Officials Seeking Compromises on Airport Overhaul
By AMANDA BRONSTAD
Staff Reporter
At a recent meeting with six other elected officials, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice, thought everyone had agreed that Mayor James Hahn’s $9 billion plan to expand Los Angeles International Airport would need major changes.
But only days after the April 16 meeting, and in the wake of Hahn’s public comments about wanting to build a consensus, the plan’s environmental impact report sailed through the Board of Airport Commissioners without any revisions.
“I left that meeting thinking the seven of us were all on the same page,” said Harman, who met with Hahn, L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, Sheriff Lee Baca, former El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon and L.A. City Councilmembers Cindy Miscikowski and Jack Weiss. “The mayor did not contact me in advance of his decision. And I have not spoken to the mayor since the 16th. Who made the decision? I don’t know.”
Harman’s experience illustrates the ongoing confusion among city, county and federal officials about the future of Hahn’s plan to modernize LAX. Officially, several public hearings are scheduled in two weeks, and the City Council is expected to consider the massive overhaul by late summer or early fall.
Between now and then, however, much of the discussion is likely to be behind the scenes, and involve relatively few players from government, law enforcement, neighborhood groups and the airlines. Those talks likely will determine whether a compromise can be brokered combining elements of the mayor’s plan considered unlikely to pass the council in its current form and a scaled-back $3 billion version being supported by most of the airlines and several neighborhood groups.
Meanwhile, another possible compromise is under development by Miscikowski. That proposal has been delayed for a few weeks, partially due to concerns from the community and members of the council on security and procedural issues.
Reaching consensus
Over the years, dealmaking among L.A.-area constituencies have often ended up in stalemate. But with ongoing concerns about airport security and traffic flows, along with the long lead time necessary for a multi-billion dollar public works project, there is enormous pressure to reach some sort of agreement as quickly as possible one that could avoid litigation that could delay construction for years.
“People thought this was locked in a couple of years ago,” said Weiss. “Recent developments have shown how wrong this is. Any process that is not conclusive of a full council, and by definition or extension the full city, is not going to be successful.”
But reaching consensus will not be easy because opinion is so deeply divided on how LAX should be renovated. Hahn’s plan involves the ambitious and costly construction of a remote baggage and passenger screening station at the site of the Manchester Square residential community, along with the demolition of Terminals 1, 2 and 3.
The airline plan would not include those changes. Miscikowski’s plan is also streamlined; she has expressed concerns about the passenger and baggage screening site at Manchester Square and the terminal demolitions in Hahn’s plan.
Beyond the plans themselves, there is disagreement about the way in which the EIR is being handled and specifically, whether a compromise would, in effect, require the current plan and its regulatory timetable to be scrapped.
“My staff and I have more questions,” said City Councilman Tony Cardenas, chairman of the commerce, energy and natural resources committee, one of two panels that will ultimately review the LAX Master Plan. “The bottom line is, I’ve been trying to learn more and more about how we got to where we are today, about the EIR, and the specific plan.”
On May 4, Harman and Knabe sent a letter urging the City Council not to approve any plan based on the current EIR and to perform a cost-benefit analysis on security improvements.
“Things were done backwards here,” said Weiss. “They came up with the plan first, and then did the analysis second, instead of doing the threat assessment first and then asking, ‘What is the most cost-effective way to deal with the threats?'”
Politics is sure to be a factor. Hahn faces a tough re-election effort next year and among his challengers is City Councilman Bernard Parks, who has shown a growing interest in the LAX issue. As Parks and the other announced candidates, state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-San Fernando, and former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, begin full-fledged campaigning, the election could have an effect on the dealmaking.
Officially, Hahn’s point person on the LAX Master Plan is Philip Depoian, senior adviser on aviation to the mayor and deputy executive director at Los Angeles World Airports. However, Hahn and his chief of staff, Tim McOsker, have stepped up their roles in the LAX talks after Airport Commission President Ted Stein and Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, the mayor’s liaison to the airport, resigned amid investigations of contracts at the airport, harbor and water and power departments.
“What I said to Jim Hahn March 31 is I won’t continue to work through staff,” said Gordon, who is negotiating on behalf of a coalition of 125 local cities and agencies near the airport and is likely to be involved in any discussions. “They don’t have the authority of getting the deal done. We’re looking at discussions with Tim McOsker and the mayor himself in the last month.”
On the council, the main player is Miscikowski, whose district includes LAX. She or members of her staff have been in contact with every group involved in the airport. “I’ve told staff other things get deferred so we can clear the schedule,” she said. “Literally, it’s all airport all the time.”
The airlines, too, are certain to have an important say. A coalition of 80 carriers, led by the Air Transport Association of America, has been instrumental in proposing an alternative LAX Master Plan. “I anticipate us being involved up until the final City Council vote,” said Robert Dibblee, managing director for state and local government affairs for the ATA.
The lone airline holdout is also likely to be an important player: United Airlines, the largest carrier at LAX and a supporter of Hahn’s original proposal, along with the Star Alliance, a group of 15 international airlines including Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand.
Public hearings
Perhaps the biggest wild card is Miguel Contreras, executive secretary/treasurer of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and a Hahn confidant. Although he is also an airport commissioner, Contreras’ willingness to consider alternatives to the existing plan has made him a key player in the coming negotiations, sources said. Labor groups have supported Hahn’s plan because of the jobs that it would generate.
“I intend to go before the City Council members and try to persuade them that what we did was in the best interest of the city,” he said.
In the coming weeks, Miscikowski said she and the mayor would be working with the Board of Airport Commissioners to figure out if and when a firm could be hired to conduct a study on the proposed security aspects of the plan.
Several councilmembers, along with Harman, have asked that a study be done to consider alternatives that would bring security features to the airport more quickly. Under Hahn’s plan, the major security features at LAX would not be implemented until 2015 or later, she said.
“Some options are to delay the whole thing or go forward on these things and create this holding mechanism or implementation mechanism as the tool by which these things would be done,” she said.
Meanwhile, a series of public hearings begins this month the first two hosted by the Board of Airport Commissioners and the City Planning Commission. After an airport staff member gives a 30-minute overview of the plan, the first hearing will include seven hours of public comments, said Paul Haney, LAWA’s deputy executive director of public and community relations.
At the June 14 hearing, airport commissioners are expected to recommend specifics of the plan to the City Planning Commission. Future hearings have not yet been formalized, Haney said.
