New Mayor, Same Message on Airport Policy

Giving old words a new spin, Mayor David Golonski has reiterated his city’s willingness to resolve the dispute over Burbank Airport, but said it could only be achieved by protecting the interests of city residents.

Golonski’s remarks Tuesday night, billed as the first major statement on the airport by the new mayor, did not depart from the past city policy of seeking limits on flights and an enforceable nighttime curfew.

Nor did the mayor strike much of a conciliatory note toward airport officials, saying they are trying to carry out plans for unrestricted growth through a public relations campaign.

The Burbank-Pasadena-Glendale Airport Authority, which runs the airport, “prefers to pretend that demand for more flights is only the result of outside forces over which it has no control,” Golonski said in a 15-minute speech. “The reality is for years the Airport Authority has attempted to stimulate unrestricted growth and air traffic through heavy advertising in the media.”

The Burbank mayor reserved some of his harshest criticism for a proposal made about two weeks ago by Pasadena Councilman William Paparian, an Airport Authority member, to study the feasibility of bringing international flights from Canada and Mexico to Burbank. Golonski said the Airport Authority should reject the idea “in the strongest terms possible.”

Paparian contends that the authority should explore the possibility of bringing international flights to Burbank so that Customs and Immigration facilities could be built at the proposed new terminal.

But airport officials said nothing had been discussed thus far. “Ideas are always being proposed to the airport commission,” authority President Joyce Streator said Tuesday. “Paparian’s proposal is among them. However, there is no action being considered by the Airport Authority with regard to international flights.”

Added authority spokesman Victor Gill: “The real problem is that Burbank has cultivated an environment where nobody can utter the words Canada or Mexico without being labeled as being dedicated to destroying Burbank’s quality of life,” he said. “We can’t even get flights to St. Louis.”