Leisure World Airport Opponents Sue Developer

LAGUNA HILLS — Wealthy developer George Argyros was sued Thursday by three Leisure World homeowner associations for allegedly funding a “mean-spirited” lawsuit against association board members to chill their opposition to a proposed civilian airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“We’re trying to protect our freedom of speech, our health and our property values,” said Robert Ring, president of the Third Laguna Hills Mutual Homeowners Assn. “With the landing pattern right over Leisure World . . . we can expect to have one plane a minute all day long according to proposed plans.”

Argyros, a major backer of the airport proposal, was gone Thursday and could not be reached for comment, a spokesman said.

A year ago, 35 directors of the homeowner groups were sued individually by Warren T. Finley and Donald H. Rez, both trustees of Leisure World estates, for donating $550,000 to Measure S, the campaign against building a commercial airport at the military base.

That suit demanded that the donations be returned in full to Leisure World’s Golden Rain Foundation, which oversees the spending of the funds. Roughly, that would amount to a rebate of $45 per resident.

But the timing of the trustees’ suit, filed just before the March 26, 1996, election in which Measure S was defeated, had a chilling effect on the constitutional rights of the 35 directors, they said.

William R. Hart, a Santa Ana attorney representing Leisure World directors, said Thursday’s lawsuit will prove that Argyros, either personally or through other relationships, is secretly paying the attorneys’ fees and costs of the original lawsuit to intimidate Leisure World directors.

“The lawsuit was mean spirited,” said Robert E. Miller, president of the United Laguna Hills Mutual Homeowners Assn., a group representing 8,000 residents. Argyros “wants to chill us [from talking] and to punish us for voting to donate $550,000 for Measure S.”

While Leisure World directors believe they had authority to use homeowner funds to help protect property values, Darryl R. Wold, a Costa Mesa attorney for Finley and Rez, disagreed.

“It’s our contention that neither state law or government permits the use of homeowners’ assessments for political contributions,” Wold said. “Those are mandatory assessments which are collected for purposes of maintenance, maintaining street lights and keeping Leisure World a nice place to live. They shouldn’t be diverted toward a political campaign.”

Although a majority of the 18,000 residents at Leisure World are opposed to a commercial airport at El Toro, “not all residents are against the airport,” Wold noted.

Measure S was defeated by a 59.8%-40.2% margin. It would have repealed a previous initiative, Measure A, which was largely financed by Argyros, encouraging conversion of El Toro to a commercial airport after it closes in 1999.

Hart said that Finley filed the first lawsuit on March 7, 1996, as trustee of the James and Sylvia F. Henderson 1977 Trust. Finley is Argyros’ personal attorney, and Sylvia Henderson is Argyros’ mother-in-law, Hart said.

Also, Hart maintains that Rez owns Polar Marine Inc., a company that markets toxic decontamination procedures for soil contaminated by petroleum byproducts such as military and large Super Fund clean up sites.

Attorney Wold said that Rez’s business doesn’t depend on El Toro becoming a commercial airport. “If they leave the runway in place,” he said, “no one has to clean it up. But if they took it out to put in commercial buildings and an entertainment center, it would be a much more extensive cleanup.”