Hahn Removes Airport Panelist
Just three days before a critical hearing on his $9-billion modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport, Mayor James K. Hahn has removed an airport commissioner who recently questioned aspects of the controversial proposal.
The mayor announced late Thursday afternoon that Alan Llorens, a Southern California Edison public relations executive whom Hahn appointed only 18 months ago, would be leaving the commission more than a year before his term expired.
Hahn appointed entertainment executive Walter Zifkin to replace Llorens. The mayor also announced that he had tapped Westchester lawyer and community leader David Voss and sports agent Jerome Stanley to fill two other vacancies on the airport panel, one of them created by the resignation last month of commission President Ted Stein.
The turnover means that nearly half of the seven-member panel could be new at a time when the commission is being called upon to review the complex LAX modernization proposal.
The commission is scheduled to hold its first public hearing on the master plan Monday, and is supposed to vote on it three weeks later.
Hahn's plans to demolish terminals and garages at LAX and build a massive new check-in complex near the San Diego Freeway have been under intense fire in recent months, forcing the mayor to scramble for support just as the Airport Commission and the City Council were preparing to consider the proposal.
Last week, under pressure from council members, the mayor reversed himself and backed a study of whether his plan would improve security at the airport.
Council members -- many of whom have questioned the mayor's leadership on the airport plan -- said Thursday that they were stunned by his decision to drop Llorens, who just a few weeks ago questioned why the airport didn't require engineering firms bidding on an advanced planning contract to include cost estimates.
"I hope these decisions were not made in an effort to manipulate a predetermined outcome," said Councilman Tony Cardenas. "I will now be required to view the proposed plan with an even finer-toothed comb."
A council committee chaired by Cardenas will review Hahn's appointments. The full council must confirm them.
Hahn denied that he was trying to eliminate a critic.
"Commissioner Llorens has done a great job for us," the mayor said. "We move commissioners around from time to time. We're looking to put together a different look there at the airport."
