THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:

The airport activist group AirFair is calling on Orange County to sell the back nine holes of the Newport Beach Golf Course, but city and county officials say the idea is not exactly a gimme.

The owner and operator of the golf course has been on a month-to-month lease with the county for the back nine holes since its long-term lease expired last year. Local golfers and airport watchers have long worried county officials would allow the land to be turned into a parking lot for John Wayne Airport.

Airport activists have raised the issue of purchasing or annexing the land recently as a way to keep the grass on the back nine green and make some money. Orange County is facing an $84-million budget gap next year.

“I think it’s just kind of an interesting idea,” said Melinda Seely, AirFair’s president. “I don’t expect that actually might happen, but I think it would be an interesting proposition. If Newport Beach owned that land, they would have complete control as far as development goes.”

Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Moorlach said Wednesday that he didn’t see any land sales or annexation plans on the immediate horizon.

Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau also said he didn’t think a sale is likely in the current economic climate.

“Even if we wanted to do that, where would the money come from, and where would it come from,” Bludau asked. “The county also would have to be willing to let go of the property.”

After the Orange County Board of Supervisors announced that the county would be laying off hundreds of workers in order to solve a budget gap, the supervisors came under fire for voting to remodel the fifth floor of their Santa Ana office building at a cost of about $400,000.

Employee union officials who represent county workers look at the project as a slap in the face, but Moorlach said it’s just a case of bad timing.

The remodel, which was unanimously approved by the board, was necessary because the Santa Ana Fire Department inspected the place and determined that it wasn’t up to code because emergency exits were blocked, Moorlach said.

There’s also an issue of safety and security, Moorlach said. He and his staff have been threatened before because adequate safeguards against members of the public don’t exist.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].