"Boston runway deal at the gate: FAA chief working on quiet compromise"

Friday, May 24, 2002

Runway deal at the gate: FAA chief working on quiet compromise 
by Doug Hanchett 
The Boston (MA) Herald


Proponents of a proposed new runway at Logan International Airport are
growing concerned that the head of the Federal Aviation Administration
is relying on a small circle of political insiders to craft a compromise
on the controversial landing strip.

Sources say FAA boss and Bay State native Jane Garvey has met at
Boston-area hotels in recent weeks with a handpicked cadre of Hub power
brokers - purportedly to fine-tune a 10-knot wind restriction that would
make the runway palatable to city officials and strident opposition
groups. 

The meetings come as the FAA puts the finishing touches on a final
decision on the runway - expected in a matter of weeks. 

But as the long public approval process hits the home stretch, sources
say Garvey has been relying less on government aviation and planning
experts than a pair of old friends from her days in the Dukakis
administration - former state Transportation Secretary and longtime
mentor Fred Salvucci and political operative Jack Corrigan, a paid legal
consultant to the FAA.

``There seems to be a political prism, as always,'' said one source
familiar with the backroom powwows. ``But why at the last minute (is)
she . . . bringing (Corrigan) in? He doesn't have any aviation
experience. And Salvucci - he's not a paid consultant, but he's still
involved. It seems a little bit wacky.''

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said Garvey has met openly with a wide
spectrum of players in the runway debate in recent months and only wants
to ensure the agency's final ruling on the runway is bulletproof. 

``Administrator Garvey is trying everything she can to find a resolution
that doesn't result in protracted litigation,'' Brown said. 

Brown denied that Corrigan, a top adviser to Senate President - and
runway opponent - Thomas Birmingham, and Salvucci, a longtime critic of
the $100 million project, are holding sway over the decision. 

``The people who she's primarily . . . working on the (decision) with
are members of the consulting team and the FAA's internal people,'' she
said. 

But word of the recent get-togethers, which also involve local FAA
officials, prompted the Massachusetts High Tech Council to fire off a
letter to Garvey on Monday expressing its concerns about ``recent closed
door FAA meetings with various persons.'' ``It is vital that all
concerned parties learn of last-minute changes and negotiations,'' wrote
Mass High Tech president Christopher Anderson.

In an interview, Anderson said the heretofore ``excruciatingly open
(decision) process'' shouldn't be abandoned.

``We want to make sure the public process is honored to achieve a
defensible, straight-faced decision based on the merits,'' he said.

Corrigan referred calls to the FAA, while Salvucci didn't return
messages left at his MIT office. 

The closed-door meetings run counter to the long public process the FAA
has insisted upon for the runway proposal, which Massport says will help
reduce delays at the nation's fifth-most delayed airport. 

Garvey herself demanded that the plan be fully vetted in the open, even
appointing a special panel in 1999 that met for more than a year but
resolved little. 

Aside from the secretive nature of the 11th-hour talks, Anderson said
he's also concerned that the meetings may have produced a 10-knot wind
restriction - which means air traffic controllers couldn't put the
runway into use unless northwest winds were blowing faster than 11.5
miles per hour.


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