Hahn Faces Litmus Test on LAX Expansion

As Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn assembles his administration, foes and allies of the proposed expansion of the Los Angeles International Airport are nervously awaiting his appointees to the seven-member commission that oversees it.

An anti-expansion coalition hopes commissioners appointed by Hahn will reflect his campaign pledge opposing a $12-billion proposed master plan to modernize the facility.

“The most important thing is his commitment to us on the pledge and not to appoint a commission that may have an independent approach to this,” said El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon, who has been a key organizer against the project.

About 20 homeowners associations joined in a postcard writing campaign after Hahn’s election to remind him of the anti-expansion pledge he and other mayoral candidates signed in March. The pledge calls for a regional solution to increasing airport traffic.

Some opponents fear that Hahn--who is expected to announce his airport commissioners and other appointments this week--may try to back away from the posture he took as a candidate.

“We’re all a little nervous, because he’s been very careful about his wording,” said one aide to an official opposed to expansion.

Since his inauguration, Hahn hasn’t brought up the expansion plan, leaving many residents to speculate about whether he will change his position.

“He has been totally silent on the issue,” said Denny Schneider, a Westchester resident and airport activist. “That is of concern. We would have hoped to have heard that his position is that the master plan is dead.”

Hahn, in an interview last week, repeated his opposition to expanding the airport.

“As far as building more runways and building more gates or lengthening runways, I’d like us to concentrate on getting other parts of the region to take their fair share of the traffic,” he said. “I’m not going to be the person actually voting at the meetings, but clearly I’m going to be looking for commissioners who understand what my position is.”

Despite that, the modernization plan is already five years and $65 million in the making, and its allies have been quietly angling for a board that will approve the proposal. Proponents say they were encouraged by Hahn’s remark, on appointing the Police Commission, that he wanted “independent” commissioners. They said they hope he will take a similar stance with the Airport Commission.

In a March 26 statement accompanying the pledge, Hahn said he could not support the master plan “as written.” But that could leave him room to back a revised expansion plan.

The mayor is also certain to feel pressure from construction trade groups--which are eagerly eyeing lucrative expansion contracts--and others who donated heavily to his campaign. Hahn received at least $65,000 from airlines, concessionaires and other businesses at LAX that would benefit from an expansion at the airport.

Hahn must balance those interests against other political allies who oppose a larger, busier airport.

“I do believe Mayor Hahn is going to stick to his agreement that he signed with the coalition,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). “And I do think he’s looking more toward a regional response to the problem of over-crowdedness at LAX.”

Hahn’s commission appointments are particularly important because they’re the only direct influence the mayor will have on the master plan.

Expansion opponents are studying the names of possible panel members as if they were tea leaves, trying to read in them the fate of LAX.

“They’re all watching, and we all will be watching,” said Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, an expansion opponent who represents neighborhoods near the airport. “He knows what he signed. We are all hoping that Mayor Hahn is going to stick to his word here.”

Many of Hahn’s rumored choices are longtime City Hall insiders, although their lack of public pronouncements on the airport expansion may allow the mayor some cover in the short term as to what his position on the matter eventually will be.

Former Commissioners May Be Appointed

Hahn is reportedly considering bringing back former Airport Commission President Ted Stein, a lawyer-developer who ran a fierce campaign against Hahn for city attorney in 1997, but who is now a staunch ally of the new mayor.

Known for his abrasive style, Stein antagonized some airlines during his tenure. He also was criticized for his role in giving a lobbying contract to Webster Hubbell--a onetime confidant of Bill Clinton who got caught up in the Whitewater scandal--without notifying the rest of the Airport Commission.

Kaiser executive Leland Wong, a former Airport Commission president who also served on the Harbor Commission, may also be reappointed. Mayor Richard Riordan removed Wong from the Airport Commission last year, reportedly because of his support for Hahn’s mayoral campaign.

Yet another former Airport Commission president, Dan Garcia, also may be tapped to return to the panel. Riordan yanked Garcia from the board in 1998, concerned that he wasn’t pushing the expansion plan aggressively enough. He might satisfy expansion opponents who could consider him sensitive to neighborhood concerns.

The new commission will be confronted early on with several issues critical to the airport’s future.

The most controversial promises to be the proposed expansion plan, which would lengthen a runway and add gates, taxiways and a terminal. It would also create a ring road around LAX and install a people mover.

The city agency that operates LAX favors an expansion alternative that would allow the airport to accommodate 89 million passengers a year by 2015. The facility currently accommodates about 67 million passengers annually.

But a coalition of cities, a group of California legislators led by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Redondo Beach), and the county of Los Angeles, among others, are vocal opponents of the plan, saying they favor an approach that would distribute a projected doubling of passengers in Southern California by 2025 among a dozen regional airports.

Harman said she talked with Hahn before and after the election about the importance of a regional approach.

“He has a chance to go in a new direction by abandoning the master plan and moving toward a regional plan by appointing fresh blood to the commission,” she said.

The pledge signed by Hahn and other mayoral candidates stated that the airport “should be constrained to operate safely within the capacity of its existing facilities” and that Los Angeles should work with other communities to develop a regional solution to airport traffic.

But the commission will ultimately determine the expansion plan’s fate, when it reviews the 12,000-page document sometime in the next year.

The plan and its accompanying environmental studies will go to the panel after airport officials and the Federal Aviation Administration review remarks submitted during a 180-day comment period--a process expected to take three to six months. The comment period ends July 25.

The plan could be postponed, however, if Los Angeles County succeeds in a lawsuit to extend the public comment period.

“There’s still time within the upcoming six months after the public comment period closes for the commission to change their plans,” said Supervisor Don Knabe, who represents the LAX area. “This is where the makeup of the commission could have the most impact.”

Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.