New Authority Leader Vows to Mend Rifts

Calling for a new relationship with the city of Burbank, Carl W. Raggio Jr. of Glendale has been elected to a one-year term as president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, the nine-member board of commissioners that oversees the airport.

A former two-time mayor of Glendale and retired space engineer, Raggio an immediate goal is to improve the authority’s relationship with a new majority on the Burbank City Council that opposes airport expansion.

“The things that have been going on have to come to a stop,” said Raggio, 66. “There’s a profound need to begin to work these differences out so we can go forward.”

He added that he is eagerly awaiting the outcome of a July 13 meeting of the Burbank City Council, when members will give their official position on airport expansion and a possible mandatory curfew on all flights, as well as directions to the city’s three representatives on the Airport Authority.

Until council members agree on how much of an expansion--if any--they are willing to accept, Raggio said he will reserve judgment on the need to move forward with building a larger airport terminal that could accommodate an increase in flights.

Raggio became interim president of the Airport Authority in May, when Brian Bowman of Burbank resigned, citing conflicts with the Burbank City Council’s new majority.

Since then, Raggio has vowed to put an immediate end to the authority’s longstanding policy of providing free first-class air travel for commissioners and their spouses during business trips--expenses that were routinely approved by his predecessors.

The commissioners voted 6 to 1 last Thursday--with an eighth board member abstaining and another absent--to elect Raggio as president, Pasadena City Councilwoman Joyce Streator as vice president and Margie A. Gee of Burbank as secretary.

Casting the lone vote against all three was Commissioner Philip E. Berlin of Burbank, who said he was concerned about past remarks by Raggio and Streator that he considered to be disparaging toward the city of Burbank.