Burbank Airport Authority Gets Camera Shy

Concerned over image and aesthetics, the Burbank Airport authority on Monday shelved the idea of videotaping its meetings, concluding that the noise of taxiing jets and the poor lighting of the conference room would make for too shoddy a product to beam over public-access airwaves.

“It would be more of a negative for us to tape and televise the meetings than a positive,” said airport commissioner and Burbank Mayor George Battey. He said viewers would form a bad impression of the airport as a noise nuisance--as many critics have charged--rather than as an economic asset to Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, the cities that own it.

“It may be an educational thing, but it’s not going to add to our ability to make decisions,” he added.

Battey was joined by five commissioners in killing the proposal to set up cameras and microphones at the authority’s semimonthly meetings. Commissioner Chris Holden, a Pasadena city councilman, cast the sole vote in favor of keeping the issue alive.

Several authority members argued that the cost of soundproofing the meeting room, and other cosmetic changes necessary for good sound and a pretty picture, would be too high. The $100,000 price tag would be unwarranted, they said, because the air terminal where the meetings are held is to be abandoned by the end of the decade for a new facility that could be much more flattering on film if designed properly.

“It just doesn’t justify” the expense, Commissioner Brian Bowman said.

Plus, he added, “you’ve got nine people”--the commissioners--”with a certain amount of ego and vanity, and they don’t want to see a bad product.”

Monday’s decision lays to rest a discussion that has dragged on for months. Commissioner Bill Paparian, who was not present at Monday’s meeting, raised the possibility last year of videotaping commission business.

Although authority President Robert W. Garcin contends that the panel is not a governmental agency like a city council, many of which televise their meetings, others have objected primarily because of what they believe will be tapes of poor quality as a result of the lighting and jet noise.

The commission’s concern over aircraft noise “is ironic,” given that many residents have fought the airport for years over the issue of noise, said Richard de Blasi of Studio City, who is a member of the Coalition for Fair Airport Noise, a group critical of Burbank Airport operations.

But he acknowledged that the meetings take place on airport grounds, where noise from takeoffs and landings would be loud unavoidably.