WAY BACK ON APRIL 10, YOURS TRULY OBSERVED: “IT SEEMS PRETTY CLEAR
that next to the proposed El Toro Airport itself, the biggest loser in last month’s Measure F vote was Jan Mittermeier.”
Now that observation has been borne out: Mittermeier departed as county executive officer last week, to pursue a settlement with the county, and to consider the likely private-sector job offers.
Mittermeier leaves behind both admirers and critics of her five-year run as county chief, with this observer tending usually but not always to be in the former camp. Part of her legacy is effectively managing the county’s finances and operations through the ordeal of bankruptcy, but another part of her legacy is helping to botch the conversion of El Toro into a commercial airport.
In regard to El Toro, she had a B-caliber staff handling a process that required A-team talent. That falls on her.
But the bigger problem with El Toro has been a lack of advocacy and consensus building on the pro-airport side. And that’s where the pro-airport majority on the Board of Supervisors deserves the lion’s share of the blame. The public relations-impaired Mittermeier didn’t help matters, but public advocacy shouldn’t have been her responsibility to begin with, a point that she correctly made in a somber exit interview with the Times last week.
The supervisors showed uncommon resolve when they finally got around to parting with Mittermeier. But now what? At last check, the supes didn’t even have a fix on whether to hire one replacement or two, permanent or interim.
Regardless of whether the airport process winds up under the new CEO or under a new airport czar, what all five supervisors should try to do is to open a public dialogue, to determine whether there is some common ground in the airport debate. Could there be both a Great Park and a downsized airport at the former Marine base? Would an absolute ban on flights over Irvine, coupled with possible annual compensation payments to those living closest to an airport, soften public opposition? Are such concepts worth at least exploring?
Mittermeier was, on balance, a good manager, and another good one can be found. Whether there’s enough statesmanship among the supervisors to handle El Toro is more doubtful.
