SANTA MONICA : L.A. Seeks to Place Resident on Neighbor’s Airport Commission

Several members of the Los Angeles City Council have asked that the Santa Monica City Council appoint a Los Angeles resident to the Westside city’s Airport Commission.

Airport Commission membership has recently been a contentious issue in Santa Monica as the council prepares to appoint three new commissioners. One Santa Monica official, Ken Genser, suggested at Tuesday’s meeting that the City Council “clean house” and select five new members who are compatible with one another to avoid the infighting that has typified the panel in recent years.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles council members Ruth Galanter, Marvin Braude and Mike Feuer say that the makeup of the commission should reflect the concerns of Los Angeles residents who live near the airport. The airport’s neighbors have complained that noise, pollution, plane crashes and changes in flight patterns are unfairly affecting their communities.

With a representative on the Airport Commission, Los Angeles residents would have more say about airport operations, the three council members representing the Westside said in a July 5 letter to Santa Monica Mayor Paul Rosenstein.

“For years I have been convening meetings with Santa Monica Airport . . . we’ve gone around and around, but we haven’t gotten far,” Galanter said. “My constituents have said they want to have more of a voice.”

Santa Monica officials would have to change the city charter to permit the appointment of an airport commission member who lives outside the city. Such a change would require a general election in 1996, but Galanter, Braude and Feuer suggested creating a non-voting position until then.

Some Santa Monica elected officials agreed that Los Angeles residents deserve to have input on decisions at the airport, but were cool to a non-resident ever being allowed to vote.