All 34 Orange County cities signed on March 10, said transportation authority spokesman Joel Zlotnik. The cities were expected to turn in their studies by June 30 if they wished to move on to the second stage of the Go Local program and be eligible for a share of $25 million in further grants, Zlotnik said.
The authority’s board members will decide what to do with tardy reports at their July 21 meeting. Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said “it doesn’t matter.”
Newport Beach and Costa Mesa used the $200,000 to study John Wayne Airport users, where they come from, why they use it and what they could do to steer them to other airports, Bludau said.
Transportation authority officials want city officials who apply for the grants to study how to get commuters into the county using local transportation, but Newport-Mesa officials are interested in studying how to steer airport passengers out of the county.
Attempts to reach Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Allan Mansoor, who serves on the transportation authority’s board, were unsuccessful Friday.
“We missed the deadline because we never intended to meet the deadline,” Bludau said. “The deadline is for those who intend to move forward with phase two. We never intended to do that.”
Each city received $100,000 for the study, and several teamed up for joint efforts like Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, Zlotnik said. Only three other cities — Fullerton, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Woods — missed the deadline, he said.
