Burbank Mayor Criticizes Airport Authority’s Lack of Response on Meeting

Mayor Stacey Murphy criticized Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority officials Monday for ignoring her request to accompany them on a trip to Washington, D.C., this week.

Airport Authority president Joyce Streator will head a delegation of four airport officials at the Legislative Issues Conference sponsored by the Airports Council International and the American Assn. of Airport Executives, said airport spokesman Victor Gill.

Murphy said she had hoped to accompany the group and to seek a meeting with Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey. In a compromise proposal last week, the Airport Authority said it would support a curfew on flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., subject to FAA approval.

Murphy said that this unified support for the curfew might persuade the FAA to waive requirements for a lengthy noise study before imposing the curfew.

But Gill said the two sides in the long-running dispute needed to reach an agreement on the terminal before seeking a meeting with Garvey.

“The basic feeling from president Streator is that the airport would be happy to go with Burbank and see Jane Garvey once it’s clear that the Airport Authority and the city have an agreement,” Gill said. “It’s premature to arrange such a visit unless we know we have a concrete proposal both sides have approved.”

But Murphy said the meeting could help pave the way for a formal agreement.

“They [the Airport Authority] have criticized Burbank in the papers repeatedly for not moving fast enough to approve their application for a new terminal,” Murphy said. “Then they put a new plan on the table and leave town.”

On Friday, the Airport Authority offered a revised plan to seek a mandatory curfew on flights and to scale back its terminal project from 16 gates to 14. The terminal size also was reduced from 460,000 square feet to 330,000 square feet.

Airport Executive Director Dios Marrero said the proposal was intended to get a prompt resolution to a decades-long battle to build a new terminal on 130 acres owned by Lockheed Martin. Adding to the urgency, he said, was the July 26 deadline to pay an installment on an $86-million judgment for the new terminal site.

Despite the timing and Murphy’s request for a meeting with Garvey, Gill said commissioners planned only to be briefed on aviation issues in Congress relative to airports.

Not all commissioners agreed, however.

“Any input at this point would be invaluable,” said Charles Lombardo, one of Burbank’s three representatives on the nine-member airport panel. “Maybe the airport’s claim of urgency is greatly exaggerated.”