Airport Staff Expenses Top $400,000 in 3 Years : Burbank: Pricey meals, full-fare air tickets were among perks paid for with public funds by seven members since 1992, records show.

More than $400,000 has been charged to an expense account used by seven members of the Burbank Airport staff since 1992, with the bills reflecting free spending on business meals, expensive airline tickets and other pricey perks that have become a focus of controversy.

Records obtained by The Times show that Executive Director Tom Greer once spent $425 for a business dinner for four. At a 1992 conference, the airport was billed $2,826 for a hospitality suite at a Maui hotel, including $720 worth of cocktails, wines, beers, sodas and juices. Last year at a conference in Toronto, the airport picked up a $1,417 tab for tickets to a performance of “Miss Saigon.”

The bills also show that staff members routinely purchased full-fare coach airline tickets of $1,200 to $1,400 for travel to conferences scheduled months in advance, despite the availability of cheaper fares.

“This is taxpayer money,” said Burbank City Councilman Ted McConkey, a vocal opponent of what he terms excessive airport spending. “There are no apparent controls. They spend as much as they please whenever they please.”

At a time when corporations and other public agencies are slashing budgets and counting pennies, the level of spending by airport employees has led to allegations that executive staff members and commissioners have taken advantage of accounts designed to cover business-related expenses.

Airport Authority staff members say their spending provides benefits for the airport, reflects good judgment and are reasonable when contrasted with other airports.

The billing records show that some expenses that appear on the staff account benefited the nine appointed commissioners who govern the airport, whose first-class travel and expense-paid trips for spouses came under fire earlier this year.

The debate has erupted in the past two weeks with calls from the Burbank City Council for an independent audit of airport bills, and a call from an airport commissioner for an examination of the airport’s legal expenses.

A Los Angeles grand jury subpoenaed airport expense records after receiving complaints from McConkey.

The airport’s expense records also are expected to head the agenda at a meeting Wednesday between airport commissioners and officials of Glendale, Pasadena and Burbank, the three cities that share ownership of the airport.

Greer said Burbank Airport competes with dozens of other airports around the nation for federal money. Acquiring those funds often involves wining and dining members of Congress, their aides or business people to push projects.

“Very often, we will host a meal where we try to get members of Congress or their staff who are involved in appropriations or on a transportation subcommittee to attend,” Greer said. “We have to compete with every airport in this country.”

The result has been bills from swank restaurants such as Sam & Harry’s in Washington, Sign of the Dove in New York and Chinois On Main in Santa Monica, with dinners averaging $45 to $50 per person. Some of the larger restaurant tabs have run from $250 to $1,357, according to billing records. In February, Airport Controller Dios Marrero paid $413 for a dinner for five at a New York restaurant, a cost of about $82 per person.

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Even some meals at local restaurants over the past three years have run up pricey tabs. In 1993, at Vals in Toluca Lake, meals costing $199 and $823 were charged to Greer and the former manager of public relations, Elly Mixsell. In March , Greer charged $149 at Barsac Brasserie in North Hollywood.

“We socialize,” said Victor Gill, director of public relations for the airport. “It can cost money, but the expense is worthwhile.”

There are no restrictions on spending by individual staff members, but overall annual spending for travel, hotels and meals is limited by the agency’s budget. Most meals, airline tickets, hotel stays and other costs are charged to a corporate American Express account to which the seven airport executive staff members have access. Commissioners and staff members can also charge expenses on their own credit cards and be reimbursed, Greer said.

“There is no established limit authorized to spend on lunch,” said Greer, who has the authority to approve staff spending. “We have always used our own good judgment.”

Gill said commissioners prefer that staff members stay in hotels where conventions are being held regardless of the cost, rather than booking a hotel a mile away for less money. Hotel rooms have averaged about $150 per day, according to records.

Gill also defended the practice of paying full fare for coach airline travel. “It has not been the practice to book excursion fare tickets because a trip doesn’t always go as you expected,” Gill said.

Such travel expenses are common for airport executives, Gill and Greer said.

But at Sacramento Metro Airport and John Wayne Airport in Orange County, staff members are more limited in what they can spend. Sacramento Airport served 6.3 million passengers last year while John Wayne Airport served 6.8 million passengers. Burbank Airport is expected to serve slightly more than 5 million passengers by December.

“We’ve always had a very responsible budget, even before bankruptcy, with specific allowances for airport travel,” said Pat Ware, head of public relations for John Wayne Airport.

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Both John Wayne and Sacramento airports are run by the county governments. The Burbank Airport Authority is run by a commission made up of three representatives each from Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena. Sacramento Airport Deputy Director Bruce Mosley said his staff never dine with members of Congress or other business people at airport expense. At a conference last May in Boston, Mosley said he spent $1,700 for the hotel, meals, travel and registration for the conference.

Last fiscal year, Sacramento Airport’s executive staff spent $54,395 of the $78,200 budgeted for travel and training expenses, Mosley said. The current budget for travel and training expenses is $86,750.

At John Wayne Airport, staff members are not allowed transcontinental trips unless there is a vital reason, Ware said. Last year, airport staff members spent $10,499 of the $45,000 budgeted. In the current fiscal year, staff members have only been allotted $24,200 for travel and business expenses.

“This airport has always been fiscally responsible because our current and past airport directors had auditing backgrounds,” Ware said.

In contrast, the Burbank Airport budget for travel and meeting expenses is $193,000 out of a total spending of $35 million. The previous year, $168,719 was spent on travel and training expenses out of a $54-million budget.

Most of the expenses for Burbank Airport staff members and commissioners were for travel to conventions. Greer, a board member of the American Assn. of Airport Executives for eight years, traveled the most to such conferences.

Airport Authority President Carl W. Raggio Jr. of Glendale said the “nit-picking” scrutiny is simply an attempt by McConkey to undermine the Airport Authority.

“It’s not McConkey’s intent to allow this to ever die,” Raggio said. “Now he’s reached in to current travel and he is saying current travel is going to be [subjected to] the same dose of suspicion.

“These are legitimate trips that we’re supposed to be going on,” Raggio said.

McConkey denied any political motives. He said he is monitoring airport spending because he believes “government should be honest and accountable.”

“They spend too much money on everything--meals, travel, hotels,” McConkey said. “It infuriates me that they continue to do these things even though a grand jury is investigating them.”

After turning over travel-related expense records to the grand jury, Raggio pledged to end first-class air travel and to discontinue paying for travel for spouses of commissioners.

Raggio said he may make exceptions allowing commissioners and staff members to fly first-class.

“You have to make exceptions,” Raggio said. “There’s no way that someone 6-foot-7 like [Commissioner] Chris Holden is gonna fit in a coach seat. If you’re asking [commissioners] to go someplace and do something for you, I think you have to take circumstances into consideration.”

Since July, no commissioner has flown first-class, Raggio said. But a dozen upgrade stickers worth $1,400 were purchased by airport staff members in March and must be used by next March, according to billing records. Greer said he did not believe that any of the stickers had been used.

Raggio said the controversy has left a sour taste in his mouth.

“We don’t get paid for this kind of crap,” he said. “Do you think I would do this again? Not with this kind of an environment.”