Airport Committee’s Makeup Criticized

As debate continues over the long-range growth plans for Van Nuys Airport, a committee addressing airport-community relations is facing criticism from politicians, including U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles).

In a letter sent this week to Federal Aviation Administration officials in Washington, Boxer conveyed constituents’ concerns about the makeup of the airport’s FAA-funded Part 150 Steering Committee, whose main concern is noise.

The concerns mirror those of Hayden, who has vowed to retaliate for being “rebuffed” when he and Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) asked to be included on the committee. They both contend they have been left out because of their insistence on strict noise controls, while an official from the state Division of Aeronautics was added to the committee and flies in from Sacramento for monthly meetings at taxpayer expense.

Hayden said he has already approached the chair of the state Senate Finance Committee to attempt to freeze the aeronautics department’s funding that pays for plane trips to committee meetings.

“The whole nature of this committee is not to be exclusionary,” said Sandy Brown, Hayden’s deputy chief of staff. “Our whole concern is residents affected by the noise. We should have a voice.”

State law requires that a state official participate on the committee, which currently consists of 11 members of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, several pilots, aviation business people and two homeowner activists.