Airport Commission

Citing petty squabbling among members that has created an inefficient Santa Monica Airport Commission, a city councilman suggests removing the current commissioners from their positions and replacing them with five new members. The proposal, from Santa Monica Councilman Ken Genser, was postponed after Tuesday's council meeting and is scheduled to be discussed Aug. 12. Genser made the proposal as the City Council is considering candidates to fill three current vacancies on the airport commission.

In a sign of the high stakes and hardening political positions surrounding a major runway relocation project at Los Angeles International Airport, two of the state's most powerful Democrats have come down sharply at odds on the issue. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a longtime foe of the proposal to shift the airport's northernmost runway closer to Westchester and Playa del Rey, has gone public with her unhappiness with Rep. Henry Waxman, a colleague who supports the runway shift that proponents say is critical to keeping the airport competitive.

The City Council has reappointed its three representatives to Burbank Airport's governing board, officials said Wednesday. Renamed to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority Commission were Carl Meseck, Gerald Briggs and Carl Povilaitis. Meseck has served on the nine-member board since 1977; Briggs and Povilaitis were appointed in 1997 and 1999, respectively. The commissioners serve four-year terms.

The Orange County Airport Commission has voted 4 to 0 to recommend keeping the current concessionaire at John Wayne Airport but with some new locally owned restaurants. The panel also approved a new discount airline with service to Canada and signed off on the airport's capacity plan for the coming year. The same concessionaire has been operating at the airport since the Thomas F. Riley Terminal opened in 1990. With its contract expiring and a new terminal under construction, the airport sought proposals to fill restaurants, cocktail lounges and snack bars.

Los Angeles airport commissioners have agreed to face head-on a growing controversy over increased jet noise at Van Nuys Airport. For the first time in nearly four years, the commission will meet in the San Fernando Valley to hear both anti-noise activists and aviation interests that have long complained that they are being ignored.

Glendale investment banker Jerry Briggs, 52, has been named to the commission overseeing the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, replacing outgoing Commissioner Robert Garcin. The Glendale City Council also voted to reappoint Commissioners Carl Meseck and Carl Raggio to the nine-member board, city spokesman Rich Wells said. Briggs said his first goal will be to resolvepending litigation surrounding a planned expansion of Burbank Airport.

The city's newly constituted Airport Commission elected San Fernando Valley lawyer-developer Ted Stein president and Warren W. Valdry vice president at its first meeting Tuesday. Stein, who was sitting in the president's chair when the meeting started, was one of five people appointed to the seven-member board last month by Mayor James K. Hahn. He previously served as the commission's president under former Mayor Richard Riordan.

Michael Hastings, former Burbank mayor, has resigned from the Burbank Airport Commission, citing increased business demands. "If I can't give 100%, I don't want to kid anybody," said Hastings, who had been on the commission for 2 1/2 years. Hastings' resignation was effective immediately. Hastings said he recently changed jobs, and can no longer afford the five or six hours each week the commission requires.

After reluctantly launching a nationwide search, the Airport Commission on Wednesday began interviewing 10 candidates--eight of them city employees--for the job of directing one of the world's busiest municipal aviation departments. The closed-door interviews, which were to conclude today, could allow the commission to decide as soon as Monday who will replace Clifton A.

The days of steamed hot dogs and vending machine pizzas may be numbered at Los Angeles International Airport. The city Tuesday invited popular restaurants and fast-food outlets to compete for the business of feeding hungry travelers. The city Airport Commission voted unanimously to end a 34-year exclusive agreement that put Host Marriott in charge of all LAX food operations.

The president of the Los Angeles airport commission resigned Thursday, saying his ties to a popular restaurant chain have complicated efforts to transform the dining and shopping experience for travelers at Los Angeles International Airport. Alan Rothenberg, an attorney and investment banker in Century City, sent a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announcing his departure from the Board of Airport Commissioners, where he has served for five years. The seven-member panel sets policy for Los Angeles World Airports, the operator of LAX, Los Angeles/Ontario International Airport and Van Nuys Airport.

Due to potential conflicts of interest involving its chairman, the Los Angeles airport commission has been disqualified from voting on a series of multimillion-dollar concession contracts considered key to enhancing the dining and shopping experience for travelers and visitors at Los Angeles International Airport. The Board of Airport Commissioners was scheduled next Monday to award 10 food, beverage and retail contracts related to the ongoing modernization of the nation's third-busiest airport.

Federal officials on Monday dealt a serious blow to a decades-long effort to restrict nighttime flights at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, asserting that to do so would harm the national air transportation system. The Federal Aviation Administration rejected a proposed curfew that would have banned flights by airlines, cargo operators, charter services and private pilots between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. with some exceptions, including emergencies. The airlines now operate under a voluntary agreement not to fly between those hours.

Voters in Los Angeles' 2nd Council District go to the polls Tuesday to elect a successor to former Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who was elected city controller earlier this year. Ten candidates are running. If none emerges from the special election with more than 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff Dec. 8 between the top two finishers. The Times has endorsed former Paramount Pictures Corp. executive Christine Essel. Essel is a former member of the Airport Commission and former chairwoman of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

To offset a 13% drop in passenger volume last year brought on by a worsening recession, the city's Airport Commission voted Monday to increase terminal rents at LA/Ontario International Airport. The falloff in air travel led to a marked decline in revenue from landing fees, concessions and parking, and that forced Los Angeles World Airports -- which operates the Ontario facility, together with Los Angeles International and Van Nuys airports -- to urge commissioners to increase rents in the facility's terminals by 15% from $131 per square foot to $150 per square foot per year.

Federal authorities are questioning whether the agency that manages Los Angeles International Airport has illegally provided more than $40 million in revenue since 2002 to L.A. Inc., the city's convention and visitors bureau. The Federal Aviation Administration, which began a routine audit of airport expenditures in July, has tentatively concluded that Los Angeles World Airports allocated the money in apparent violation of federal laws that restrict how airport revenue can be spent. L.A. Inc.

Eight of Mayor Richard Riordan's key appointees to citizen commissions received unanimous confirmation Tuesday from the Los Angeles City Council. The eight residents will sit on the Airport and Harbor commissions--key panels in pushing Riordan's plans for increasing the efficiency of city government. Approved for the Airport Commission were downtown lawyer Patricia M. Schnegg, homeless shelter provider Martha Brown Hicks, Warner Bros. executive Dan Garcia and housing developer Warren Valdry.

In her first public explanation of her role in a controversial LAX contract, Los Angeles airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey on Monday appeared to reassure airport commissioners that she did not improperly influence the hiring of a major engineering firm to manage airport modernization projects. At issue is whether Lindsey manipulated the evaluation process to award a one-year $25-million contract to DMJM Aviation Inc.

Los Angeles airport director Gina Marie Lindsey -- about to complete her first year overseeing one of the world's busiest travel gateways -- will spend the next few days explaining to her bosses what role she played in the awarding of $67 million in LAX construction contracts. Today she will appear before airport commissioners. On Wednesday, she will sit before a City Council committee, whose chairwoman has recommended that the body take jurisdiction over one of two contracts in dispute.