News - FOURTH QUARTER 1998

Website E-Mail, December 31, 1998
The Year in Review

Newport - Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, December 30, 1998
“O'Neil seeks seat on El Toro commission“
“Newport Beach mayor would replace Tom Edwards on the citizens advisory board.”

LA Times,  Business Section, December 30, 1998
“Airlines Tally Bay Area Fog Delays”

OC Register, December 28, 1998
“Coad sees El Toro as vital to O.C.”
“The supervisor-elect is expected to be a solid vote for the airport when she takes office Jan. 5.”

LA Times,  December 28, 1998
“Airport officials want to fill part of San Francisco Bay for an expansion.”
“Their offer to restore habitat elsewhere divides environmentalists.”

OC Register, Business Section, December 26, 1998
"Encore! '99 should be fine for O.C." - by Jonathan Lansner
"AIRPORT: DEAD"

Reuters,  December 23, 1998, website posted December 27
“DOT rules in favor of Dallas in airport dispute” - Ruling may affect Orange County Plans

San Diego Union-Tribune, recent articles added to Issues Section
Land swaps open way for expansion of San Diego's Lindbergh Field.  Brown Field considered for cargo airport.

Reuters,  December 22, 1998
“Minneapolis airport runway lawsuit filed”

Website Issues Section,  North Takeoffs
Loma Ridge is directly in the path of the planned north takeoffs - with photos.

LA Times, December 20, 1998
City Plans to Soundproof 1,000 Homes Near Airport Noise:
No money has yet been spent for residents in flight path of Van Nuys airfield. But officials say the work, stalled for a decade, could begin next summer.

Website Direct, December 17, 1998
Bill Kogerman honored by airport opponents

LA Times, December 17, 1998
“Supervisor Sees His Ambition Thwarted”
 “Politics: Wilson won't get chairmanship. Colleagues cite his opposition to
 plan for airport at El Toro site.”

OC Register, December 16, 1998
"Flight demonstration decision is postponed until January"
"Supervisor Steiner says delay will allow airport supporters to get a 'yes' vote from his successor."

Los Angeles Business Wire, December 15, 1998
"Contract Awarded for Residential Soundproofing Near LAX"

Air Line Pilots Association Press Release, December 14, 1998
Pilots Union Sets Criteria for Acceptable LAHSO Runway Operations

Website Direct, December 11, 1998
Bruce Wetsel Quits County El Toro Staff

OC Register, December 10, 1998
“Airport study:  Noise low for most of O.C.”
“Additional noise measures for airport may give fuller picture.”
“Airport foes call the county’s noise-averaging measures misleading.”

LA Times Metro Editorial, December 9, 1998
“Airport:  Issue for Entire Region”

OC Register, December 9, 1998
“Irvine approves annexation of jail and El Toro”
“The move is one strategy to fight a plan for an airport at the Marine base.”

LA Times, On-line, December 8, 1998
“Riordan Backs Airport at El Toro Base”
“Mayor calls the Orange County project an economic necessity that would create jobs for the poor. Critics say he is 'being used' politically.”

OC Register, December 8, 1998
“County may expand El Toro flight tests”
“Airport foes want an environmental report”

ETRPA Newsletter, December 6, 1998
ETRPA Public Perspective available on-line

Website Direct, December 4, 1998
United Airlines letter surfaces after long delay
 

LA Times, December 3, 1998
“Residents List Concerns for El Toro Environmental Study”

(For full articles see L.A. Times at http://www.latimes.com and O.C. Register at http://www.ocregister.com/news/) 

The following message was sent to everyone on the website's e-mail subscriber list.

Happy New Year from the El Toro Airport website team.

In 1998, the County plans for El Toro began to crumble.  In 1999, the airport project will collapse under the weight of public opinion. Here is a quick review of the past year:

March 1998.  Residents in the Tustin, Orange, Villa Park, Yorba Linda area start to realize that they will be blasted by El Toro jet noise. To try to win voter support in Central County, county planners concoct a scheme to redirect planes straight north - into the mountains - on takeoff.   The FAA has never approved this plan!

April 1998.  The supervisors vote for a grandiose “Gateway to the 21st Century” plan for the airport,  with an International Trade Center, Global Village, etc.  An expensive publicity campaign touts the plan.

July 1998.  The Air Line Pilots Association attacks the straight north, into the mountains, scheme because of safety concerns. “We know of no other airport in the country where such a significant terrain mass is overflown within three (3) miles of takeoff by commercial aircraft.” See http://www.eltoroairport.org/issues/alpa798.html

For photos of the mountains and aircraft crash site at the end of the runways click http://www.eltoroairport.org/issues/north.html

September 1998.  The supervisors abandon their “Gateway to the 21st Century” and scrap $4 million of plans.  Instead, they vote, (3-2),  for a two-airport system consisting of an airport-in-a-park at El Toro connected by a people mover to John Wayne.

October 1998.  The Air Transport Association, representing the airline industry, blasts the two-airport system and the people mover idea as impractical.  See http://www.eltoroairport.org/issues/ata.html

November 1998.  The UCI annual public opinion poll of Orange County residents shows a majority opposed to an airport at El Toro.  In the website news, scroll down to the November 17 story.

December 1998.  The supervisors stall on spending almost $3 million for a flight demo because William Steiner calls it a waste of money.  They hope his successor, Cynthia Coad will go along with the show.  The Board will take up the idea again on January 15.

The new year will bring this all into focus.  To keep informed, check the El Toro Airport Info Site regularly.

If we work at it, El Toro Airport is not a done deal... its a dead duck 

Newport Beach “Mayor Dennis O'Neil is running -- so far unopposed -- for a seat on the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission, a position vacated by airport activist and former Mayor Tom Edwards. The seat represents the 5th District area of the Orange County board of supervisors, which encompasses Newport Beach, Irvine and most of South County. Designates will be elected by the mayors of Orange County's 31 cities at a League of California Cities meeting Jan. 14.”

“O'Neil said he wants the position because of the significance the El Toro issue has for Newport Beach residents. ‘It is in the best interests of our city to reduce the potential of further impacts from John Wayne Airport, to do whatever I can to support and work hard on the El Toro airport master plan,’ he said.”

“The citizens advisory commission was formed as a result of Measure A, which was passed in 1994 and mandated the county develop plans for a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station... The commission was created despite a storm of controversy stirred by South County cities such as Irvine and Lake Forest, which were represented on the original Local Redevelopment Authority but were pulled off when the Orange County board of supervisors took over.”

“Bitterness from that fight is partly why no elected officials in South County will run for the 5th District seat on the commission. ‘Our position is we shouldn't be on the advisory board -- we should be on the decision-making board,’ said Lake Forest Councilman Richard Dixon. ‘It's a long-standing debate. We decided not to sue back then, but it could rear its ugly head in the future.’ Dixon also said he believes the commission is nothing but a rubber stamp for the airport.” 

LA Times,  Business Section, December 30, 1998
“Airlines Tally Bay Area Fog Delays”

“United Airlines alone canceled more than 200 flights serving San Francisco International Airport - about half of its normal volume there - before the fog gave way.”  “Stranded travelers waited hours... United was processing about 4,000 pieces of unclaimed luggage that had stacked up.”

Editor:- San Francisco’s 60 year-old airport’s runways are only 750 feet apart, too close for simultaneous instrument operations in bad weather.

The proposed El Toro airport will have the same deficiency.  Orange County plans call for moving two of the four military runways, but even after the change, the maximum spacing will be only 800 feet.  Simultaneous instrument operations will not be allowed.  This was the way airports were built in the 1960's. Denver’s new airport has a 5,280-foot separation. The Air Line Pilots Association has objected to El Toro’s closely spaced runways. 

"‘Cities need, metropolitan areas need, the transportation of the era to have a good economy,’ Cynthia Coad says. For Coad in this era, that means an El Toro airport.”

“Coad, 65, counts herself solidly in the pro-airport camp. She lives in unincorporated territory surrounded by Anaheim. Most of her Anaheim-based district is not expected to be directly affected by El Toro.”

“Her predecessor, William Steiner, supported an airport but occasionally voted with the opposition. Steiner's position was of enough concern to airport supporters on the board that they delayed a vote on a proposed El Toro flight demonstration until after Coad is sworn in.  Steiner objected to the demonstration, which will cost up to $2.8 million, because he thinks it won't change any minds... Coad still thinks it's a good idea.”

“Coad also supports interim cargo flights, which the county hopes to begin as soon as the base closes July 3.”

