Councils Told They Don’t Own Airport

An attorney for the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority bluntly told the city councils of the three cities Wednesday night that the airport is “a separate public entity”--not their property.

“The airport is legally owned by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority,” declared attorney Richard Smith.

The airport has long been regarded as the joint property of the three cities, which established the airport authority under state law and continue to control it indirectly, with each city appointing three of the nine airport commissioners.

The question was raised during a joint meeting of members of the three city councils and the airport authority at the Burbank Library by Philip E. Berlin, an airport commissioner appointed by Burbank.

“Is Burbank an owner of the airport?” Berlin sked.

Smith replied: “No. . . . You signed a contract to form a separate public entity. There are no shareholders, no partners, but you have rights under the contract to appoint and remove [commissioners].”

“You don’t have rights of ownership,” he said. “You have rights of control. . . . The only way to change that would be to amend” the joint powers agreement that established the authority.

Berlin and other Burbank representatives flatly disagreed with Smith’s interpretation of the relationship between the city and the airport commission.

The main subject of discussion at the meeting was a possible independent audit of airport expenses, including $400,000 in staff costs since 1992 and payments of $1 million each to three law firms retained by the authority in the past five years.

There appears to be growing support for such an audit.

“We have nothing to hide,” said Sheldon Baker, a Glendale city councilman. “If people want further or special audits, I have no problem with that.”

Burbank City Councilman Ted McConkey, who initially called for the audit of the airport’s management and billing practices two weeks ago, also demanded that the authority rescind a resolution, passed last week, that prohibits commissioners from releasing data on legal expenses without prior permission from the authority’s lawyers.