El Toro, Con’t
No matter where one stands in the El Toro Airport controversy, Gary Simon’s letter on July 9 was very, very troubling. We should be able to expect more from the executive director of a county agency.
In your letter, you state that “those opposed to an aviation reuse at El Toro have reportedly expended $40 million dollars in misleading public information paid in part with taxpayers funds .”
The leaders of the anti-airport campaign include many of the elected officials of the cities of Orange County. They include two Orange County supervisors, many mayors, school board presidents, city council members and Orange County folks. While one can argue the appropriateness of this kind of comment in a political campaign, no county employee should ever make such comments about Orange County citizens or their elected officials.
In your letter, you state that the $8 million about to be spent by the El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority are from funds generated “from parking and concession revenues at John Wayne Airport not taxpayer money.”
With all due respect to any tax professor at any local university, when the government takes money in connection with any sales transaction, it is a tax. The cities are funding their campaigns with sales tax revenues and the county is funding its campaign with fees from parking and concessions.
When looking at the difference between a fee for parking and a sales tax, what we have is a difference without a distinction.
Mr. Simon, there are good people on both sides of this battle. You work for all of them. Tell your story straight up, don’t insult the good people of Orange County that disagree with your position and don’t try to spin the tax or any other issue. At the end of the day, the voters will make the right decision. They always do.
Hank Adler
Irvine
According to the July 9 letter from Gary Simon, executive director of the El Toro Local Redevelopment Authority, the county is anxious to provide information to its residents about the El Toro airport through its “Just the Facts” program commencing in August. First, may I remind Mr. Simon, that for the past eight years providing “fact” to the public has never been the county’s strong suit. On the contrary, the planning process was consistently manipulated to suppress factual material unfavorable to the airport plan in exchange for public support.
The fact of the matter is the $8 million program is nothing more than a thinly veiled political campaign designed to oppose the March 2002 central park ballot initiative. Once again, the county is attempting to mislead the people of Orange County.
Paul Willems
Laguna Niguel
Bill Threatens Tech
The California Legislature will vote in the next couple of weeks on a proposal that could crack the bedrock of technology companies,confidentiality of intellectual property.
Written by the trial lawyers to protect the public from future Firestone-like disasters, Senate Bill 11 (by Sen. Martha Escutia) and Assembly Bill 36 (by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg) would require companies to make all company information public at the request of the plaintiff during the discovery phase of legal proceedings.
The core principles of these legislative proposals are noble,the idea is that across-the-board disclosure would allow the public to assess potential public health risks of products and services before harm is done.
The actual scope of these bills, however, is dangerously broad even with the proposed, but different amendments to the two bills.
It is good citizenship for companies to hand over documents pertaining to public safety. However these bills would make non-health related information,even organizational charts and company secrets like business and marketing plans,readily available to competitors.
The unintended consequences of these bills are far too onerous. The bills create a standard of “guilty until proven innocent” in civil cases. There is no requirement to show that a person or company has caused any harm or even that harm is likely to occur. Also, the bills eliminate a judge’s discretion to issue protective or confidentiality orders.
Both SB 11 and AB 36 pose an enormous threat to the high-tech industry and legislators must understand the negative impact it would have on California’s high-tech workers and businesses.
AeA is working on the high-tech industry’s behalf daily in Sacramento to defeat this trial lawyer-sponsored legislation. I urge you to contact your local California State Assemblymember to register your company’s opposition.
Phil Beaudoin
Executive director
Orange County AeA council
Newport Beach
