Letter to the Editor: Noise issues surrounding flights at Hollywood Burbank are not his doing

Your Sept. 27 article about me cites how two Airport Authority Commissioners publicly scorned me for my performance as executive director at the Hollywood Burbank Airport. The commission needs to be reminded of two important facts that they have apparently forgotten.

First, during the entire third quarter of 2016, the last quarter that I served as executive director, the Airport Authority only reported 110 noise complaints from 29 callers. In the first quarter of 2019, 2½ years later, the Airport Authority reported 251,510 noise complaints from 458 callers, with 3,980 of those complaints coming from Burbank residents.

Simply put, the authority did not have a noise “problem” while I was in command.

Second, I brought the marketing firm Anyone Collective on board for the purpose of changing the “brand” (i.e. the name of the airport and its logo) to give the airport a geographic identity unique from LAX. Anyone Collective performed brilliantly — with the selection of the authority’s logo occurring after Frank Miller took the helm.

Using Anyone Collective to market the airport to increase the number of passengers and help add nonstop destinations and flights was a decision made by the authority under Frank Miller’s command and has helped fuel this “astounding” level of community misery.

I am reminded of a quote ascribed to Socrates that goes something like this: “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers.”

Dan Feger
Oxnard