"‘Clearly she's looking at this issue through rose-colored glasses,’ says Bill Kogerman, leader of a south-county-based anti-airport group.”

Coad  “has at least one concern — safety...  Her husband's twin brother, a Navy reservist, died in a crash taking off from El Toro in 1969. His aircraft was mistakenly directed into Loma Ridge during bad weather.” 

“San Francisco International Airport has divided environmentalists here by coupling a proposal to build a huge landfill project in San Francisco Bay with an offer to restore 45 square miles of shoreline to wetlands.” The airport  plans “to fill as much as two square miles of the south bay to build new runways” and has proposed to purchase commercial salt ponds...in the bay in an environmental swap.

“Airport officials are convinced... that additional runways are essential to ease air traffic congestion, end chronic flight delays and accommodate ultra-large airliners expected to go into use by 2004. Hemmed in between U.S. 101 and the bay in San Mateo County, the airport's 60-year-old parallel runways are inadequate for handling air traffic at the nation's fifth-busiest airport, [airport spokesman] Wilson said. Because the two runways are separated by just 750 feet from center line to center line, the Federal Aviation Administration cuts landings in half during bad weather. “

Editor:- El Toro’s old runways are also spaced too closely for simultaneous instrument operations. 

"Every week the economy stays perking, the chances of El Toro Marine Corps air base's becoming an international airport grow slimmer.

Every week in south county, more jobs are created and more traffic congests the streets. That solidifies the anti-airport base. And the more high-end homes that are built in the area, the more ardent airport opponents are produced. As the economic boom takes hold in the northern part of the county, the support base will surely weaken.

Add to that the arrival of the final environmental impact report in '99, which many fence-sitters say is needed to make a final judgment. Bet that this report only sparks further opposition and becomes the death knell for this project.

What was born as an economic salve mid-recession, is slain by an economic revival that a new airport could only have dreamed of creating." 

“The U.S. Transportation Department in a ruling ... said nonstop flights can be operated out of Dallas Love Field airport... The decision contradicts a 30-year-old agreement”, between Dallas and Fort Worth, to restrict use of Love Field and bolster use of Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

The ruling may affect Orange County because county supervisors, by a 3-2 vote, propose to create a two-airport system here.  Their plan includes adding restrictions at  John Wayne Airport, similar to those at Love Field,  so as to force airline use of El Toro.  County staff  frequently points to Dallas-Fort Worth and Love Field as a successful two-airport system, but the comparison appears to be on shaky ground.

“Fort Worth was opposed to the proposed expanded service at Love Field airport, fearing such flights would create competition at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and adversely affect its economic interests.”

``’The Department of Transportation ruled today that applicable federal law does not permit the local restrictions as presently constituted on air service at Dallas Love Field,’' the ruling said...  The DOT in its ruling said it has the responsibility to determine whether current restrictions at Love Field are consistent with federal law. `The department relied on federal statutes and Congress' decision that state and local governments should not regulate airline services in a manner that would interfere with airline deregulation,’ the agency said.” 

Reuters,  December 22, 1998
“Minneapolis airport runway lawsuit filed”

“A Richfield, Minn., resident has filed a lawsuit to block a new runway at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Tuesday.”

“The suit, filed ... by a newly elected legislator from Richfield, claimed an environmental assessment for the north-south runway was inadequate, the report said.  The lawsuit was filed despite last week's approval by Metropolitan Airports Commission, which oversees the airport, of a $100 million plan for noise mitigation and other improvements in Richfield, in return for Richfield's agreement not to sue over the airport's $1.7 billion expansion project.” 

“The city plans to begin soundproofing as many as 1,000 homes near Van Nuys Airport next summer, countering criticism that millions of dollars have been spent on noise relief around LAX but nothing for neighbors of the smaller airfield....  No money has been spent, despite the fact that Mayor Richard Riordan first proposed a soundproofing program for Van Nuys three years ago and a study of noise problems at the airfield has been in the works for about 10 years.”

“Gerald Silver, president of Stop The Noise!, said soundproofing has started near LAX because Riordan and the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners need the support of Westchester and Playa del Rey residents to get approval for the [LAX] expansion. ‘There has been zero effort at mitigation, much less abatement of noise at Van Nuys Airport,’ Silver said.”

“Jack Driscoll, executive director of the Los Angeles Department of Airports, said that ...At an average of $15,000 per home, the total to retrofit all eligible homes around Van Nuys Airport could surpass $15 million.”

 “Given past problems, residents are skeptical of Driscoll's promise to launch a soundproofing program this summer. Others contend that soundproofing alone does not solve the problem. ‘You could end up being a prisoner of your home,’...’What happens if you want to go outside in the backyard? Soundproofing doesn't help then.’" 

Website Direct, December 17, 1998
Bill Kogerman honored by airport opponents

A full-house gathering of enthusiastic friends and admirers toasted and roasted Bill Kogerman today.  Kogerman is the Executive Director and unstoppable force behind Taxpayers for Responsible Planning.  TRP is the grass roots organization carrying the legal, lobbying and political ball in the fight to derail the El Toro airport project.  Proceeds from the luncheon will go into the organization’s war chest.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer applauded Kogerman’s determination by quoting Bill, who has said of the seesaw airport battle, “The game is not over till I decide it’s over.”  Supervisor Tom Wilson said, “Every battle needs a general, every cause needs a leader.  The El Toro battle will be won at the grass roots level and Bill Kogerman will make it happen.”  Newly elected State Assemblywoman Pat Bates called Kogerman a “hero” who does what he does, not for personal gain, but because “he believes in a just cause.” 

LA Times, December 17, 1998
“Supervisor Sees His Ambition Thwarted”
 “Politics: Wilson won't get chairmanship. Colleagues cite his opposition to
 plan for airport at El Toro site.”

“Supervisor Tom Wilson's bid to become chairman of the county Board of Supervisors in January has crumbled under the weight of opposition by supervisors who favor building a commercial airport at El Toro. Wilson, part of the 2-3 minority that opposes the airport, is next in line by seniority to step into the ceremonial job, which will be filled by the full board Jan. 5.”

“But current board Chairman Jim Silva and Supervisor Charles V. Smith said they cannot back Wilson for the chairmanship because of his anti-El Toro stance.” Wilson  met this week with incoming Supervisor Cynthia Coad, “who told him her vote was unlikely because of their opposing views on El Toro.”

“The chairman has only one vote on the five-member board but is in charge of overseeing items on the board's weekly agendas. Several key votes on El Toro, including approval of the environmental report, will take place next year.”  See related December 15 and 16 stories below. 

"Supervisor Chuck Smith asked for the delay... Supervisor William Steiner... believes it was postponed because he planned to oppose the demonstration.  He said the demonstration, which would cost up to $2.8 million, is a waste of money because it would not change anybody's mind."

Apparently pro airport Smith hopes that Steiner's replacement on the Board, Cynthia Coad, will vote  to conduct the demonstrations after she takes her seat in January.

Supervisor Tom Wilson blasted Smith's delaying tactic in a press release which stated, "I find it highly suspect that one of the most ardent supporters of an airport at El Toro, a Supervisor who has been privy to the information contained within the proposal, now finds that he needs more time to dot the i's and cross the t's.... Those who support an airport have proven that they will go out of their way to get their way and thwart the process."

Wilson, who is Board of Supervisors Vice-Chairman and next in line to become Chairman next year also commented on "rumors that ... Smith...is maneuvering to become Chairman of the Board in place of him.  'If this is the kind of tactic that he would exhibit as Chairman in order to push the pro airport agenda, it could be a sad day for good governance in the County.'"

The Board of Supervisors, in their role as the Local Redevelopment Agency for MCAS El Toro, failed to give proper public notification of its meeting to consider the proposed aircraft flight demonstration.  Therefore, the meeting, scheduled for this morning to review and vote on the controversial plan, could not be held. Pro-airport Supervisor Chuck Smith wanted the delay. The matter has been postponed until sometime in January.

Previously, the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission failed to get a meeting quorum and did not act on the proposal.

Supervisor Tom Wilson announced that he is seeking the Chairmanship of the Board of Supervisors when it reorganizes on January 5th.  Wilson is currently the vice-Chair and is the next in line for Chairman based on seniority. His agenda includes seeing to it that, "any information regarding airport agenda items should be made available at least ten days before any vote."  He favors "expanding access to county government by residents" and "increasing the flow of information".

Wilson represents the 5th District which is the geographically largest and most populous in the county. Nevertheless, it is anticpated that anti-airport forces will try to deny the Chairmanship to Wilson and hand it to one of their own.

