Commissioner Is Pressured to Drop Role in Lawsuit or Quit Airport Panel

Burbank Airport Commissioner Margie Gee is expected to tell Burbank City Council members today whether she will withdraw her participation in a homeowner lawsuit against the airport, resign from the commission or remain on the panel in what she conceded is a “possibly handicapped” capacity.

Gee, an anti-noise advocate who was appointed by the council to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority last May, has been under mounting pressure from her two fellow Burbank representatives on the board to make a decision in order to avoid what they feel is a conflict of interest.

Mayor Mary Lou Howard and Leland Ayers, who round out the Burbank faction on the nine-member board, agree that Gee should step down or withdraw from a suit filed by 200 San Fernando Valley homeowners two years ago seeking damages for lowered property values and nuisance caused by airplane noise. The litigants are seeking $200,000 each in damages.

Fearing a conflict of interest, Gee abstained earlier this week from voting on an application to allow United Airlines to start service at Burbank Airport. The application is opposed by Burbank because of fears that it will lead to more airplane noise in surrounding neighborhoods.

“We need to have someone on the commission who can actively participate in noise issues,” said Howard, who said she was surprised to learn earlier this week that Gee had not yet withdrawn from the lawsuit. “The most important issue facing us is noise, and if Margie wants to be an effective member of the authority, she should not be a party to the lawsuit.”

Commissioner Could Stay

Although Gee could conceivably stay on the commission and vote on airport issues that are not directly related to airport noise or her lawsuit, Howard and Ayers said her effectiveness would be severely hampered by that restriction.

“Practically 90% of the issues we deal with involve airport noise,” Ayers said. “She either has to get in or get out. She has to make a choice. It’s like being half pregnant.”

Gee, in an interview Thursday, said that “either stepping down from the commission or withdrawing from the lawsuit cannot be done without much deliberation and consideration.”

“There are many ramifications both ways,” she said.

She disputed her colleagues’ charges that her voice would be muted if she continued to serve on the commission, and maintained that another option would be for her to remain on the board with limited participation.

“At present, I may be possibly handicapped, but my effectiveness has already been more than proven so far,” said Gee. “Because of me, the citizens and city officials have become more aware. They know now that the future of the city is clouded by events at the airport, and they have become more concerned about which direction the airport is going.”

Burbank officials say that Gee’s ability to participate in decisions is particularly important because of the city’s assertion that a majority of any of the three cities’ representatives can veto decisions made by the commission as a whole. In this way, Burbank officials assert, they can limit airport growth.

However, airport authorities have disputed whether such a veto power exists, saying that federal law allows airlines to expand their services as long as they meet federal regulations.