Orange County Voices : COMMENTARY ON BANKRUPTCY RECOVERY : OCTA’s Airport Gambit Is More Opportunism Than Reform : Permitting the transportation authority to ‘purchase’ John Wayne would not be in the best interests of taxpayers.

The longer I’ve been here, the more I realize that whoever created counties had a mean streak. I’ll bet they started with a rather simple assertion: “Create one level of government that has to do all the stuff that needs to be done yet no one wants to do. Make it administer to the poor and the downtrodden. It’ll have to offer uncompensated indigent health care, monitor kids and adults on probation, issue welfare checks for single transient males, check in on abused children--and run the jails.”

Then they took it a step further: “Then make sure it has no ability either to pay for it or to cut back during crises.”

Along that line, part of the frustration surrounding the Measure R campaign was the Board of Supervisors’ continuing inability to really restructure government. I heard it every day as the vote neared: “I’d vote for the tax, but you supervisors just haven’t done enough to downsize. You didn’t restructure; you redecorated.”

Regrettably, few people understood that dramatic change in county government starts by getting Washington and Sacramento to undo what they force us to do. In all my years in public service, I’ve never been in an arena where so many of our decisions have been made for us by folks who live and work so far from Orange County. But lacking that change, we have to deal with what we can.

Some of the ideas that are coming forth in this too-restricted environment are good (like a part-time Board of Supervisors!). But others provide little promise beyond the deck-chair rearranging that the voters told us they didn’t want.

It is in this context that staff to the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) board--an 11-member appointed body made up of county supervisors, city council members and one public representative--suggested a new way to help Orange County make up some of the losses suffered by those governments that participated in former Treasurer Robert L. Citron’s investment pool.

Remember that the county has pledged to repay the entirety of these losses over time--a pledge that will cost the county more than $1 billion.

Staff’s suggestion? Let the OCTA, a pool participant that suffered a $221-million loss, “purchase” John Wayne Airport, a county-owned and -operated facility. We’re not sure at what price--with JWA’s outstanding debt and the uncertainties of El Toro, it’s hard to value. The real transaction, then, would involve the county giving the OCTA the airport in exchange for allowing the county access to Measure M revenue. It almost sounds reasonable.

But wait--in this big switcheroo, what is the value to the taxpayer? After all, what the OCTA really wants is to have a public, taxpayer-funded entity “buy” a public, taxpayer-owned facility. We’re going to use your money to purchase what you already own! Later, to fully absorb its losses after such a transaction, the OCTA may have to “adjust” to a $147-million cut in its Measure M obligations. (That’s the amount of Measure M funds that were lost in the pool collapse.) This is $147 million that, ostensibly, would otherwise have been headed for local road and freeway construction. Aren’t we then jeopardizing paid-up projects in order to merely switch the logo on the airport?

And wait again--if the OCTA is so willing to make these adjustments to Measure M, why shouldn’t it be the first to step up to the big debt “forgiveness” plate that our Sacramento legislators advocate? This action, not the airport swap, is truly in the best interests of taxpayers. Under this scenario, county residents would be unburdened of fully one-tenth of the Citron pool’s losses.

At the same time, the airport’s already strong management would remain under an accountable and directly elected body.

Finally, the OCTA would continue to focus its attention on its primary mission--the timely completion of the county’s road, freeway and transit facilities. Sounds pretty good to me!

I doubt, however, that OCTA staff are thinking quite along these lines. Understandably, they’d like to grow a bit (as all management texts tell us that bureaucracies tend to do) and get into the airport business. They imply, too, an equally strong interest in taking over the administration of the base at El Toro, once closed. That might be fine and dandy, but it’s far too critical an issue to be dealt with in the context of a time-sensitive fiscal crisis. I, for one, know a few hundred thousand South County residents who will have a lot to say about it.

In the aftermath of the bankruptcy, anyone with a vested interest in the ongoing performance of local government within the county (that’s all of us) needs to view each “reform” suggestion with cautious skepticism. A staggering amount of money has been lost--but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a great deal of power, influence and revenue still circulating around our wealthy county.

Those who’d like a little larger piece of the pie, as we’ve seen with the OCTA, won’t be shy about asking. But we should be equally bold about questioning motives and likely results, because the folks who live here, work here and drive here (and like using John Wayne as it is, I’d add) should remain the ultimate beneficiaries of any change.