Perhaps the most interesting part of Keith Greers talk was his observations on leadership. According to Greer a leader must be foremost an agent of change and a risk taker. He/she must be able to energize people and motivate them towards achieving his/her vision. Greer contends that change is inevitable and the key is managing that change. Risk-taking should not be confused with fool-hardiness. Leaders motivate followers in different ways even through fear, but they must motivate. Leaders must have a clear vision which is achieved systematically by setting and reaching goals and objectives. It is Greer's view that many leaders fail because they do not have a vision. He went on to say that leaders have self-confidence, are self-motivated, possess acute problem-solving skills, are determined, have influence over others and are committed. Greer closed his talk with a reference to something he learned about life from Michael McCaffrey. Life is really a series of choices. The only control you have over your life is the choices that you make, and you alone are responsible for them. He used the following analogy:

" ...it is not the force of the gael, it is the set of the sail"

Although Greer's perceptions of leadership were familiar ones, he conveyed them with such passion. I have no doubt that much of his success as a developer and a leader for The Irvine Company can be attributed to his possessing many of the qualities that he contends are essential for effective leadership in any enterprise. He is now the owner operator of two minor league baseball clubs. I would suspect that both of those organizations set the standard for other clubs in the league.

Automobiles

Bill Vardoulis was the next presenter. Mr. Vardoulis helped form the Joint Powers Authority that developed the financing of the three toll roads being built by the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA). The TCA was formed because the California Transportation Authority, a State agency was solely responsible for the construction and maintenance of the public highway system which caused there to be a depleted pool of expertise on the construction and maintenance of toll (privately owned) highways in California.

The funding for the toll highway system in Southern California was made possible by the TCA being authorized by the State legislature to issue bonds backed by future and development impact fee revenues. There was no federal money and very little State money invested in the project. This was rather unique because traditionally the federal government contributes large amounts of money for highway construction and improvements at the State level and at times uses those funds hostage to force States to comply with federal mandates. An example of this was the when President Nixon ordered the States to comply with the 55 mph speed limit.

There were to be three privately owned and maintained toll ways in Southern California. (see map) They are referred to as the Eastern Transportation Corridor (State Route 241, 261 and 133), The Foothill Transportation Corridor (State Route 241),  and The San Joaquin Toll Road (State Route 73).State Route 373 and 241 are both open and operating and the three State Routes in the Eastern Transportation Corridor are slated to open next year. The roads are high tech. They have a state-of-the-art electronic toll collection system. A pocket-sized transponder is installed in the automobile and it exchanges information with a roadside computer which automatically deducts the toll from the customers prepaid (by phone w/ credit card) toll account.

The investment was "sold" based upon the notion that Californians are willing to pay to travel on a toll road even if there is a public highway that runs a parallel route. This notion is based primarily on the traffic snarls that can develop on Southern California freeways. It is widely believed that in order to avoid traffic, and enjoy a more aesthetically pleasing drive, that a substantial number of Californians will pay a toll. It sounds simple enough, except what if too many people are willing to pay these tolls and traffic snarls develop on the toll roads? Well, they just raise the tolls! Freedom from traffic could get very expensive in California and those invested in their construction may see a sizeable return over time if growth projections into the next millennium are accurate.

The first top open was the San Joaquin Corridor State Route 73. Revenues generated from tolls have not yet have , so far, been below expectations. But, Mr. Vardoulis was quick to point out that at the time the toll roads were conceived, no one could have predicted that Measure "D" would pass which allowed for the completion of major improvements on the parallel freeways. California was in the "throws" of a recession when these plans were conceptualized. However, revenues have increased recently and it is now projected that the bonds issued for the San Joaquin Corridor will be paid repaid by 2005-2010 the Eastern Corridor by 2015 and the Foothill Corridor by 2020.

An interesting footnote...The way the legislation is written, the tolls are to be eliminated when the bonds are repaid. However, this is unprecedented in the United States to date! As what was mentioned by one of the participants, all of us fully expect to be around at that time...so we will see.

Trains

Bill Hodge Director of External Affairs at the OCTA gave a presentation on an urban rail system in Orange County and whether or not it can succeed. He began his presentation with what I saw as a very significant projection. The population in Orange County is projected to increase 23 per cent over the next two years. In that same period of time, there is an expected growth in jobs of  70 per cent. What this means is that the people hired to fill those jobs will be commuting to Orange County. At that point I began to be convinced that a urban rail system can succeed in this area. OCTA is following carefully the developments in urban rail systems implement recently in Portland, San Diego and San Jose.

There are two proposed city alignments for such a system.  There are referred to as the "Lower Cost Alternative" and the "Locally Preferred Strategy". Both extend as far north in the county as the city of Fullerton and as far south in the county as Irvine. Among the stops are Anaheim, Disneyland, the Convention Center, Edison Field/The Pond, Santa Ana South Coast Metro and Irvine Business Complex. (see alignments).                                                                                 
Technologies being considered are Light Rail (similar to trolleys) Automated Guideway (powered by third rail requires no driver) and Monorail (single rail above, below or on side). It was mentioned that Disneyland has experienced difficulty in expanding their monorail system.

Planes

The third session of the day was conducted my Mike Hart, Deputy Director of John Wayne Airport. In Southern California there are five airports that serve approximately 70 million passengers annually. John Wayne serves 7.2 million of those passengers making the second largest airport in this region. The first terminal was constructed in 1967. The new terminal was completed in 1990.

Outside of the "hub" airports of the 13 carriers that currently fly into Orange County, John Wayne is the number one market in terms of revenue for each. The surcharge these carriers pass on to passengers departing or arriving at John Wayne allows them to operate fewer flights and still remain very profitable.

The John Wayne airport is very efficient. The new terminal was built to serve 8.3 million passengers through 14 gates, or 400,000 per gate per year. Portland International Airport serves 12 million passengers through 53 gates.

Residents beneath the flight patterns at John Wayne sued the county and an agreement was reached as a result of that suit restricting the number of passengers the airport could serve, the times of arriving and departing flights, the type of aircraft that can operate and the terminal size. It was a 20 year agreement reached in 1985.

We were loaded onto to busses and given a visual of the airport area. We did not see much beyond what is possible to see from driving around the airport, but we had someone pointing different things out as we drove. We all were a bit disappointed that the tour did not include talking us inside to the high security areas so we might get a better sense of how security is maintained.

All in all it was an interesting day. I learned allot about the dynamics of transportation in, out and around Orange County.