Board delays vote to join pro-airport group

Susan McCormack

SANTA ANA -- Unanswered legal questions forced the county Board of

Supervisors on Tuesday to delay a vote to become a member of the Orange

County Regional Airport Authority.

Supervisors Jim Silva and Chuck Smith last week had requested the board

consider joining the authority -- a pro-airport group comprising 15

cities, including Newport Beach and Costa Mesa -- and giving it $400,000.

However, the board voted 3-2 only to take action to consider the benefits

and legalities of joining the authority and how much money it should

contribute to it, if it joins.

The board was split in its vote -- as it usually is concerning the

proposed airport at El Toro -- with antiairport supervisors Todd Spitzer

and Tom Wilson opposing the item.

Peggy Ducey, executive director of the authority, could not be reached

for comment.

Spitzer brought up legal questions, saying there are two issues the board

must consider: whether the county can give money to the authority to

promote an airport -- and risk it being spent “irresponsibly” -- and if

the county can shift its power to the authority to make decisions about

the airport.

Don Hughes, spokesman for Silva, said the board will search for answers

to these questions.

“We’ll want to go back and do more research and see what form the

membership should take,” Hughes said. “And, we want more information on

what [the authority’s] plans are for the money.”

Silva and Smith wrote in a request to put the item on the board’s agenda

that the public outreach efforts of the board and the authority would

soon “dovetail.” They said joining the authority would enable the board

to use the member cities’ existing networks, such as cable programs and

Web sites, to educate the public of the board’s goals at a low cost to

the county.

On Tuesday, Spitzer called the move another sign that the pro-airport

faction of the board is becoming “desperate” in its attempt to sway the

public to support an airport at El Toro.

“The most significant aspect of this is they feel they need to join [the

authority] to do the work the county has been lax itself in doing:

getting the pro-airport side out to the public,” Spitzer said.