The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 72

2004:03:22:02:31:09 The Region B4 CALIFORNIA LOSANGELESTIMES By Jean O. Pasco and Dan Weikel Times Staff Writers As the story is told in South County, the newest Orange County political conspiracy was uncorked over pasta at Vessia Restaurant in Irvine more than two months ago. Lunchingtogether were longtime pals Greg Winterbottom, the chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, and Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Business Council who formerly headed the transportation agency. One topic of discussion: A possible OCTA takeover of the 51-mile network of toll roads operated by the independent Transportation Corridor Agencies. The TCA is searching for ways to keep one of its highways, the San Joaquin Hills, from defaulting on $1.9 billion in bonds by 2014.

If OCTA stepped in to save the day, it would dissolve two locally appointed boards that oversee the toll roads and place the transportation future in the hands of a single governing body. Just the thought of such a maneuver lit a fuse in South County, which has 13 elected officials on TCA boards. In contrast, the 15-member OCTA board has only two South County members, one of whom only sits if needed. As a region that only recently found itself on equal political footing with the older and more populous North, South County about to give up any of its hard-earned influence. The region matured politically after 1996 by fighting plans to build a commercial airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Its defeat of the airport was cemented in 2002, and South County has struggled to extend its clout. Its reaction to the perceived threat of an OCTA takeover was swift. Phone lines and the Internet blazed with furyover what was seen as a sneak attack on South County from the same forces thattried to cram the airport in their backyards. of us are said Laguna Woods Councilman Bert Hack, who raised the issue of an OCTA takeover at a March 11 meeting of thetollway board. County has just come through a long fight.

If you usurp South authority, then have a But more could be at stake for South County seats on TCA boards. The other issue, they fear, might be money. Big money. Hundreds of millions of dollars in tolls are paid annually by motorists many of them from South County who use the San Joaquin, the Foothill and the Eastern highways. There is concern that OCTA might want to take over the toll roads to secure a permanent source of revenue if Measure the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects, is not renewed by voters before it expires in 2011.

The worry is that OCTA will take control of the toll roads, tapping their revenue in perpetuity to fund other transportation projects at the expense of South County motorists. Such a move would overturn long-standing promises to convert the tollways to free highways when their construction bonds are paid off. seem to be some ulterior said Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Mimi Walters, the Republican nominee for the 73rd Assembly District. this happens, we lose total local The playersin all this suspected subterfuge transit officials, policy makers, political consultantsand business leaders emphatically deny any OCTA power grab. There might have been chitchat about a takeover during lunches and cocktail hours, they say, but nothing has jelled into a serious policy discussion.

never envisioned the situation that has Winterbottom said. have no desire to run the TCA. No member of our board does. There is no plan to raid the County Supervisor Bill Campbell, who sits on both the TCA and OCTA boards, said the transportation authority is not interested in acquiring anagen- cy that is $4 billion in debt. OCTA enough problems of its Campbell said.

South County people talked to jealously want to protect their local Because OCTA operates the 91 Express Lanes on the Riverside Freeway, Campbell and Winterbottom say the only thing the authority wants is to discuss common issues. Those include toll collection, road design and construction, and consolidating administrative functions to save money. Nevertheless, South County elected officials and political consultants say they have reason for their suspicions about intentions. Besides the Oftelie-Winterbottom lunch, county Treasurer John Moorlach has pitched his own plan to bail out the San Joaquin Hills. In a recent presentation to TCA board members, Moorlach listed OCTA, as well as other agencies, asa possible buyer of the faltering tollway.