"The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners Tuesday awarded a $835,000 contract for residential soundproofing work near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The contract... covers sound insulation modifications on 35 single and multifamily residences located in neighboring Westchester and Playa del Rey. This contract award brings the total number of homes completed or in the process of soundproofing construction to 567. The residences are outfitted with dual-paned windows, solid-core doors, attic insulation and other necessary soundproofing improvements.

LAX's noise mitigation program includes nearly 9,000 residences in the Los Angeles communities of Westchester, Playa del Rey and South Los Angeles with a recorded Community Noise Equivalency Level (CNEL) of 65 decibels or higher." 

"The union representing most of the nation's airline pilots has presented the FAA and industry representatives with its criteria that must be met before pilots can continue to safely accept simultaneous operations at intersecting runways.

If the FAA cannot adequately address ALPA's concerns by Feb. 19, 1999, the union has announced that it will recommend that pilots not perform the "land and hold short" (LAHSO) type of operation.

A LAHSO operation typically involves two aircraft operating on separate but intersecting runways. To increase airport
capacity, the landing aircraft would be asked to stop and "hold short" at the intersection with the other runway until the
second aircraft finishes its takeoff."

Editor:- El Toro has intersecting runways. 

Bruce Wetsel, Manager of the Aviation Team for the county's El Toro Master Development Program has resigned.  Wetsel was the El Toro project's most experience aviation operations professional.  He has more than 25 years of executive experience with four different major airlines. He has held management positions in pricing, scheduling, fleet planning, marketing, route planning and government affairs with United Airlines. He was responsible for long range and strategic planning for Frontier Airlines. In 1980, Wetsel joined AirCalifornia as a vice president and later became Assistant Vice President and Managing Director of American Airlines where he was responsible for many of American's planning systems, schedule analysis and five year plan.

He will be moving to South Lake Tahoe to head a start-up commercial airline being formed there.  We wish him well. 

The so called El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission “couldn’t make formal recommendations Thursday on a controversial flight demonstration because only five members showed up for a meeting... Courtney Wiercioch, the county’s lead planner on the airport proposal, kept asking commissioners, ‘Well, what do I tell the Board [of Supervisors]on Thursday?’”

What she did hear was the following: - Bruce Nestande, standing in for the absent George Argyros, did not want the noisy Boeing 747 to be included in the test .  However, as it stands right now, “The flight test includes a 747 because it is part of the expected mix of aircraft at the airport.”.

David Markley of the ETCAC, said he is against the demonstration because of its multi-million dollar cost and “because airplanes will takeoff and land on proposed flight paths already objected to by one major airline, an industry trade group an the pilots unions.  ‘It occurs to me, before spending a whole lot of money on this, the county ought to check with the airlines and pilots first’, Markley said.”

Bill Kogerman, head of anti-airport Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, “pointed out that county officials already have stated publicly that despite the cost of the flights and noise monitoring, the anticipated demonstration will not be considered a scientific test.” 

OC Register, December 10, 1998
“Airport study:  Noise low for most of O.C.”
“Additional noise measures for airport may give fuller picture.”
“Airport foes call the county’s noise-averaging measures misleading.”

A county funded computer-generated study showed, that, “‘The vast majority of Orange County’s 2.6 million residents, north and south, will experience little or no noise from the new airport.’  [according to] El Toro reuse project manager Courtney Wiercioch.” “Airport opponents, however, say the new noise measures do not fairly represent what people will have to live with.”

“No home would experience more than 65 Community Noise Equivalent Level [CNEL] - the industry threshold for unacceptable noise in a residential community, county officials said.”  Homes near the flight path in Leisure World will get 64 decibels. “According to the county’s report, two schools are just outside the 65 CNEL cutoff:  Aliso Niguel High School and Aliso Viejo Middle School.”

“Wednesdays report assumed that 53 percent of El Toro’s takeoffs would be to the east... Pilots have called the runways that head uphill into the mountains with tailwinds unsafe, but county officials said a change in runways would not significantly change the noise footprint.”

ETRPA representatives were excluded from a portion of  the county presentation and hampered from making reasonable comments on it.  See the ETRPA letter protesting the county handling of this matter.

Editor:- The report was done for Airport Option C, which depends on keeping John Wayne Airport open at current or slightly increased operating levels.  Under what many consider the more likely Option B, in which John Wayne usage shrinks, or in the event of the closing of John Wayne to commercial airliners, El Toro noise would increase.

The use of the CNEL averaging technique has been widely criticized.  For a study of actual noise complaints at John Wayne and how they relate to CNEL data, click here. 

LA Times Metro Editorial, December 9, 1998
“Airport:  Issue for Entire Region”

The Times editorial welcomed LA Mayor Richard Riordan’s recent comments on the need for regional airport planning and chided those in Orange County who said he “should mind his own business.”  The Times notes that airports create “sacrifice” but, “Looking at the big picture is important.”

Editor:-  We would have been more pleased with the editorial if the writer had noted that the big picture includes not only LAX, JWA and El Toro, which were mentioned, but Ontario, Long Beach, March, Southern California International, Burbank and Palmdale which are also part of the regional solution. 

Irvine City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to move ahead with their effort to annex the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and James A. Musick jail.  The move is one of dozens of different strategies - some long shots and some highly probable - available to opponents working to stop the airport project.

“Irvine city limits already encompass 400 acres of the 4,700 acre base.  Years ago, the Local Agency Formation Commission [LAFCO] designated the entire base to someday become part of the city.”  If Irvine succeeds, planning for the property would move out of County hands into that of the anti-airport city’s.  Click for more on the annexation procedure.

“Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan waded into one of Orange County's most divisive issues Monday when he enthusiastically endorsed plans to build an international airport near Irvine, accusing the project's opponents of immorally ignoring the needs of the poor.”

“Riordan was invited to address the $250-a-plate luncheon by Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, an Orange County organization [founded by George Argyros] pushing for construction of a civilian commercial airport on the site of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. “

Opponents of the El Toro airport accused him of pressing for regional airport expansion “as a way of helping strengthen his case for an expanded Los Angeles International, which is facing a serious, well-organized opposition campaign in the neighborhoods nearby.” "‘We think that the mayor probably is being used by the political action committee that brought him down here,’ said Paul Eckles, executive director of El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a group of southern Orange County cities that opposes converting the abandoned military base into a commercial airport. Riordan, according to Eckles, ‘has not been adequately briefed’ about the El Toro debate.”

“Time and again, Riordan urged members of the audience to consider the poor when debating the El Toro airport.”

In an interview after his speech, Riordan was particularly stinging in his critique of environmentalists who oppose El Toro or LAX. "‘An environmentalist is a multimillionaire who just closed escrow on his beach house,’ Riordan said. ‘Do you want the poor to starve while you sit at the beach?’”    ETRPA’s Eckles responded,  "‘I don't think any of us is unsympathetic to the poor, but . . . that's one of the more bizarre notions that I've ever heard.’" 

“A beefed-up El Toro flight demonstration proposal to be presented to the Board of Supervisors Wednesday includes two new components:  takeoffs and landings at night an at least eight noise monitors.”

The flight path for the test “duplicates flight paths the county hopes to use if El Toro becomes a commercial airport.  The noise monitors would be along those paths.’’ The monitors will be in Monarch Beach (Dana Point), Woods Canyon Elementary School (Aliso Viejo), Leisure World Clubhouse #4, Coto de Caza, Lake Forest, Ranch Santa Margarita, Northwood (Irvine) and Anaheim Hills.

“The two major US airline pilots unions have challenged those takeoff patterns as unsafe because they head into the foothills.”

Supervisor William Steiner “said he .. is concerned about the cost - estimated at $2 million to $2.8 million.”  ETRPA Chairman Richard Dixon called the test a colossal waste of taxpayer money and noted that county “staff says it has no scientific validity.”  The south-county group will demand that an environmental impact report be done before the test proceeds. 

Public Perspective is the newsletter of the seven cities that developed the Millennium Plan, the official non-aviation alternative for El Toro reuse.  The latest issue of the newsletter is on-line with articles of great importance.  Read why Absence of El Toro Doesn't Mean Expansion of John Wayne, about Colorado's Lowry AFB which should be a model for El Toro reuse, and a thoughtful clergyman's viewpoint on Humanizing the El Toro Airport Issue. 

County staffers met with United Airlines in Chicago in July and were told that the carrier opposes the county’s two-airport plan with a connecting people mover.  United summarized its opposition in a July 8, 1998 letter to County staff, a consultant and attorney Mike Gatzke.

