City Protests Plan to Privatize Airport

After firing nonstop questions at the county’s airport administrator for about an hour Wednesday evening, City Council members unanimously decided to ask the Board of Supervisors to postpone action on a proposal to privatize Camarillo and Oxnard airports.

The county’s airport administrator, who has been accused by Camarillo council members of keeping them in the dark, admitted that he began looking into a federal program to privatize the airports in July and had briefed county supervisors in mid-August, well before making the idea public.

Rodney L. Murphy also told the council the county’s chief administrative officer had authorized spending $49,500 to hire a consultant to study the program.

Murphy plans to apply for a federal program that would allow the county to make money by leasing the two airports. He announced the plan at the city’s airport advisory committee meeting Oct. 2.

Murphy will present his proposal to the advisory committee Oct. 29, to the county’s airport authority the next evening and then to the Board of Supervisors Nov. 4. The Camarillo council’s next meeting is Nov. 5.

“I see this train on the track, chugging down the railway, and it is a short track,” said Mayor Stan Daily. “I’m calling on the citizens of Camarillo to call the supervisors and attend the meetings since we have been closed out of the process.”

Councilman Bill Liebmann, one of two council members who represent the city on the county airport authority, said he is considering boycotting the Oct. 30 meeting. If both city representatives were absent, a postponement would be necessary.

Also at the meeting were members of the Camarillo Hangar Assn., who are vehemently opposed to the plan. The owners--who rent space for their hangars from the airport--are worried that a private operator would raise hangar rents and other fees. Hangar owners have planned an aggressive campaign to counteract the county’s proposal through petitions and newspaper advertisements.

“The first public meeting on this is Oct. 29 and then there will be a vote Nov. 4--this is a deliberate attempt by Murphy to hold down public opposition,” association President Robert Fowler said before the meeting.

The Federal Aviation Administration will begin accepting applications for the pilot program Dec. 1. Only five airports nationwide will be selected to participate in the program that would grant the county an exemption to federal law that requires all airport revenues to be reinvested in airport operations.