Project 99 Newsletter, November 1999

A Plan of Action to Protect and Improve Our Community
A Note from Larry Agran Chair of Project 99

Dear Neighbor,

     Slowly but surely, we are winning the hearts and minds of Orange Countians.    

    Since its founding, Project 99 has held fast to a twofold mission:   The first part of our mission has been to defend our communities against the environmental and economic disaster that an around-the-clock international airport would bring.  The second part of our mission is to ensure that the former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro is reused for safe, healthy, productive and environmentally sensitive purposes.  In other words, our goal has always been to create an exciting non-aviation future for El Toro.

     Where do we stand today?

     Today, the concept of a Great Central Park at the El Toro site has captured the imagination of Orange County citizens.  And we are working hard to educate the voters about the Safe & Healthy Communities initiative -- an initiative that gives Orange County the opportunity to reject the El Toro international airport plan, and say YES to a non-aviation future.

     It takes research, public education and programs to continue to successfully implement our non-aviation strategy.  That’s what Project 99 has been doing since our beginning in 1995, and that’s what we must continue to do.

     With the support of 11,000 donors, we have managed to reach hundreds of thousand of households with our Project 99 message and materials.  But as impressive as this has been, we need to step up these efforts in the months ahead. That’s why your commitment to our shared cause is so important.  Project 99 is a non-profit grassroots organization which relies on individual contributions to carry on our work.

    Remember, because of our affiliation with the Tides Center, one of America’s most respected non-profit environmental defense organizations, donations payable to Project 99/Tides Center are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by federal and state law.

Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative Under County Attack

    The way pro-airport Orange County officials have been acting, you would think they’d never heard of the democratic process.

    Take the case of the Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative. If passed, this initiative will effectively stop the County’s proposed El Toro International Airport. Moreover, it will pave the way for adoption of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority’s (ETRPA) non-aviation Millennium Plan, which includes a Great Central Park for Orange County.

    On August 31st of this year, volunteers for the Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative presented 192,298 signatures to the Registrar of Voters in order to qualify their initiative for the March 7, 2000 ballot. One month later, the Registrar of Voters pronounced the initiative as officially qualified.

    But since that time, County officials -- egged-on by big-money, pro-airport forces -- have gone out of their way to attack the Initiative and try to confuse Orange County voters.

    In October -- only weeks after the Initiative qualified -- Los Alamitos City Councilman Ronald Bates proposed that the Orange County Board of Supervisors sabotage the March ballot with three measures to oppose the Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative. The real intent of this cynical scheme is to overload the ballot, prompting many voters to say “no” to everything.
   

    The Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative calls for a two-thirds majority countywide vote before commercial airports, large jails within a half-mile of homes, and hazardous waste landfills can be built or expanded. Polling conducted by ETRPA indicates that more than 70% of the voters in all areas of Orange County support this concept.

    But the alternative measures presented by Bates are the equivalent of an airport shell game. One alternative measure would require -- another would permit -- the Supervisors to get voter approval before building or expanding jails and hazardous waste landfills. Both measures leave out airports. In addition, both measures were written in a way that could over turn the Safe & Healthy Communities initiative even if it passed!

    The third Bates proposal is an advisory vote on whether the Board of Supervisors should transfer airport planning and operations to a joint-powers authority -- a government agency that supposedly would be a partnership of North County pro-airport cities and the County.

    The Board of Supervisors referred the three proposed counter-initiatives to County staff for study and possible inclusion on the March 7, 2000 ballot.

    To nobody’s surprise, George Argyros -- one-time owner of AirCal who has already spent about $2 million promoting an airport for El Toro -- called the three counter-initiatives “terrific.” 

    But Supervisor Tom Wilson, who opposes the airport, had a more sober outlook. “The months of hard work by thousands of grass-roots folks may be short-circuited by having the Board of Supervisors slap something on the ballot,” Wilson said.

    County officials have recently been floating the idea of turning over airport control to a joint powers authority with or without a ballot measure. This action -- now embodied in one of the trio of counter-initiative measures urged by Councilman Bates -- would shift responsibility for unpopular airport decisions from the elected Board of Supervisors to an unelected joint powers agency.   

    As it now stands, the pro-airport forces have a slim 3-2 majority on the Board. The pro-airport majority desperately wants to create a joint powers airport authority. Why? Because under state law as of January 1, 2000, the Board of Supervisors cannot enter into any lease agreement without 4 to 1 Board approval. The Board is eager to grant leases to air cargo carriers for 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week use of El Toro facilities.   

    Even the press has added to the confusion. On October 20, 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported that if the County released control of the airport to a joint powers authority, the Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative may have no effect.    

    Nothing could be further from the truth! The Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative explicitly states that a two-thirds majority of Orange County voters would be required regardless of what entity is developing an airport. The Times retracted the story, but unfortunately the confusion remained.

    If all this sounds bewildering, it may only be a preview of what we’ll see between now and the March 7 election date.

    All we can do to counter the County’s shell game is ask that you remember this: A YES vote for the Safe & Healthy Communities Initiative is a YES vote for a two-step process. First, it would halt the County’s ill-advised plan for an international airport at El Toro. And, second, it would pave the way for the non-aviation Millennium Plan... including a Great Central Park for the benefit of citizens throughout Orange County.

Popularity Grows for Millennium Plan’s Great Central Park

Project 99’s Millennium Plan survey, which began in August, continues to bring in hundreds of responses. The results show overwhelming support for open space and environmental protection programs. But since publication of our September newsletter, which included a story about Great Metropolitan Parks, support for a Great Central Park at El Toro has grown significantly.

When asked, “What is most important to your support of the MillenniumPlan?” 65% of those polled now name the Central Park Plan -- a 6% increase over the mid-September results.

More than 75% of those questioned about the Millennium Plan said they envision a Great Central Park at the El Toro site -- a magnificent park that would serve as a world-famous landmark at the heart of Orange County’s non-aviation Millennium Plan.

Project 99 is a special project of the Tides Center, a duly registered public charity. Donations to Project 99/Tides Center are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.