On September 15, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to adopt just such a plan as their preferred alternative.  They also voted to begin a multi-million dollar environmental impact report on the unpopular two-airport project.

It was not until three months later, on October 8, that El Toro Program manager Courtney Wiercioch wrote to her boss, Jan Mittermeier,  that the United Airlines letter existed.  She then produced it, in delayed response to an August request from Supervisor Tom Wilson.  Wilson had requested any evidence of  airline interest in El Toro.

The letter was released too late to play a role in the September 15 Board action and has only recently been made available to the public. 

LA Times, December 3, 1998
“Residents List Concerns for El Toro Environmental Study”

“Besides worries about noise, traffic and air pollution, South County residents are concerned about the impact of around-the-clock flights and the relocation costs for people forced to move if a commercial airport is built at El Toro.”   Those were some of the comments made at the County’s only public hearing on a new environmental impact report for El Toro.

“Several speakers demanded that letters from the Air Line Pilots Association and the Air Transport Assn., which represents the nation’s major airlines, be included in the report.  Both groups are critical of plans to offer commercial flights at both John Wayne Airport and El Toro.”

Noting that the true flight paths from El Toro are still up in the air, one resident said “‘I would put a for-sale sign on my house today, but I don’t know where they are going to fly so I don’t know where to move.’” 

NOVEMBER

Website direct, November 29, 1998
Meeting to discuss new El Toro environmental impact report

The County is holding one public meeting on the preparation of a new EIR for the commercial airports in Orange County.  After the EIR is prepared in draft form next summer, additional comments will be taken.  The meeting will be held on Wednesday evening, December 2.  Click for details.

Written comments may be submitted until December 18 to Mr. Bryan Speegle, 10 Civic Center Plaza, PO Box 4048, Santa Ana CA 92702-4048. 

“A new alternative to Los Angeles International Airport expansion addressed noise, traffic and pollution concerns but the mayor of a neighboring city [El Segundo] said it isn't enough.”

“The proposal calls for moving cargo operations to the airport's northern and eastern boundaries, adding an expressway from the San Diego Freeway to help keep traffic off surface streets and building a 6,700-foot runway exclusively for arrivals on the southern edge.”

“It was the latest airport expansion option designed to increase operations from the 60 million passengers who passed through in 1997 to 98 million by 2015. Cargo operations are expected to double during the same time, from 2.1 million tons to 4.2 million tons.”

“Neighbors and others who crowded the meeting room... said...they want the city's more remote airports, in Ontario and Palmdale, to take a much bigger share of future air operations.” 

“Fliers reading "NOTICE TO VACATE!" were distributed Wednesday to about 500 businesses near John Wayne Airport.” Russell Niewiarowski, who lives near John Wayne, and favors an airport at El Toro,  “wanted to make sure business owners knew their property conceivably could be used for [JWA] airport expansion.”

"‘The fact is that the county's Plan G, which would expand John Wayne, is a paper alternative to the controversial proposal for a commercial airport at El Toro. It is to be included in next year's environmental study of the El Toro proposal simply to ensure that the study cannot later be thrown out as incomplete’, said Supervisor Tom Wilson.”

"‘(Niewiarowski's flier) has no purpose other than to pour fuel on the fire’ said Wilson, ...’It's to incite people to rally for El Toro.’" 

The Air Line Pilots Association, representing 50,000 commercial pilots, is objecting to increased use of crossing runways such as the County plans for El Toro.  Using a monitoring system developed by NASA, the ALPA reported 69 near collisions on such runways in the U.S. between January 1, 1997 and October 1998.

The El Toro plan calls for aircraft to land on Runway 34 from the south while other planes take off on the intersecting Runway 7 to the east. The ALPA report raises new questions about the safety and built-in obsolescence of El Toro.  Most new airports are being designed with widely spaced parallel runways.

The pilots' organization is negotiating with the FAA over the hazard.  It may issue instructions to pilots to refuse "land and hold short procedures" which require incoming pilots to stop short of the crossing runways so as to allow another aircraft to depart across their line of travel.  See related story below. 

Mike Shelton's cartoon spotlights the air line industry's opposition to the County two-airport plan. For more on why John Wayne and El Toro can not fly together click here. 

“Problems with a new radar system used to track planes in the nation’s five busiest airport regions, including Southern California, have forced two facilities to revert to older equipment and raised concerns about safety.”  Air traffic controllers for John Wayne Airport complained about lost data with the new system which was installed in the Southern California tracking center at Miramar in San Diego County, “the busiest tracking facility in the world”.  “Miramar tracks 2.5 million arrivals and departures a year at John Wayne, Los Angeles International, Long Beach, Burbank, Van Nuys, San Diego Lindbergh field and Ontario International airports.”

Click for more about the trouble-plagued tracking system and former FAA Administrator David Hinson. 

Website Direct, November 17, 1998
Air Transport Association letter surfaces.
ATA expresses serious concerns about El Toro plan.

An October 16, 1998 letter from Neil Bennett, Western Regional Director for the Air Transport Association, to Courtney Wiercioch, expresses “very serious concerns about the El Toro master plan.”  The letter was just made available and has yet to be seen by all Supervisors. The airline industry group remains “supportive of any initiative to provide additional cost-effective airport capacity in Orange County”, provided important issues are resolved.

The letter questions a central element of the county’s airport plan, a two-airport system, stating, “the carriers question how a system in which both John Wayne and El Toro operate as commercial airlines can be financially justified.”   The carriers also challenge the perimeter rules, under which the county hopes to operate short-haul flights from John Wayne and long-haul from El Toro.  “The perimeter rule would actually force most of the carriers serving John Wayne, should it remain open, to discontinue service there.”

The ATA further questions the “people mover” or rail link between the two airports as “an unnecessary cost burden”  and states, “We do not believe that there are any operational benefits associated with it.”

On another note, the industry group again raises objections to curfews and other flight restrictions at El Toro.  “The airlines consider any such restrictions unacceptable.”

The airlines also say they “would like the planning to reflect the impact of the prevailing winds and the adjoining mountainous terrain, factors that will ultimately determine what type of operations we can safely conduct.”  The Air Line Pilots Association has already stated that these factors indicate a need to tear up El Toro’s runways and redirect flight paths. 

Website Direct, November 16, 1998
UCI Releases More of 1998 Orange County Survey
"Confidence in Economy and Government on Rebound"

“Satisfaction with the Orange County way of life is at an all-time high.”

“For the first time since the bankruptcy, ratings of county government improved.  Thirty-eight percent now think the county government does an excellent or good job of solving county problems, a 12-point increase from a year ago.”  However, “Forty-three percent disapprove of the county government's handling of the El Toro issue.”

Regarding airports, the poll showed that “John Wayne Airport continues to be viewed in a favorable light. When asked how they think the county's air travel needs should be met, half say they would like to have John Wayne Airport continue to be Orange County's only commercial airport. One in three would like to develop El Toro as an international airport and continue to use John Wayne as a commercial airport. Only 13% want to close John Wayne and develop El Toro as Orange County's only commercial airport. The results were similar last year.”

“North County residents are almost evenly divided between preferring to meet Orange County's air travel needs with John Wayne only and wanting two airports (41% vs. 37%), while two in three South County residents favor continuing to use John Wayne as the only Orange County airport."  For the entire report from UCI, click  http://www.communications.uci.edu/~inform/ocas98/index.html

El Toro Airport proponents in the County are so anxious to push through their $2-3 million flight demos that they’ve taken a few shortcuts.  For example, they seem to have forgotten to ask the Marines, who own the base, if it was okay with them.

Colonel S. F. Muggs, Commanding Officer of MCAS El Toro sent a letter dated October 28, 1998 to County CEO Jan Mittermeier as follows:  “I have noted in the press as well as in discussions at the MCAS El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority meetings on the 6th and 20th of October that a flight demonstration and cargo flight operations are being proposed for MCAS El Toro.  As a reminder, to date, the United States Marine Corps has not received from the Local Redevelopment Authority any formal request to conduct cargo flight operations or a flight demonstration...”

The letter continues, “After receipt of a formal request, the Marine Corps must make a determination concerning the feasibility of the request...”

On November 12, 1998, the anti-airport El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, ETRPA, wrote to General Charles C. Krulak, Commandant of the Marine Corps asking that MCAS not be used for a flight demonstration, “without a least requiring the preparation of an EIS [Environmental Impact Study].”  The ETRPA letter points out that the County “has stated that the demonstration is only intended to provide the public with a ‘snap-shot’... and such information can easily be obtained by visiting John Wayne Airport or Los Angeles Airport with out spending $2,000,000 for a scientifically meaningless test.”