Moorlach said he raised the possibility because it has been discussedin the past and he wanted to warn the TCA that it could happen. As head of OCTA in the mid-1990s, Oftelie discussed a possible takeover of the toll roads and the elimination of their governing boards. He still talks about it today. When the roads were being constructed, Oftelie said, the existence of two boards made sense for decisions such as the locations of on- and off-ramps and toll booths. But there is no reason for the two bodies one with 14 members and the other with 15 members to exist solely to collect tolls, he said.

has been my thought for 10 said Oftelie, who proposed an OCTA takeover in 1996 as part of the reorganization after its 1994 bankruptcy. gone out and worked on he said. worked for OCTA for seven years. It sounds like paranoia by alot of people without much to If blame to be found, some say it can be traced to Campbell and his colleague Supervisor Chris Norby. Campbell sits on both toll road boards, which are considering consolidating as part of the refinancing plan.

Norby is a member of the board overseeing the Foothill- Eastern toll road. At the end of a 20-month analysis of how to prop up the San Joaquin Hills toll road, Campbell and Norby raised questions about the recommended plan to combine the operations of two toll road systems and refinance their debt with a massive $4-billion bond issue. Both supervisors said they sought to postponethe decision to allowmore time to study financial risks as well as alternatives to a costly bond deal. TCA board members are scheduled to consider the merger and bond issue April 8. It is unclear whether the plan has enough votes to pass.

So far, Norby and Campbell have said they will vote no. The delays have angered leaders of South County cities who want to proceedwith consolidation and refinancing. It help that North County officials have echoed the concerns of Campbell and Norby. Lingering resentment against county government over an El Toro airport, as well as feelings of being slighted by North County, quickly resurfaced. The perception of mischief was bol- steredby the emergence of other potential players.

Moorlach described the dustup as a parallel universe or a case of mass hysteria. The conspiracy theories are a convenient distraction, he said. In the end, all the talk about OCTA gobbling up TCA might only be political. probably no coincidence that city elections are coming in November, Moor- lach mused. Evoking a North County boogeyman a he said.

keep pulling that trump card every Future Fuels Speculation Will the Orange County Transportation Authority take over the toll road agency? Some leaders say they have reason to be fearful. By Mike Anton Times Staff Writer Map geeks made. born. They come into this world with a special sense of spatiality, a heightened awareness of their place in the world and a need to help others find theirs. Apreacher guides lost souls.

A map geek points to Page 830, Grid E-4, and says, you At least what they do at the corporate headquarters of Thomas Bros. Maps. have globes all over my said Nancy Yoho, 44, aself-described map geek and Thomas Bros. vice president who oversees production of arguably the most indispensable book in Southern California. just something that starts when Thomas Bros.

is in a nondescript Irvine industrial park under the flight path for John Wayne Airport. Here, the catalog of printed and digital map titles is produced, including its best-seller, the page tome covering Los Angeles and Orange counties that weighs as much as a pot roast. If you are not aware of it, you are: a) a visitor to Southern California; or b) hopelessly lost. The company was founded in 1915 by Oakland cartogra- pher George Coupland Thomas and his two brothers, who came up with the distinctive page-and- grid system as an alternative to folding maps. In the 1940s, Thomas had an epiphany and moved the company to Southern California, which in the postwar boom was quickly becoming the epitome of car culture.

With the constant expansion and a road network that features a bewildering lack of consistent numbering, the Thomas brothers had tapped into a ready-made market that grew with each update. The company moved from Los Angeles to a larger facility in Irvine in 1980. Since then, Thomas Bros. has undergone atransformation, including digitization of its mapmaking and expansion of its product line beyond the West Coast. In 1999, the company was purchased by mapmaking conglomerate Rand McNally.

Cartography is an ancient art, and perhaps its most famous early practitioner, the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, produced an eight- volume work on geography that gave order to the known world by locating some 8,000 places. The work done at Thomas Bros. in Irvine is far more prosaic. About 70 people work in cubicles amid insurance-office quiet, updating information and redrawing maps by computer. The traditional tools of the 20th century mapmaker ruler, ink, eraser, utility blade, huge sheets of Mylar gave way to computers beginning in the late 1980s.

