"Oceanside council looks at leasing airport to private developer"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Oceanside council looks at leasing airport to private developer 
By PAUL SISSON
The San Diego (CA) North County Times


OCEANSIDE -- Though they say they have no problem with the city's recent
decision to explore the possibility of leasing the Oceanside Municipal
Airport to a private developer, airport proponents and opponents said Friday
there are a few points where they still disagree.

Ben Meyers, president of the Oceanside Airport Association, said Friday that
his organization wants to make sure that any plans to build more hangars or
other structures at the 55-acre, city-owned property in the San Luis Rey
River Valley use the entire property.

"We want to offer our expertise in ensuring that the airport be developed
completely," Meyers said. "That means the north side of the property and the
south side of the property."
 
Meyers added that the association, which represents pilots who use the
airport, would also like to see flight lessons resume at the airport.

Ron Stewart, president of Citizens for a Better Oceanside, a group of
airport-area residents pushing to reduce the number of airplanes based at
there, said he's also not opposed to leasing the airport to a private
developer as long as a current settlement agreement it has with the airport
is honored. That agreement forbids a flight school on the property. Stewart
said he also does not think a vacant property on the airport's northern side
should be turned into more hangars.

"I guess that's the point where we just don't agree," Stewart said.

Stewart added that his group "just wants to see the airport become
self-sufficient," a goal that Meyers seconded.

The Oceanside City Council voted 4-0 Wednesday, with Mayor Jim Wood absent,
to direct city staffers to seek proposals from the private sector to lease
its small airport just north of Highway 76 to a private developer.

The airport's future has been the subject of much debate in Oceanside. Some
residents who live nearby have pushed to have the council sell the land for
commercial development. But pilots who stable planes there fought back in
the 2006 election, backing candidates who support keeping the airstrip in
place.

The Federal Aviation Administration has also said it will not allow the
airport to be closed because the city took millions in federal grants to
build hangars there.

Councilman Rocky Chavez proposed the idea, noting that the 55-acre
property's future seems to change every time there's a new City Council.
Chavez said he thought a private developer, who could add hangars and other
amenities to the airport, might be able to bring more stability.

"I think the airport can survive on its own if you give it a little
stability," Chavez said.

Some people in the audience Wednesday were not happy that the council
discussed leasing the airport in the first place.

Community activist Nadine Scott filed a letter with City Attorney John
Mullen alleging that three council members violated the state's open
meetings law, known as the Brown Act, and should not vote.

Scott said she attended a meeting of the Oceanside Airport Association on
May 12. Scott said she observed Chavez speak at the meeting while council
members Jerry Kern and Jack Feller were in the audience. Scott said Chavez
told those at the meeting, including his fellow council members, that the
airport item would be on the agenda Wednesday and urged them to send an
e-mail to all council members, urging them to vote yes.

Scott said that open meetings law forbids discussion of agenda items outside
a properly noticed meeting.

"I believe there was a substantial violation of the Brown Act," Scott said.

Scott demanded that the council pull the airport item from its agenda,
saying that otherwise it would "ratify the illegal meeting by Chavez, Feller
and Kern." Her letter also asks all three to explain themselves in writing.

City Attorney John Mullen said that he is not sure whether the three
councilmen committed a technical Brown Act violation, but said that if they
did, it could likely be cured by adding an item that acknowledges the
airport association meeting to a future agenda.

"I understand the facts are in dispute," Mullen said.

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