Supervisor Chuck Smith is leaving for Washington to push for the airport project. 

Hugh Hewitt, Republican, author, and law professor at Chapman University suggests that Republicans can afford to lose “small-talk” elections in order to concentrate on the big nationally important races.  He writes that, “The local [Orange County] GOP moved long ago to address the two issues most critical to its success over the next two election cycles: (1) minority voter outreach and (2) opposition to the airport at El Toro.”

“On the latter point, the discussion over El Toro reopened the Irvine city Council to Agran.  Many now suspect that it is crucial for the local GOP to fashion and sell the compromise that John Wayne will stay small and El Toro will remain empty.”  Otherwise, Hewitt surmises, “endless infighting” will “threaten a more important [Republican] agenda”. 

USA Today, November 13, 1998
“Pilots: Runway crossings a safety hazard”

“The British Airways 747, packed with 335 passengers, roared down runway 14R at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, gathering speed for takeoff.  A short hop across the airport, a smaller United Airlines 737 with 80 people aboard chirped onto runway 27L for a landing that pointed it directly toward the jumbo jet's path.”

“In a practice common in airports across the nation, the United pilot had been cleared to land after promising to stop before reaching the 747's runway. But on this day in May 1997, strong winds made touchdowns less predictable. The United jet could not stop in time.”

“Fortunately, an air traffic controller spotted the problem and ordered the British Airways pilot to abort his takeoff. The heavily loaded jet screeched to a stop, blowing six tires, locking 12 brakes and shocking a planeload of travelers... the jumbo jet came to rest 2,000 feet from the 737 - a distance traversed in a few eye blinks when a plane reaches airspeed.”

“'It is our view that this practice is inherently flawed,’ wrote Capt. J.A. Passmore, British Airways chief of safety, in a letter to the FAA after the Chicago incident.”

“Use of intersecting runways currently is allowed at night and in wet conditions only at a handful of airports on a test basis. Air traffic controllers generally agree with pilots that using intersecting runways can be hazardous.”

Editor:- County plans for El Toro include intersecting runways.  The Air Line Pilots Association has recommended that they be torn up and reoriented for safety reasons, if El Toro is built. 

The Business Journal examines the drop in utilization of JWA and concludes in part that, "John Wayne's cap of 8.4 million passengers annually appears to be the most significant reason for the decline. Last year's 7.7 million passengers was the closest that airlines came to the cap. But the fact that they are not growing closer to the cap is a sign the airlines have not yet figured out what to charge their customers."

The website looked at the issue and concluded that the artificial limits on John Wayne utilization force the airlines to fly with five million empty seats.  Consequently they do not offer low fares to fill the vacancies.  

Editor:- FedEx is seen as the cargo carrier currently most interested in an El Toro operation.  The company's labor problems might impact on this contemplated expansion. 

Website Direct, November 9, 1998
An Incident at San Francisco International - A Warning for El Toro

An alert website viewer steers us to a report on a near fatal crash into the hills at SFO.  A Hong Kong bound 747, with 400 passengers,  narrowly avoids the terrain and the headlines when an engine fails on takeoff. The facts are confirmed by an industry source and point out the hazards of takeoffs into El Toro's surrounding mountains.  See our updated pages on safety and engine failures. 

Website Direct, November 7, 1998
Tom Wilson:  CAC “wings... have just been clipped.”

Supervisor Tom Wilson released a statement critical of the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission, “CAC has attempted to both thwart Board authority over the [El Toro] reuse process and conduct its own activities in support of a commercial airport.”   For example, CAC has been aggressively pushing for cargo flights to be started at the Marine base.

Wilson’s statement noted that, “Newport Beach resident and ardent supporter of an airport at El Toro, Mr. George Argyros... sits as a CAC member.”  Wilson objects to the commissioners pro-airport efforts and took the question of CAC authority to County Counsel for clarification.

County counsel Laurence M. Watson’s November 5 reply was unambiguous.  “The CAC serves in a strictly advisory capacity to the Board of Supervisors.”  The commission has no powers beyond reviewing and making recommendations.  “The Board need not wait any set amount of time for the CAC to submit its recommendations.”  In a CAC action opposing the ETRPA non-aviation plan, “the CAC is not binding upon the Board of Supervisors.”  Watson stated that there is no requirement that the County provide any staff support to the CAC.

“This issue is clear:  The CAC has consistently overstepped their legal limits”, asserted Supervisor Wilson after receiving Counsel’s letter.  “They are purely an advisory commission and nothing more.  They thought they had wings, but in my estimation, they’ve just been clipped!” 

Dave Sullivan, November 6, 1998
Sullivan letter sent to the website, thanks his supporters and predicts that a county-wide ballot measure against El Toro Airport can win.

"The county's preferred plan for a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station includes some expansion of terminal facilities at John Wayne Airport. It has been common knowledge that Plan C calls for annual passengers at John Wayne to increase to 10.1 million by 2020, which city leaders have accepted as a compromise to having a 24 million-annual-passenger international airport at El Toro. But it hasn't been widely known that the preferred plan could mean additional gates, baggage facilities, more parking and possible airfield improvements at John Wayne."

Newport Beach area residents are worried that the County's insistence on meeting aviation needs locally, rather than using remote airports like Ontario and March, will impact them.

Editor:- This fear may provide additional pressure on the County to abandon the two-commercial-airport concept and go for one huge airport at El Toro. 

"NPR's Steve Inskeep reports from Louisville, Kentucky, where city officials plan to move all 18-hundred residents of       Minor Lane Heights to a new location because of excessive airport noise.  The problem started when Louisville doubled the size of its airport and significantly increased air traffic, mainly flights from United Parcel Service. The relocation will cost 120 million dollars in local and federal money."

Altogether, the  City is buying 4,000 homes and relocating 12,000 people because of the noise. 

“One of the what-ifs about an El Toro airport is what if it doesn't get built?”

“Two John Wayne expansion concepts are among seven alternatives that will be included in the [county’s new] El Toro environmental impact report.  One expansion concept, Alternative F, envisions John Wayne nearly doubling to about 14 million annual passengers using up all the available space at the existing airfield.”

“The other John Wayne scenario, Alternative G, sees the airport growing to 25 million annual passengers. County planners say the expansion would require a major acquisition of land around John Wayne to allow a new 8,000-foot runway to be built. The runway would extend over the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway.”

Bill Kogerman, head of Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, “criticized the commission for bringing up the expansion alternatives. He noted Supervisor Tom Wilson tried to get them removed from the plan but failed after the county's outside attorney said they were needed to produce a valid environmental impact report. ‘This is just political — to keep the people around John Wayne scared it's going to increase dramatically,’ Kogerman said.”

The Newport Beach based Airport Working Group tried to drum up these fears by sending 100,000 “official-looking mailers” to residents in the area, stating “If El Toro Airport is not built - John Wayne will expand.”  Barbara Lichman, of the Airport Working Group, stated, "If, in fact, El Toro does not go forward, the only existing (airport) alternative is John Wayne."

The 85 or so residents who attended the meeting were not buying into the rhetoric.  After county staff and consultants explained the two JWA expansion alternatives, several members of the audience expressed a preference for putting any new airport, not at El Toro, but where people don’t live.  Speakers favored improving ground transportation to existing outlying airports.

A representative of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA)  stated that both John Wayne and El Toro are poorly situated for a 21st century modern airport.  The South County cities, around El Toro, see reasons for working with Newport area citizens to find a mutually beneficial solution to the region’s transportation needs.  The proposal was well received by the audience. 

“Bolstered by a blood oath to escalate the fight over the proposed El Toro airport into a full-out war, former Mayor Larry Agran won a seat on the [Irvine] City Council... Agran pledged to do what it takes to stop airport conversion plans for El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and replace them with non-airport development more compatible with the city’s 27-year-old general plan.”

“That includes unleashing the city’s attorneys to more aggressively fight the airport, he said.”

Fellow airport opponent Bill, Kogerman, head of Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, said, “‘I think Larry’s very focused on this issue and he’ll move that city to places it has not gone.’”

Presently, 440 acres of the Marine base are within the Irvine city limits and the entire base property is considered to be in Irvine’s “sphere of influence.”  The city has initiated action to annex the property, a move which would kill the airport if it succeeds. 

Don’t have hopes for a curfew at El Toro.  The city of Burbank and the airport authority have been in dispute for years.

"The crux of the conflict: Officials in Burbank want a curfew and a cap on
flights to protect nearby areas from more noise and pollution.. Airport
officials say they can't grant those restrictions, arguing that only the
federal government has the power to do so."

