Countywide : SANTA ANA : Airport Manager Won’t Get Pay Raise

County Airport Manager George Rebella, whose performance has come under fire in recent months, will not receive a raise this year and is the only high-ranking county employee to be passed over, officials said Wednesday.

“I hear he wasn’t surprised, given how things were going out there,” said one official, who asked not to be identified.

Rebella, who would not return phone calls Wednesday, has been under fire for months as the $310-million John Wayne Airport expansion ran into a series of problems. First the airport’s scheduled April 1 opening date was delayed, a setback for which Rebella took responsibility. More recently, the project has come under fire for the performance of its chief contractor, Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd.

Under the salary increases approved by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, Rebella’s pay will stay at $86,736 a year. Twenty-eight other top county officials all received raises ranging from about 4% to almost 10%.

Frustrated by delays of the airport construction project, the supervisors voted last month to strip Taylor Woodrow of a $25-million contract for a parking garage and elevated road. The company was allowed to keep the $60-million contract to build the terminal, but is now under strict new guidelines intended to speed construction and guarantee that the terminal is done by Sept. 16.

At the same time that the supervisors fired Taylor Woodrow from the parking garage contract, they appointed Assistant County Administrative Officer Murry Cable to help oversee the construction, a move interpreted as a direct slap at Rebella, who had been in sole charge of the project.

Wednesday, county supervisors were reluctant to elaborate on their reasons for denying Rebella a salary increase, but some officials privately conceded that his performance overseeing construction was discussed.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the airport, declined to discuss Rebella’s case in detail, saying that the conversations regarding salaries were a confidential personnel matter. But he did add: “We evaluate everybody on their performance and give the raises accordingly. You can draw whatever inferences you want from that.”

According to one board member, County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider lobbied hard for Rebella to be bypassed when the annual raises were handed out. Schneider, the board member said, was dissatisfied with Rebella’s performance and made his feelings clear.

Schneider’s raise was the largest approved by the supervisors, and he remains the county’s highest paid official, receiving a new salary of $129,000 a year. That increased from $118,000 this year.