Attack on Taylor masks a failed fight

Richard Taylor got blindsided last week by two members of the

Newport Beach City Council, whom he hopes to join on Nov. 5.

It all had to do with a mailing piece sent out by Taylor about a

month ago. I’m looking at it now. It’s an oversized postcard with the

headline “No JWA Expansion.” It offers up Taylor as the “only council

candidate experienced in fighting uncontrolled airport growth”. And

on the backside, it adds that Taylor “volunteered thousands of hours

resulting in the successful negotiation of the John Wayne Settlement

Agreement.” That’s what set off the shots at Taylor by Newport Beach

Council members Dennis O’Neil and Norma Glover.

They went into considerable detail in pointing out that Taylor had

no direct involvement in the discussions leading to a settlement

agreement -- likely to be challenged -- that offers some significant

concessions in return for the extension of the existing caps at John

Wayne Airport. Taylor’s reaction was that his critics were “parsing”

the words on the mailer -- a wonderful term I haven’t encountered

since my eighth-grade English class. And, in my view, quite accurate.

The letter of these charges against him may have some validity,

but certainly not the spirit. His devotion to the El Toro airport

cause over the last eight years as a tireless director of the Airport

Working Group cannot be challenged. The letter writers who responded

to the Pilot after this story appeared made that point very clearly.

I can’t improve on what they said and would add only two passing

thoughts:

* The timing of this criticism is interesting. It surfaced

several weeks after the flier was mailed, but much closer to the

upcoming election;

* In the character- assassination world of political hit pieces,

Taylor’s postcard was pretty mild stuff to be causing all this

uproar.

So let’s get it offstage. My interest in this matter is much

broader than political nitpicking. I consider the threatened

expansion of John Wayne Airport the most important issue facing the

Newport Beach City Council, and I think it is from that perspective

that Taylor’s candidacy should be weighed.

Almost from the beginning of the final battle for the survival of

a commercial airport at El Toro, the City Council has worked at

cross-purposes with the other organizations fighting to bring it

about. While the mayor of Irvine was out on the hustings selling his

Great Park brand of snake oil, Newport delegated the job of

countering this message to a mix of hired hands operating under a

smothering blanket of legal constrictions.

And never once during this period did I hear a council member

criticize the backroom operations of our congressman, Chris Cox, who

was plotting with the Navy to turn over El Toro to “private”

interests while the rest of us thought we were fighting for a vitally

needed airport.

Indeed, in the latter stages of the Measure W campaign, the City

Council seemed more interested in crafting a new agreement for caps

at John Wayne than in providing an airport at El Toro that would make

such an agreement much less critical.

This was made clear in the Pilot story that carried the criticism

of Taylor. O’Neill was quoted as saying that Newport Council members

weren’t out in the county doing missionary work for El Toro because

the members considered ensuring restrictions at John Wayne more

important. This seems to me rather like stressing funeral

arrangements while the patient is still very much alive and fighting

like fury to survive.

“The city abdicated,” Taylor told me. “Sometimes you have to

fight, and the city never wanted to.”

This whole matter needs thorough investigation, and there is

plenty of fault to go around. At the top of the list is the failure

of the City Council to offer even a wisp of leadership. Then there is

the fuzzy use by the Airport Working Group of a consultant who was

also a client of council members who didn’t share the group’s

priorities. Then the splintering of El Toro advocacy groups where a

united approach would have been much more effective. The lack of

passion among the people representing the citizens most affected. The

creativity gap that made Agran look like a genius. All these and

more.

This isn’t just flogging a dead horse, because meeting our

increasing airport needs is still an open issue, and we should be

concerned about the people who will be fighting this continuing

battle on our behalf. I don’t feel much joy over an agreement that

regards a material increase in flights and passenger capacity as a

victory, especially in view of the inevitable growing pressure to

expand John Wayne as airport demands increase.

One of the most effective weapons used by South County in

torpedoing an El Toro airport was fear. They frightened the citizens

there into voting en masse for Measure W with phony statistics and

claims.

We had a much more legitimate fear factor -- and still do -- in

the effect of the expansion of John Wayne on neighboring communities.

The county has some alternative expansion plans that would stand your

hair on end. Hopefully they will never become an issue. But if they

should, we need the kind of bare-knuckle opposition that allowed

Irvine to prevail.

The Airport Working Group will continue its determined efforts. So

will the New Millennium Group, which made such a valiant try with

limited resources to get an alternative to Measure W on the ballot.

But we especially need more muscle and creativity in our public

officials. Continuing to play it close to the vest when the further

expansion of John Wayne is on the table is not going to send us home

ahead of the game.

That’s the real issue in the Taylor brouhaha. Exactly how many

hours he spent on airport issues and precisely what he did is of

little importance compared to the voters’ assessment of his

experience and proven effectiveness in representing us as a council

member against the John Wayne expansion threats to come.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

typically appears Thursdays.