Incumbent Supervisor Jim Silva defeated anti-airport challenger Dave Sullivan with 55.5% of the vote versus Sullivan’s 44.1.  The 2nd District supervisorial race was marked by bitter personal attacks on the intelligence and integrity of the candidates.  It was also one of the costliest in county history with heavy last minute spending by “independent expenditure committees” whose contributions are not listed as part of the regular campaign reporting.  The race had been seen as a long-shot attempt to unseat the incumbent and was a potent, even if unsuccessful, flexing of muscle by South County.

Cynthia Coad replaces the retiring William Steiner as 4th District supervisor.  The Board of Supervisors will continue its 3-2 pro-airport orientation for at least another two years.  As a result of the acrimony of the Silva-Sullivan battle, and with the loss of the sometimes moderate Steiner, the Board is seen as more seriously split than ever on the issue.

A ballot measure, asking the voters of the county to overturn the airport plan is now seen as a certainty.  Recent county-wide polls show that such a referendum has an excellent chance of success.

Anti-airport leaders gained ground in the cities that surround the Marine base. This should lead to more aggressive efforts by the seven-city El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA) to combat the airport plans..

Larry Agran, head of  Project 99, won the most votes for Irvine City Council.  Irvine voters also gave overwhelming support to an advisory Measure D that states their preference for the non-aviation Millennium Plan for the base.  As a result, Irvine is expected to play a stronger role than ever in the debate over base reuse.

Richard Dixon, Chairman of ETRPA, easily won reelection to his seat in Lake Forest.  Wayne Rayfield, running on his strong anti-airport credentials, won top votes in a crowded slate of Dana Point candidates.

Website Direct, November 2, 1998
County Ads Promote Silva’s Position

The county has stepped into the supervisorial debate, using taxpayer money to promote the position of incumbent Jim Silva.  County officials have placed ads in numerous newspapers extolling the Airport and Open Space Plan selected by “a majority of the Board of Supervisors”.  While the ads do not name the candidates in the crucial 2nd District, they tout the need for the airport which Silva supports.  The ads go on to provide a “Traffic Comparison” which suggests that the airport plan is superior to the “ETRPA Nonaviation Millennium Plan” which Sullivan supports.

The timing of the expensive multi-color ads, the week before the election, is highly suspect. 

OC Register, November 2, 1998
“Airport poll:  For 41% it’s not personal”
“Poll:  It is a matter of convenience vs. annoyance although quality of life remains a major concern.”

“Nearly half of Orange County residents think an El Toro airport would have little or no effect on their lives, according to a new Orange County Register poll.  The poll shows that despite the millions of dollars and thousands of hours spent by El Toro partisans, 41 percent of Orange County residents say the airport wouldn't affect them significantly.”

The Register telephone poll, conducted September 22 - October 1 asked 503 residents their views on “growth and development.”  “If a new international airport is built at El Toro, do you think it would have a positive impact, a negative impact or little or no impact on your life.”  The results:

 Positive impact - 26%
 Negative impact - 29%
 Little or no impact - 41%
 Not certain - 4%

LA Times Travel Section, November 1, 1998
“Can WinAir Lift Up Long Beach Airport?”

“The Long Beach Airport which has languished for years as an underexploited resource for travelers, is suddenly buzzing with talk of a new airline and new possibilities.”  WinAir has plans to fly “from Long Beach to five major western cities” and “a few million consumers in southern Los Angeles County and northern Orange County may have a new departure point to consider.”

Long Beach has 41 “slots” for daily departures and is looking to serve 2 million annual passengers in the near future. 

OC Register, October 31, 1998
“Key race nears wire with 62% undecided”
“The supervisorial contest between Sullivan and Silva is likely to determine the swing vote on an El Toro airport.”

“Most voters in the county’s 2nd Supervisorial District are still undecided between Jim Silva and Dave Sullivan and those who
have made up their mind are about evenly split between the two candidates according to a California State University, Fullerton
poll released Friday.”

Editor:- Silva supporters sent a new mailer charging that “South County millionaires... don’t care about us, they have
their own agenda... Dave Sullivan’s South County sponsors want to build an airport here”, at Los Alamitos.

The Los Alamitos Air Station is not on a base closure list.  The Silva camp, and pro-El Toro Airport forces in the
county, have been employing deceitful scare tactics to suggest that the inevitable result of not building El Toro is to
expand John Wayne and build a commercial airport at Los Alamitos.  See article below. 

The Airport Working Group, a Newport Beach organization promoting a commercial airport at El Toro, has sent voters near
John Wayne Airport a pre-Halloween scare.  The groups latest mailer announces that “If El Toro Airport is not built - John
Wayne will expand.”

The mailer, timed for just before the November 3 election, parrots a theme that the Silva campaign hopes will frighten voters
away from the anti-airport Dave Sullivan.

The scare piece suggests that the Orange County Airport Commission and the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission have the
expansion of John Wayne as major items on their upcoming meeting agendas. In fact, the expansion study is a small technical
component of the El Toro environmental impact report due out next summer.  Supervisor Tom Wilson had sought to have the
study deleted but county council said it must be done for legal reasons.

The Airport Working Group’s address is 1048 Irvine Avenue, Suite 467, Newport Beach 92660 but the group employs an
Irvine address when communicating with the general public.  The mailer was sent by FedEx. 

"Site plans have been unveiled for an international air cargo center and business hub at the former George Air Force Base by
STIRLING, a Laguna Hills-based strategic, full-service, value-added development company specializing in master-planning
and major land redevelopment."

"Well positioned to serve as the second international gateway for Southern California, SCIA will support increasing
international air cargo operations, forecasted to grow from 2.65 to 8.9 million tons per year over the next 16 years (SCAG
1998 Regional Transportation Plan).

Currently, SCIA has two (10,047-foot and 9,136-foot) runways that benefit from 360 days of good flying weather and 2,000
acres of land designated for facilities development. At completion, SCIA has a projected capability to handle more than
4-million tons of air cargo per year, a major portion of the region's forecasted growth.

Located in the City of Victorville, approximately 10 minutes off Interstate 15 in the southeast corner of the Mojave Desert,
SCIA is approximately 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles County and 40 minutes north of Ontario Airport (ONT).
Victorville... has its own air-traffic corridor, just north of the crowded flight lane that is shared by LAX and the other Southern
California airports. Click for more.

The Wall Street Journal, covering the same story, notes, "[There is] no residential neighborhood near the facility... By contrast,
efforts to turn the soon-to-be-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a passenger and cargo airport have ignited a
political war in Orange County."

Also ready to handle the region's cargo needs, the former March Air Force Base is open for business now. 

“Passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport dipped 4.5 percent in September, to 577,892, compared to the same month in 1997.
For the year, passenger traffic has fallen 4 percent...Commuter airline passenger traffic is off... 34.8 percent for the year.” This
was the eight consecutive month to fall below last year's usage.

Editor:- The decline is part of a continuing trend that raises questions about the need for a second county airport.    

In what can be considered as a plus for supervisorial challenger Dave Sullivan and a slap at the incumbent, the Times
criticized the Board of Supervisors for lack of leadership and declined to endorse the re-election of pro-airport
Supervisor Jim Silva.

“Where are the high-caliber public servants who can look beyond today’s political wrangling to set a course for the next
century? Will the impasse over El Toro have to be cleared away in the end by judges?”

Heaping faint praise on both candidates, the Times called Silva “a solid citizen who has an even disposition, a sense of fair play
and an agreeable personality” [without] “any overarching vision of what county government ought to be all about.” Of Dave
Sullivan the Times says he “might serve credibly enough” but his campaign so far has “failed to ignite confidence that he offers a
really strong alternative.”

“In the 2nd District, we make no endorsement.” 

The OC Weekly article beats up on Supervisor Jim Silva something awful, using language we would not employ. However,
the story contains information about the candidate that we've not seen published elsewhere, which makes it a must read. 

"Monitoring noise levels during proposed flight tests... is a waste of time and money... What seems certain is a test is unlikely to
provide any definitive results or sway deeply entrenched opinions."

The editorial concludes that with the latest delay in planning the flight demo, "By the time the deadline arrives, two supervisors
races will have been decided, which could shift the board to an anti-airport tilt. The delay, then, may not be so bad in that
citizens at least will know where the project stands politically before spending $2 million on a flight test of questionable
reliability." 

