Concerned that LAX is losing the public relations battle over its controversial expansion plans, Mayor Richard Riordan has tapped a close associate to get the project back on track.
John J. Agoglia, a former high-ranking NBC executive, has joined the board of LAX 21 at Riordan’s urging. The group is a new coalition of business, labor and community groups that is attempting to drum up grassroots support for the airport expansion.
LAX 21 is independent of both the Mayor’s Office and the city’s Department of Airports. But given Agoglia’s close ties to Riordan, the move clearly represents an attempt by the mayor to regain control of an issue that tops his agenda.
In a meeting with Business Journal editors and reporters, Riordan expressed disappointment with current efforts to market LAX’s master plan to the airport’s neighbors.
“I’d like to get that going efficiently,” Riordan said. “It’s kind of been veering off in the wrong direction. It’s a $10 billion project. It will now have some outsiders putting together what I call ‘ownership’ of the strategic plan, having someone … whose only job in life is to make sure it goes well.”
Until now, the marketing of the airport’s expansion has been spearheaded by the city’s Department of Airports and the agency’s executive director, John J. Driscoll. But Driscoll also is responsible for overseeing the operations at LAX, as well as at other city-owned airports in Van Nuys, Ontario and Palmdale.
Riordan said that while Driscoll is doing an “incredible” job, he doesn’t have the time for the single-minded focus required on the expansion plan.
“He can only spend 5 percent of his time on it,” Riordan said. “We need somebody who wakes up in the morning thinking about it, who goes to bed at night thinking about it, who thinks about it on the weekends, and who has the expertise to control it on a daily basis.”
Enlisting associates from the city’s business community to assist on projects close to his heart is nothing new for Riordan, a former venture capitalist who has deployed a high-powered array of executives since taking office in 1993.
“The thing about Dick Riordan is, his Rolodex is very thick and he has some very big names in it,” said press deputy Noelia Rodriguez.
In particular, Rodriguez said, Agoglia was chosen because of his communications skills as a TV network executive. As for the mayor’s working relationship with Agoglia, Rodriguez said Riordan “will communicate with John and John will communicate with the mayor.”
Agoglia, 60, spent 18 years with NBC, most recently as president of the network’s Burbank-based syndication and production arm. Although he was a top negotiator in NBC’s talks to acquire movies like “Schindler’s List” and “Jurassic Park,” he is best remembered for his decision to replace late-night king Johnny Carson with Jay Leno instead of David Letterman.
Agoglia retired last June, citing health concerns and a desire to spend more time with his family. Since then, he has worked as a consultant for NBC and other clients.
Agoglia said he was drawn into the airport expansion out of concern for the city’s economic future. Some gentle arm-twisting by the mayor also contributed.
“LAX must remain competitive; it must remain viable,” said Agoglia. “Our job is to get as much information out there as we can as well as to show the broad support that his project already has.”
Besides Agoglia, LAX 21’s executive board includes Miguel Contreras, executive-secretary of the L.A. County Federation of Labor; John Cooke, an executive with Walt Disney Co.; Gene Hale, president of the Greater Los Angeles African-American Chamber of Commerce; Richard N. Slawson, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council; and Mee H. Lee, former vice president of governmental relations at Warner Bros. who also is president of the coalition.
The group hopes to raise about $1 million mostly from the airlines and other major users of LAX to launch a radio campaign supporting the airport’s expansion, said Lee.
LAX officials say the airport needs to grow to accommodate an expected doubling of passenger and air-cargo traffic over the next 20 years. The airport’s Master Plan would increase the annual capacity from 60 million to 98 million passengers over the next two decades and add 4 million square feet of new cargo space, at a cost of $8 billion to $12 billion.
The project, supporters say, is crucial to L.A.’s future, contributing 367,000 new jobs and $37 billion in additional activity to region’s economy.
But a growing chorus of critics argues that expanding LAX will lead to increased noise, traffic and pollution not only in the communities surrounding the airport, but throughout the region. Southern California’s air transportation needs would be better served, they say, by capping growth and developing new international airports at existing airfields in Palmdale, or in Orange, Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
Although the L.A. Department of Airports has hired four consulting firms to handle community and public relations, criticism of the plan has been growing.
And to hear opponents tell it, the addition of a new group to promote the airport’s expansion is unlikely to change that even if it is headed by a close friend of Riordan’s with decades of experience in communications.
“This is not a marketing problem; it’s much more basic than that. There is a genuine difference of opinion here,” said El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon. “Before we make a final decision, we need to look at regional solutions. We need to explore them to their fullest extent before we go with just expanding capacity at LAX.”
Agoglia and other supporters of the plan argue that while other airports should expand, LAX needs to remain competitive with other international airports.
“We anticipate other airports in the (L.A.) basin to have increased traffic,” said Agoglia. “We just don’t want it to go to Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas or any of these places that can comfortably be reached by these new planes.”
Three proposals for expanding LAX are under consideration none of which involve utilizing any of the area’s other airfields. Instead, each of the options consists of adding a new runway for commuter aircraft, reconfiguring existing runways and adding new cargo and terminal facilities to LAX.
The first draft of the Environmental Impact Report on those options is expected by August. After a public comment period, a final draft of the expansion plan will be sent to the Federal Aviation Administration and the L.A. City Council for approval.