Today, when Robert Heyl needs to add a new street to the Orange County guide, all needed are a few clicks of a mouse and voila! Sidney Bay Drive in Newport Coast has become a bit more real. always had a fascination with said Heyl, whose absorption with loca- tion and direction also began as a child. fun, relaxing work. I can think of no better way to spend a By keeping in contact with hundreds of public and private entities and using aerial photography, mapmakers record Southern changing landscape. The annual update of the Los Angeles County-Orange County street guide requires thousands of additions and alterations: freshly carved streets, new schools and fire stations, shifting city boundaries, dozens of name changes.

so much change, in fact, that keeping up with it all is near impossible. Last year, for instance, soon after the 2004 edition went to press, Edison International Field was renamed Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Thomas Bros. will catch up with that in 2005. map is out of date by the time Yoho said.

And people notice. Thomas Guide users are an attentive bunch and not shy about pointing out errors, including misspellings or botched locations. Suggestions on how to improve the book roll in all the time. Change the colors. Laminate the pages.

A customer recently suggested that each and every street-side mailbox get its own dot. A perennial complaint is to make the maps and type bigger so easier to read. have written in and asked: you make the book shorter so that fits on my steering wheel Yoho said. To this, she has a suggestion of her own: probably be driving with the Thomas Guide on your steering Photographs by Robert Lachman Los Angeles Times UPDATING: Robert Heylof Thomas Bros. Maps reviews new tract maps, one of many sources used to keep guides current.

Mapmakers Grid and Bear It Headquartered in Irvine, Thomas Bros. does the road work for Southland drivers. Keeping current is nearly impossible. THE BOOK: Gary Deem of Rand McNally, Thomas parent company, leafs through one of the popular editions. By Kevin Pang Times Staff Writer With two special guests this month and next, UC Irvine makes itself a little larger on the world peacemaking map.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president whose political reforms helped spark the collapse of communist govern- mentsin the 1990s, will be at the Irvine Barclay Theater on Tuesday night to accept inaugural Citizen Peacebuilding Award. University officials said they were honoring Gorbachev, who received the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, for his contributions to world peace. They note his establishment of Green Cross International, an organization that promotes environmental sustainability and helps those affected by the environmental consequences of war. And in what is seen as a luminary one-two punch for the UCI Citizen Peacebuilding Program, the Dalai Lama will be on campus April 16 to accept the award as well. The award is a small sculpture titled Building and It consists of the barrels of five guns confiscated by the Orange County Department.

Its creator, sculptor and UCI professor Gifford Myers, said his intention was to turn the instruments of war into art that represented peace. peace, you have to start with believing. You build peace person by Myers said. with people working with each other, perhaps we can achieve Established in 1998as part of the School of Social Sciences on campus, the UCI Citizen Peace- building Program was the brainchild of UCI professors Paula Garb and John L. Graham, who sought to foster global peacemaking efforts at the local level.

only hear about the political process at the official Garb said. so much of the groundwork of getting to the final peace agreement is dependent on the grass-roots With only 15 members in the organization people from the university and outside its efforts have reached well beyond Orange County. The group is pursuing initiatives in Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Republic of Georgia and Northern Ireland. In February, program members traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where they visited two elementary schools separated by a soccer field. One was a Roman Catholic school, the other Protestant, and the students were forbidden to interact with one another.

Two members, Larry and Dulcie Kugelman, hope to establish a fly-fishing academy that would bring Catholic and Protestant students together. The group has already formed a partnership between the Catholic and Protestant schools and fourth-graders at Turtle Rock Elementary in Irvine and Lowell Elementary in Santa Ana. The four schools have been given digital cameras so fourth- graders can take photographs that symbolize peace from their perspective. Aselection of winning pictures will be displayed in an online gallery, with plans to publish them in book form. said Larry Kugelman, to bring the children from both sides out from the inner city, teach them the skills of fishing, but also peace building in the Ricardo DeAratanha Los Angeles Times CONVERTING FIREPOWER: Sculptor and UCI art professor Gifford Myers made the award from gun barrels.

UCI Extending Peace Honor to 2 Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama will accept a new award. Organizers also have launched initiatives in Bosnia and N. Ireland..