After calling the $2 million flight demo "wasteful", Supervisor Bill Steiner voted for a proposal to conduct them anyway.
At the suggestion of pro-airport Supervisor Chuck Smith, some limited noise measurements were added to make the effort
look less like a public relations show. Smith, Supervisor Jim Silva, and the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission, a
pro-airport county commission which includes George Argyros, all are promoting the demo.

Flight paths for the demo are those that the Air Line Pilots Association has said it opposes, because of safety concerns.

Supervisor Tom Wilson, sometimes mislabelled as a proponent of flight tests, because of statements made in the past when
there was hope that they might be realistic, voted No.  "For two million dollars, all we will have basically achieved is to create
one of the greatest and most expensive excuses ever to go outside and look up at the sky", he said. Supervisor Todd Spitzer
voted with Wilson in a 3-2 effort to deny the staff recommendation to conduct the demo. Spitzer did vote to require staff is to
return in 45 days with more information for the Board's further consideration. No contracts or committments were set. 

“The proposed El Toro airport and deciding on the power of the county executive officer have suddenly turned the sleepy 4th
Supervisorial District race upside down....outgoing Supervisor William G. Steiner decided to endorse Cynthia Coad over his
friend Lou Lopez, an Anaheim councilman.”

“Lopez says he will not support an airport without a curfew such as the night-flight ban at John Wayne Airport. Lopez said he
can not overlook the many concerns about the potential [airport] traffic and pollution problems... ‘My constituents are
worried.’”

“Orange Taxpayers and the [3,000 member] Committees of Correspondence, made up of homeowners groups and taxpayers
associations, is backing Lopez.”

Editor:- Meanwhile, in the 2nd District, supervisorial challenger Dave Sullivan is gaining rapidly on pro-airport
incumbent Jim Silva in what has become a tight race.   

“‘What’s the point?... I don’t know who this is expected to influence,’ Steiner said” of the county’s plan for an El Toro flight
demonstration. “Steiner said the $2 million expenditure seems wasteful.”

“The county does not intend to measure the noise because, officials say, such a small demonstration would not be scientifically
valid.” Editor:- Airport opponents say that the county’s planned demonstration is a costly publicity stunt and does not
met criteria for a true test. 

“In the increasingly spirited campaign for the 2nd District supervisorial seat, challenger Dave Sullivan has enlisted the unplanned
help of Supervisor Todd Spitzer in a mailer that questions the integrity and honesty of 2nd District incumbent Jim Silva.”

“Sullivan’s latest mailer... quotes Spitzer as saying, ‘Jim Silva tells the public he is going to do one thing - then he breaks his
word to the voters. It goes to his integrity and honesty.’” Spitzer had intended his comments criticizing Silva to be private but
“‘Jim Silva decided to talk about it to the press,’ he [Spitzer] said.” 

“The planned 24 mile [Eastern] toll road will link the Inland Empire to Orange County... Corona to the Irvine Spectrum.” The
new toll road will make Ontario Airport and the cargo airport at the former March Air Force Base more accessible to OC
users. 

The draft environmental report is expected to be completed in late summer of next year. Written comments on the Notice of
Preparation can be submitted to Bryan Speegle in the El Toro Master Development Program office, 10 Civic Center, Second
Floor, Santa Ana 92701." 

Airlines serving Burbank Airport "have refused to accept an ironclad curfew, apparently torpedoing hopes for a swift end to the
years of feuding with neighbors over airport noise."  In a move that should send a chilling message to Orange County residents
who hope that curfews on night flights might be applied at El Toro, the Air Transport Association refused the airport
management's request, "because the curfew would affect their ability to respond to future customer demand." 

“Dave Schlenker has never been involved in politics. In fact, he hates politics....Yet there Schlenker was Wednesday leading a
bus full of fellow Leisure World-Laguna Hills residents to lobby their Leisure World-Seal Beach counterparts on behalf of
supervisorial candidate Dave Sullivan...The Laguna Hills contingent carried picket signs bearing messages such as ‘Save our
community and our grandchildren's’ and ‘Don't LAX Orange County.’"

“Schlenker, 69, is one of hundreds of residents whose concern about an El Toro airport has led them into the heretofore nether
world of politics....Wednesday offered an opportunity for the two Leisure Worlds to form a unique ‘hands-across-the-county’
alliance.”

"‘I hope today will be the start of the north and south coming together, and we can learn from our senior citizens that this
(airport proposal) is silly," [Dave] Sullivan told the crowd of 100 people assembled in a Leisure World-Seal Beach
clubhouse.” 

"Pressing its case against a commercial airport at El Toro, Irvine is threatening to pull out of the Orange County Fire Authority...
Irvine is the largest contributor to the authority, which provides firefighting services to 19 cities and unincorporated areas.
About $5 million [of Irvines contribution] helps to subsidize the authority's services to 13 smaller cities, mostly North County
cities that support an airport" at El Toro.

"Mayor Christina L. Shea said ... that Irvine needs to 'send a strong message' that it won't continue paying extra for countywide
services that benefit cities supporting the airport.'"

Other South County cities that are paying more than their share of the Fire Authority costs, thereby subsidizing other
communities, include: Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, and Laguna Hills as well as the county unincorporated areas.

About 150-200 Coto de Caza residents opposed to a commercial airport at El Toro [with takeoffs over their community]
picketed the Coto home of developer William Lyon as he hosted a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser Tuesday for Orange County
Supervisor Jim Silva, an airport proponent.” Lyon called the sheriffs who said he “was prepared to press charges against
anyone trespassing on his property” but the protesters, included their children, remained peacefully on what they considered to
be community common property.

OC Register, October 14, 1998
“Panel OK’s flight test at El Toro”

“The county El Toro Airport Citizens Advisory Commission... recommended the Board of Supervisors go forward with flight
demonstrations in four to five months.” Airport opponents said that the demonstration won’t duplicate real airport noise.
“Bruce Wetsel, county El Toro reuse aviation manager, said there will not be enough landings and takeoffs to do a scientific
noise assessment.”

The LA Times quoted Paul Eckles, executive director of the anti-airport ETRPA group of cities as saying, “Obviously it’s not
designed to be an accurate simulation of an airport. It appears the only reason to do this is for propaganda value, and $3 million
on a propaganda piece is a very expensive way to spend the taxpayers’ money.”

“George Argyros, a member of the county’s El Toro Airport Citizens Advisory Commission and a leading airport advocate,
objected to including the [noisy Boeing] 747 in the flight demonstration. He said he viewed El Toro as a regional airport with
some international flights, but nothing that would warrant using jumbo jets.” The county’s Bruce Wetzel disagreed and said
there could be 747 service at El Toro.

“Airport supporters ... hope the tests will give a boost to their fledgling plans to begin flying commercial cargo planes out of
the base beginning next spring.”

Website Direct, October 13, 1998
Planning Expert Talks on Urban Parks

Alexander Garvin, planning expert and author of “The American City; What Works, What Doesn’t” and “Urban Parks and
Open Space” shared his extensive experience at a luncheon meeting at the El Toro Officers Club today. Among Garvin’s main
points were the following:

Attractive parks pay for themselves by increasing the desirability, the value and consequently the property taxes from
surrounding areas.

Parks should be located where there are lots of people to enjoy them. Good parks should be near where people live. Airports
should be located away from where people live. When questioned by Supervisor Tom Wilson, Garvin could not think of a
single good park with an airport inside or adjacent to it, as proposed by Orange County airport planners.

LA Times Editorial, October 11, 1998
“Leadership Needed on El Toro Site”
“Foremost now has to be whether a two-airport system will prove viable.”

“Many crucial questions about the feasibility of the El Toro airport remain unanswered as the master planning process unfolds.
The Marines are scheduled to depart in less than a year and the public still does not have very good answers on some big
concerns.”

“Foremost now has to be whether a two-airport system will prove viable economically and operationally for the airlines.
American Airlines and the Air Transport Assn. Have questioned whether it will be cost effective to operate two facilities in
Orange County, especially so close together.” There are questions as to whether the FAA will accept proposed flight patterns.
“There are lingering questions about whether the [runway] layout will work.”

“Leadership on getting some of these unresolved issues addressed still seems largely absent.”

OC Register, October 10, 1998
“Study: El Toro would create 90,000 jobs”

A study commissioned by the pro-airport Orange County Business Council found that “the airport would create more than
90,000 jobs by 2020.” “The study contrasts sharply with ” the 112,000 jobs that would be generated by the non-aviation
Millennium Plan that “calls for a mixture of businesses, sports and convention facilities, and a museum district at the base.”
“The authors of the study focused solely on the economics benefits of a new airport serving 24 million passengers a year.”
“They did not attempt to address the airport’s potential effects on housing, safety or noise.” “Fullerton economist Alfred
Gobar” indicated that Orange County adds 45,000 jobs a year and questioned “destroying the county’s civility for two years
worth of job growth.” The study also claims that an airport can be “a big lure for corporate headquarters and high-tech firms.”

