.

The South County cities are concerned that the base may be converted to a regional commercial airport that could disrupt their quality of life. Under federal guidelines, any base conversion plan must win the cooperation of nearby communities.

“I think if they are going to continue to show ignorance to the concerns the South County cities have, we are going to be forced to move forward with our own entity to the federal government,” Mission Viejo Councilwoman Susan Withrow said after the vote.

The cities of Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo were represented at the board meeting Tuesday, asking for a postponement to work toward an acceptable compromise. Some city officials complained that they had not seen the county proposal until hours before the meeting and wanted more time to review it with their city councils.

“I feel it’s a step in the right direction,” Lake Forest Mayor Ann Van Haun told the supervisors. “But I don’t think it goes far enough at this time, I really don’t.”

The board also heard calls for the inclusion of minority representatives and others in the planning group.

“There are people in my community who see the red-checkered El Toro water tower as they drive out their driveway in the morning,” said Irvine community activist Chris Elliott, who complained that there were no citizen representatives on the task force. “You can’t get any closer than that.”

After Elliott’s testimony, Vasquez pledged to include a resident from the area of Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills on the county task force. But none of the supervisors responded to a request by the League of United Latin American Citizens that minorities also be added to the panel.

Initially, Vasquez and Riley seemed willing to grant at least a one-week extension of the vote. But Supervisors Roger R. Stanton and William G. Steiner urged their colleagues to move forward, citing the progress already made by other jurisdictions facing base closures of their own.

“There has to be a point when consensus building leads to leadership,” Steiner said, adding that Vasquez and Riley had been sensitive to the concerns of their constituents.

After the vote, South County city leaders denounced the county’s action.

“In the scheme of things, I think that seven days (delay) was minuscule,” Laguna Niguel Mayor Thomas W. Wilson said. “I think they could have given us seven days to really digest what they presented to us.”

During their meeting Tuesday evening, Laguna Niguel council members agreed that a Joint Powers Authority made up of South County cities may be inevitable.

Said Council member Mark Goodman: “Where it sits now, it looks like we are headed” for a joint powers authority.

Meanwhile in Lake Forest, Mayor Van Haun told her city council: “It looks like (county officials) are going their way and we are going to have to go our way.”

Despite the apparent widening split, officials on both sides hoped that they could eventually reach some agreement.

Vasquez was already offering some movement in the county’s position, saying that South County cities might win future concessions if they continued to work with the county while the rules and regulations for the new agency are developed over the next 30 days.

Hammond, who has led the negotiations on behalf of South County cities, also left the door open. “It is an intense debate. I hate to call it a war, because I think this can still come to resolution at some point in the future,” he said.

The split between the county and the cities nearest the base was being watched by Garden Grove Councilman Mark Leyes, interim chairman of the new airport authority. “The county had more than enough chance to do the right thing,” Leyes said. “They have messed up.”

Times correspondents Geoff Boucher, Richard Core, Frank Messina and Terry Spencer contributed to this report.