Agran Deserves Praise for Efforts

Why does The Times still tar former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran as a lone-wolf, wild-eyed liberal, determined to perpetuate some obscure personal agenda (“Agran Catching Flak in Battle Against Airport,� Dec. 22)?

I served on the Irvine City Council with Agran from 1986 to 1990. He proved time and time again to be a community leader of high moral integrity. His talent is in creating unlikely coalitions, not in working alone in pursuit of some private vision. He is dedicated to the public interest and believes that good government begins in cities, not in Washington, D.C., or Sacramento. His achievements, not just assertions, prove this to be true.

But you present some of his political achievements in an offhanded way. Out of context they seem merely quixotic; in context, however, they are the actions of a courageous local politician.

For example, you allude to Agran’s leadership in instituting curbside recycling in Irvine as if it were a fait accompli, but you fail to report that Irvine was the first city in California to offer a voluntary curbside recycling program. Moreover, it was done in the face of tremendous political opposition, which called it another “useless government service.� Now, of course, curbside recycling is common policy throughout South County cities.

You allude to his championing affordable housing, but you fail to report that “affordable� meant that city employees, police officers, schoolteachers, secretaries and families just starting out could afford to live in Irvine, where they worked.

Moreover, you fail to mention Agran’s major achievements, such as his leadership in negotiating an open space agreement with the Irvine Co. The agreement preserved thousands of acres for public use. It also swept away development as a political issue in Irvine politics. Moreover, it was submitted to Irvine voters for approval and won easily.

From Agran you can count on moral integrity, intelligent action, and the ability to rally thousands of supporters across the political spectrum. These are qualities I’ve never seen in county government. In fact, I’ve seen just the opposite--hack politicians who do the bidding of the county’s high-rolling developers.

Based on this one-sided article, you seem to fear that Agran will become a county supervisor. I fear he won’t.

ED DORNAN

Irvine

* Stop it! Stop it right now before we are losing any chance to prevent an international airport in El Toro! I am talking to Mark Goodman, Sally Anne Sheridan and other politicians who claim to oppose the airport, but are attacking Larry Agran as the wrong person to head this fight.

Our only realistic approach to prevent the airport is to prove its adverse effects. It is under the leadership of Agran that the county was presented with more than 1,500 questions challenging the environmental impact report. It is Agran who will lead us in pursuing this course.

The supporters of the airport have money, power and influence. All we have is our united front against an international airport in El Toro, a front stretching across the political spectrum and social classes, encompassing retirees and young families. We cannot afford to be splintered and divided by the Goodmans and the Sheridans of this county. Therefore, whether goaded by a reporter or following a survival instinct of getting one’s name in the newspaper, please do not use our fight against the airport for your political purposes.

HANNA HILL

Irvine

* After reading your article discussing Larry Agran and his involvement in the prevention of an El Toro commercial airport, I was struck by the statements made by Agran’s critics who claim to be opponents of the airport.

The conversion of El Toro into another LAX spells disaster for the communities in Orange County, and Larry Agran has worked against the airport from the beginning.

From what I can see, Agran is a concerned taxpayer who has united citizens to keep Orange County one of the best counties in the U.S.

Critics like Sally Anne Sheridan, on the other hand, claim that they too are against the construction of an airport, but why is it that they have failed to do anything about it?

Why do they sit on the sidelines critiquing Agran, when their time and energy would be better spent helping the cause which they say that they support? These critics also accuse Agran of having ulterior motives, but it seems to me that they themselves are the ones who are a bit two-faced--claiming to oppose the airport but unwilling to get their hands dirty.

Sheridan even ran for Irvine mayor this past November; part of her platform was the prevention of the commercial airport. And she would have us believe that Agran was the power-hungry politician? If these people have done nothing to help the cause, they then have no right to criticize Larry Agran’s great efforts.

ANITA KING

Irvine

* How appalling if the allegations are true regarding Larry Agran’s attempting to achieve public office by working on issues affecting the public (such as the airport). Doesn’t he know the acceptable stepping stones are experience as a member of the “good ole boys� club or as a lobbyist for big business?

MARIE WALSH

Trabuco Canyon

* Your article about former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran established one important fact: Agran has been a popular grass-roots politician willing to stand up to Orange County’s special interests. By the county’s political history, it might be fair to say he’s revolutionary.

Well, we residents are in a revolutionary mood--and we should be. We were promised planned communities, we were promised that El Toro would never become a commercial airport, we were promised respect for our property rights.

Now our planned communities will become ghost towns where people huddle in their houses under the relentless roar of jet engines. The same folks who used to lecture us about property rights--the likes of George Argyros, Disney executives, the Knott family and county politicians--have revealed their own greed. The truth of the matter is this: They don’t [care] about our property rights--they only care about fattening their wallets.

Will we let them, or will we stop them? If we do stop them, it will because of independent voices like Larry Agran’s.

TOM DOWLING

Costa Mesa