Editorial note: The Orange County Business Coalition, consisting of high-tech firms located at the Irvine Spectrum
and most likely to be affected by an airport at El Toro, is firmly against the proposed airport. It claims that it would
keep away knowledge-workers seeking quality of life communities, and that they do not need an airport in their
backyard, that most of their “cargo” is through the Internet.

The latest UC Irvine poll of Orange County public opinion shows more residents opposed to an airport than supporting one.
Breaking the data by region, “North County residents [including Newport Beach] supported the airport 47% to 40% while
their South County counterparts vehemently oppose it 71% to 28%.”

When given a choice between the latest proposals for base reuse, the split was 51% for a no-airport alternative, 40% for the
airport alternative and 9% for “Neither/other or don’t know”

The county got bad grades for its handling of the base conversion process. 43% disapproved while only 29% approved of the
county’s actions.

Perhaps most importantly, 48% of those polled favored meeting the county’s commercial aviation needs at John Wayne only,
32% favored using two airports, and only 13% wanted El Toro only, with John Wayne closed to commercial traffic. Editor:-
There is substantial evidence that a two-airport system is unworkable and that the county’s plans are leading in the
direction of closing John Wayne, which is the public’s least favored alternative.

Click here for more poll details from UCI.

Of 2,534 responses, 87% said NO, 13 % said yes.

Website Direct, October 7, 1998
ETRPA Sues County Over Hiring of Outside Attorney

The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority accused the Board of Supervisors of violating California law in the hiring of attorney
Michael Gatzke to handle El Toro related litigation. Gatzke has been paid over $1 million a year and the ETRPA suit seeks
to recover all illegally paid fees on behalf of county taxpayers.

Website Direct, October 7, 1998 FLASH
Mittermeier Accepts Contract

Jan Mittermeir promptly accepted the 3-year contract offered by Supervisors Steiner, Silva and Smith.

Supervisors Spitzer and Wilson opposed the terms of the offer. Supervisorial candidates Dave Sullivan and Lou Lopez had
asked that her contract be extended only until January, so that new incoming board members, who will have to live with her,
could have a say.

Mittermeir played hard ball in negotiating with the supervisors. Silva, who initially wanted to reduce her authority,
caved in and went along with her demands.  Mittermeier's subsequent quick acceptance of the contract suggests that
she may have been bluffing about quitting and forced Silva to "flip-flop". See more details below. 

Airport proponents at the county “expect that regularly scheduled air cargo service could begin no later than operational closure
when the Marines depart next July’, Courtney Wiercioch ... said Tuesday.... The first step is getting state and federal
approvals.”

“Bill Kogerman, head of anti-airport Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, said opponents will demand a full environmental
review of air cargo. He believes that it will take two years. And if the county doesn’t do a full analysis? ‘We’ll sue their socks
off,’ Kogerman said.”

OC Register, October 7, 1998
“O.C.’s CEO is offered 3-year deal”
“Silva switches to Mittermeier’s side... CEO hasn’t said if she’ll accept the pact.”

A new $160,000 contract was offered to Jan Mittermeier, “but only after she had a high-noon showdown with the Board of
Supervisors that forced them to back down on what she called a ‘make or break’ provision. Fearing that Mittermeier would
follow through on her threat to leave the county if her authority to hire departments heads was significantly reduced, Supervisor
Jim Silva returned from a noon-hour lunch break and switched his vote to form a new board majority [with Steiner and Smith]
that sided with Mittermeier on this key point.”

After Silva caved in, Supervisor Todd Spitzer pulled his support for Silva’s reelection bid against challenger Dave Sullivan. “‘I
was very disappointed in Jim’s flip-flop.’, Spitzer said. ‘Jim Silva changed his vote from what was in the best interests of the
county to what was politically expedient.... It is unbelievable that he tells the public he is going to do one thing - then he breaks
his word to the voters’ by doing the opposite, ...It goes to his integrity and honesty.’”

OC Register, October 6, 1998
“Supervisor race gets costly”
“The proposed El Toro airport is a factor in the 2nd District campaign”

“The Board of Supervisors' 2nd District race is turning into one of the costliest on record, with each campaign treasury
approaching $300,000, according to reports released Monday.”

“Competitive supervisorial races historically have cost candidates $250,000 to $300,000. But with almost a month of
fund-raising left before the Nov. 3 election, Supervisor Jim Silva already has reported $292,587 in his treasury. Challenger
Dave Sullivan, after a summer of major fund raising, was close with $270,137.”

“Although El Toro is not in the district, which covers the northwest part of the county, the winner of the race is expected to
become part of the three-member board majority that will decide the fate of the closing Marine base. Silva supports the
proposed El Toro airport. Sullivan opposes it.”

Fund-raising in anti-airport south county have given Sullivan's treasury a major boost. Silva has received heavy backing in
Newport Beach.

Silva also is looking for money in the south. He has a $1,000-a-head fund raiser scheduled next Tuesday at the Coto de Caza
home of retired Gen. William Lyon, an influential developer.

“ The City Council did not adopt Councilman Joe Erickson's proposal to call for a limited-size airport at El Toro Monday night,
but it did vote to rejoin a league of pro-airport cities. None of Erickson's council colleagues seconded his motion to adopt
policies that would limit the capacity of and flights at the El Toro airport and maintain the existing restrictions at John Wayne
Airport.”

Erickson had hoped that his compromise measure “would provide a turning point in a debate that has divided the county.”
However, Erickson's idea of a limited two-airport system is unworkable because of industy objections.

"El Toro airport opponents who have questioned the feasibility and safety of a two-airport system won support Thursday from
a former U.S. Department of Transportation official invited to speak here." Click here for the entire article.

Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the Transportation Department and a Federal Aviation Administration critic,
predicted at a news conference that a joint El Toro-John Wayne airport system will never happen.  Schiavo predicted that John
Wayne and El Toro would follow Denver's model, under which Stapleton Airport closed when the new Denver International
Airport opened. Click for more on industry opposition to a two-airport system in Orange County.

LA Times, October 2, 1998
“Costa Mesa May Compromise on El Toro Airport”
“Safety Called Into Question”

“The city [of Costa Mesa] is poised to consider a compromise plan that calls for an airport at El Toro that matches John
Wayne’s capacity.” Opponents of an airport at El Toro were quick to reject the idea, since airports, once established, continue
to grow. “The compromise plan also faces significant legal hurdles: current federal law makes it difficult to impose special
regulations - such as flight curfews.

Editor:- Predictably, the scheme to “let the camel’s nose into the tent” won support from Clarence Turner, a Newport
Beach leader in that city’s efforts to build an airport at El Toro.

Meanwhile, “a former federal air-safety official renewed safety concerns about the dual-airport system backed by the county.”
Mary Schiavo, former inspector-general of the US Department of Transportation said “that there is ‘no way’ airports at John
Wayne and El Toro could safely operate within such proximity.” She predicted that “the Federal Aviation Administration would
not look favorably upon the runways at El Toro unless they were dramatically altered and extended.”

Schiavo said, “‘ If you line up the runways to make them parallel and make El Toro safe, then that would put the flights directly
into the John Wayne flight path. I don’t see both airports working together. No way.” She pointed out that when the Denver
International Airport opened in 1995, the FAA required that Stapleton Airport be closed the same day, despite local wishes to
operate the two airports together. Read about industry opposition to two airports in Orange County.

“A proposed three-year contract for county Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier... would change her title and trim her
authority , but still leaves in doubt whether she and the Board of Supervisors - for different reasons - can live with the results.”
The key provision gives the board veto power over selection of department heads, but only if 4 out of 5 supervisors vote
against her choice.

“Because of Mittermeier’s prominent role in plans to convert El Toro... supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson ...
repeatedly have clashed with her.” Wilson said he has been displeased with Mittermeier’s performance recently, but would not
reveal how he would vote.” Mittermeier supporter, supervisor Bill Steiner is trying “to entice” Jim Silva to support the new
contract.

Under the contract proposal, Mittermeier would get a salary of $160,000 starting in July plus up to $8,000 in non-taxed
deferred-compensation to her retirement fund. If she is terminated, she would receive a year’s pay. Her title would be changed
cosmetically from CEO to Executive Director.