El Toro initiatives topic of county board meeting

Susan McCormack

The proposed El Toro airport will be a key topic at Tuesday’s Board of

Supervisors meeting with the board and at least one public speaker

voicing opinions on an antiairport initiative.

The board’s agenda includes discussing options for placing the Safe and

Healthy Communities Initiative on the March 7 ballot. The initiative, if

passed, will require two-thirds of voters to approve additions to

airports or the creation of new airports, jails and hazardous-waste

landfills.

Last month, the county’s registrar of voters certified that proponents

had collected enough signatures for the initiative to qualify for the

ballot. Now, the board has less than two weeks to pick from three

options: make the initiative law; immediately place the initiative on the

ballot; or request 30 days for economic analysis, after which it would

become a ballot measure.

Ronald Bates, a Los Alamitos councilman, is expected to urge the board to

place two proposed initiatives touted as alternatives to the Safe and

Healthy Communities Initiative on the ballot. The board will also hold an

advisory vote, on whether the board should transfer aviation planning to

a joint-powers authority made up of the board and cities.

Bates said he intends to explain why he believes his initiatives are

better options than the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative. Bates’

proposals mainly differ from the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative

because they exclude airports from requiring voter approval.

“It’s a good-faith effort to give voters an option. We voted on the

airport twice and don’t need to vote again,” Bates said. “Two initiatives

I’m proposing both deal with hazardous waste and jails. If people feel

that they want to vote on these issues, then they can.”

Bates denied that he was trying to confuse voters with his initiatives.

“I think we need to give voters more credit,” he said.

Not on the agenda is the topic of whether the board will join the Orange

County Regional Airport Authority, which supervisors Chuck Smith and Jim

Silva proposed at the board’s last meeting.

The board is looking into how much public money it should give to the

authority and if it can legally shift planning of the future of the

former Marine base and John Wayne Airport to the authority.

The meeting will start at 9:30 a.m. in the Board Hearing Room on the

first floor, 10 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana.