City Panel Urges Return of Disputed $30 Million to Airport

Caving in to federal pressure, a Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday voted to return more than $30 million in disputed funds to Los Angeles International Airport.

City Hall sources said the move, which must be approved by the full council today, is part of a larger deal with federal transportation officials and the airline industry that will allow the city to keep more of the disputed money and remove from jeopardy millions of dollars in grants to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“It’s a recognition that we can no longer try to play chicken,” said Councilman Richard Alatorre, who is chairman of the three-member budget panel that voted unanimously Tuesday to return the funds to LAX. “The deal is that we’re going to work cooperatively together. We’re showing good faith.”

Details of the deal were not available Tuesday.

Sources said LAX director Jack Driscoll is in Washington this week meeting with the chief of the Air Transport Assn., an organization that represents the nation’s major airlines, as well as federal officials, to try to hammer out a deal in which the city would return the $30 million and get to keep $58 million in disputed funds.