Noise Control Officer’s Status Raises a Ruckus : Transportation: Airport department and citizens advisory panel squabble over whom the Van Nuys Airport worker should report to.

A recently hired noise abatement officer for Van Nuys Airport is in the middle of a noisy debate between her bosses at the Los Angeles Department of Airports and a citizens advisory panel that wants direct access to information about airport din.

The department--which operates Van Nuys, Ontario, Palmdale and Los Angeles International airports--has said that noise officer Lin Wang will work for the department’s head of noise-monitoring at LAX.

But the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, which was instrumental in getting a noise abatement officer hired for Van Nuys Airport, wants Wang to report directly to Van Nuys Airport Manager Ron Kochevar so the council can get “fair, honest reporting” about airport noise trends, said council chairman Sandor Winger.

Both sides of the debate are expected to be aired tonight at a meeting of the citizens council. A department representative is expected to defend its position on supervising Wang, who began work Nov. 2.

Winger contends that the citizens council and the department disagree on how to reduce noise, and the council wants access to Wang’s noise reports before they can be filtered by airport department supervisors.

Although Kochevar and Wang both work for the Department of Airports, Winger said placing Wang under Kochevar will eliminate that additional level of bureaucracy. The Department of Airports “may or may not allow the noise abatement officer to give fair, honest reporting” about noise, he said.

But Donald Miller, the department’s deputy executive director, called Winger’s concerns “absurd,” saying, “This is a management decision and I don’t see, to be quite candid, why the council is so concerned about a staffing issue.”

Miller pointed out that the noise abatement officer at Ontario Airport also reports to the department’s head of noise-monitoring at LAX.

The dispute between the citizens council and the Department of Airports stems from a dispute over noise control measures last year.

Winger’s group recommended extending a nightly curfew by one hour, encouraging pilots to reduce thrust on takeoff and adding the noise abatement officer to the staff. The proposal is known as the Part 150 plan because it was written by a panel formed under a Federal Aviation Administration regulation of that number governing local noise control efforts.

A second noise measure, recommended by the Department of Airports but opposed by the citizens council, called for phasing out noisier jets by the year 2000.

As a compromise, the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners adopted both measures, despite protests from the citizens council that the ordinance would bring on a clash with the FAA, which provides important construction funding.

The noise regulation recommended by the Department of Airports must be approved by the Los Angeles City Council. It currently awaits review by the City Council’s commerce, energy and natural resources committee. Enforcement of the citizen committee’s suggestions has been postponed until the status of the city proposal is clarified.

A job description for Wang’s position provided by the Department of Airports said she reports to the department’s head of noise-monitoring, but that the Van Nuys Airport manager “provides day-to-day supervision regarding personnel and work environment needs.”

Wang said Monday she had no comment on the dispute except to say that when she was hired “they did warn me that Van Nuys would be very controversial.”