EL TORO UPDATE - MARCH 2001

What’s REALLY Going On At The Base:

The Time to Get Tough is Long Overdue….And that was my point exactly when I called a meeting with Supervisor Chuck Smith and the LRA Executive Director Gary Simon regarding interim use of the El Toro property a couple of weeks ago. Folks can dance around this issue all they want, but the bottomline STILL is that the County is not making any money at El Toro. I don’t have to remind you how long it has taken to hold even so much as one event at the closed base! El Toro has now been closed for nearly two years! The last Marine left the base on July 2, 1999, and it has been going to seed ever since. Few need reminding of how the base once flourished--It was a proud symbol to the Marines. Many would shudder at the thought of how much the property has been neglected. The attitude has been against using the base for non-aviation activities from the very beginning. However, Supervisor Smith and I have been assigned the task of focusing on improving the current situation and overseeing the non-aviation aspects of El Toro. All five Supervisors have expressed support for interim use activities at some level at one time or another. That is good news--moving forward with these tasks. Though, not all Supervisors are as eager to put those words into action. I feel it is largely my responsibility, since I am the single, true, non-aviation advocate in this sub unit, to continue the full court press on Simon to surpass his predecessor, and deliver on promises to turn the base assets into profit. Frankly, there has been a lot of talk and no action since the Master Lease was signed….a lot of "yes sirs", "I’ll get right on that Mr. Supervisor", prior to the LRA Directorship transition. Gary must now walk the walk instead of just talk the talk!

The directive I gave Simon is simple: Establish a clear chain of command, identify who the decision maker(s) are, clarify the process for leasing space and holding events at El Toro - and "JUST DO IT".

The County, prior to Gary coming onboard, established some pretty sizeable obstacles to get in the way of a productive use of the facilities and activities at the former base. We have seen one of those monsters rear its ugly head: Gary had a whole lot of bad news to deliver to Supervisor Smith and me regarding use of at least one building on the base; namely, the auditorium. The news was pretty bad for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) folks. It seems there were problems with the building in the past. In fact, CHOC folks had some work to do in order to hold the Follies event last year. The big question is, if there was such a problem then, how could this event even have gotten on the list for this year. I suspect that someone dropped the ball somewhere along the line…..perhaps the major shifting of staff/leadership within the LRA itself contributed to the very unfortunate situation. This "new" discovery has hit hard for some folks who were supposed to have finalized agreements months ago. The auditorium, intended for use by CHOC, for their annual follies event, has been declared too dangerous to use for several reasons. The worst part about that is CHOC just found out only 45 days before their event was to take place. Bad, bad form on the County’s part. The problem, obviously, is the risk issue for both entities. Supervisor Smith and I sent Gary scrambling to try and find an alternative solution for the CHOC folks.

Other buildings are under consideration for interim use or occupancy by County staff, including the indoor pool building and the General’s Headquarters building. The word is still out on these buildings. One would hope that the fact that these buildings are technically being considered for interim use would go a long way in the decision process. It stands to reason that if they were safe for Marines two years ago, they’re ok for us now. I can’t wait to see what happens when Gary and the rest of the LRA moves into some fairly comfortable offices out on the base. I guess maybe those old buildings are OK after all. As for the pool building, I have to ask myself, if the Irvine Novaquatics contract had been finalized six months ago when it was all but ready, would this issue have ever come up? Could this have been an elaborate attempt to kill the deal, or in fact, any non-aviation presence at El Toro? It does raise an eyebrow. I’d be surprised if many County buildings here in Santa Ana (the Hall of Administration?) would pass formal inspections if done today. Yet, thousands of people use those buildings daily. No, friends, it may be the most clever plan yet to try and discourage the use of non-aviation assets at the base….make the repairs too costly in contrast to the interim use.

And now, about the stables. The word is, there may be problems with water runoff. As you know, this is an important subject to me—but, I’m sure there are improvements which can be made to ensure an additional 40 stalls do not damage our water quality. This should have been handled immediately. The stables’ expansion has been a topic for at least six months. Oh, I almost forgot: the wheels do turn quite slowly sometimes…depending on what the wheels are turning for. But, there is no reason to get discouraged. We will not give up. The push to make use of the housing is still very much alive and stronger than ever, as is the effort to gain access to more of the buildings on the base. The trick is to keep pushing the envelope for non-aviation asset expansion and the LRA Director who has that envelope in his hands. Stay tuned!