New Leadership for El Toro

The internal politics of the county’s El Toro battle have been catching up with El Toro redevelopment chief Gary Simon’s pragmatic (and job-preserving) resolve to stay flexible on exactly what plan gets implemented. While focusing in recent months on the airport, he also had said previously that his agency stood ready to plan something else instead if that was the will of the voters.

In the aftermath of Measure W, the March 5 initiative that rezoned the base for a park, the airport Simon was planning is out. So now what? And more important, who plans what comes next--Simon and his team, or someone else?

Supervisor Todd Spitzer and Board Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad, who agreed on nothing about El Toro for years, proposed moving Simon and his authority under the county’s chief executive, Michael Schumacher. This move, on which a decision was deferred to April 16, may have some merit.

But in reality, the question of the reporting arrangement is a side issue, less pressing than making the El Toro planning authority more representative. And then there is the question of whether Simon should remain, even if the authority’s composition changes.

He probably could head such an agency, provided he could work with people he hasn’t before. But it also might make sense to have a change at the top. But before that issue is decided, it is necessary to answer the basic question of whom the reuse authority represents and fix its current shortcomings.

If Simon stays and the county retains El Toro planning authority, it might make sense to have Schumacher be the person Simon reports to. It would be more efficient, and there isn’t the John Wayne Airport revenue stream available anymore to feed El Toro planning.

The short time frame for either a plan or a sale brings the need to resolve the future of the authority into focus. The Navy has set a deadline of April 23 for deciding what to do with the property, and that forces the county’s hand.

In fact, nothing in federal community base reuse guidelines suggests that only a county board of supervisors can represent community interests adequately as a Local Redevelopment Authority.

A community of interest surrounding a closed military base can have any kind of LRA it wants. In fact, everything that has happened recently argues for a much broader planning group, since the supervisors acting alone have had their chance and bungled it.

Time is short, an argument against reconstitution. But there is at least an opportunity to signal local intention to do more representative planning. At Tuesday’s supervisors meeting, there was encouraging movement in that direction when Coad moved toward enlisting the help of antiairport factions in reuse planning. This process must move forward quickly. What the county needs to do is be sure that it doesn’t simply change the reporting arrangements with an agency that arguably needs to be more representative. It needs to take a broader look at exactly how future planning for the base will take place. Irvine’s claim on annexation deserves serious consideration too, because surrounding communities have expressed confidence in what that city would do. Either way, the county must bring others on board in a more formal way. Then worry about who heads the authority.