"Southern California Airport Authority Has Wings Clipped"

Thursday, September 26, 2002

Southern California Airport Authority Has Wings Clipped
The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.


Southern California air traffic will grow tremendously in the next 20
years, but a government agency set up to manage that growth instead is
trying to figure out its own future -- including whether it has one. 

The Southern California Regional Airport Authority, with members from
four counties and the city of Los Angeles, is caught in a bureaucratic
tangle, unable to do anything because its members do not show up for
meetings. 

Riverside County, frustrated by a lack of progress, is leaving the
group, and Los Angeles city and county appear to have lost interest.
Only San Bernardino and Orange counties remain active. 

"The organization has evolved into irrelevance, which is evidenced by
the lack of attendance," Eric Haley, executive director of the Riverside
County Transportation Commission, said. "Now it is just limping to the
finish line."

The authority, funded by $50,000 annual dues from each local government,
was designed to come up with ways to manage the millions of additional
passengers and thousands more tons of air cargo expected to pass through
the region annually by 2025, much of it at Ontario International
Airport. 

The group, which had been dormant for nearly a decade, was revived in
March 2001 as the region faced two pressing issues -- the possible
expansion of Los Angeles International Airport and the question of
whether an airport should be built at the former El Toro Marine base in
Orange County. 

Eighteen months later, expansion of LAX has been shelved, and voters
have rejected an airport at El Toro. Both developments mean more
passengers and cargo will be bound for Ontario, along with traffic,
noise and pollution. 

But as the problems have shifted Inland, the regional approach to
dealing with the problem is dissolving. 

The city of Los Angeles, which owns Los Angeles and Ontario
International, has not sent a representative to an authority meeting in
more than a year. Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe stopped coming
earlier this year. 

The result is paralysis for a group with lofty goals. A meeting is
tentatively scheduled for next month -- if a majority of members can
make it. 

"If we are not going to have participation, there is no use in keeping
the organization going," San Bernardino County Supervisor Jon Mikels,
the authority's chairman, said. 

The group's possible demise comes as Inland lawmakers increasingly
realize that the decision by Orange County voters against an El Toro
airport is a double-edged sword for Riverside and San Bernardino
counties. 

Ontario International, which has plenty of room for growth, could get
more flights in the coming years, making travel more convenient. But
without adequate planning, traffic on surrounding roads and freeways
will worsen. 

The planned El Toro airport was expected to handle 30 million passengers
and 1.7 million tons of cargo a year by 2025. Without it, and without
expansion at LAX, residents of northern Orange County and eastern Los
Angeles County, and trucks carrying goods, are expected to look more and
more toward Ontario. 

Forecasting air traffic is an inexact science, but Inland economist John
Husing believes Ontario eventually could trail only LAX as a major entry
point into Southern California. 

The regional airport authority's answer to potential gridlock -- a
program dubbed "airports without runways" -- calls for developing
facilities across the region where residents can check luggage and get
tickets and boarding passes, then be whisked by rail to Ontario for
their actual flight. 

The authority presented the idea to the governing boards at the former
March and Norton air bases, which are expected to play a larger role in
air travel, but got a cool reception. Members of the authority never
discussed the details of the idea because of poor attendance. 

The two members who want to go forward -- Mikels and Orange County
Supervisor Chuck Smith -- cannot act, even to reorganize, without one
more member present.

Peggy Ducey, the authority's executive director, said the process proves
that for regional government to work, all groups must participate.
Ducey, who has a contract to run the authority through November, said
the organization has been crippled by a lack of participation by the
city of Los Angeles. 

"People need to put aside their personal interests and look at the issue
from a broader perspective," Ducey said. "If LA just moves forward and
expands Ontario without figuring out how to get everyone there, you will
have the same problems in the Inland Empire that you have in LA and
Orange counties now."

Supervisor Knabe, who helped resuscitate the authority after hearing
concerns from his constituents about growth at LAX, has not attended in
several months. He could not be reached for comment. 

A spokeswoman for Mayor James Hahn said that the city plans to
participate in the authority at some point, although she could not
provide details. 

The authority approach to balancing airport needs has worked in other
areas. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, for example,
manages both Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles
International airports. 

That authority does not own the airports, but it does control them via a
50-year lease with the federal government. That control of assets is
crucial, said Jonathan Gaffney, the authority's vice-president of
communications. 

"You have to have the authority to make decisions about service,
development and expansion," Gaffney said. 

In Southern California, the airport authority has neither the airports
nor the cooperation of their owner, the city of Los Angeles. It also
lacks an urgent focus. 

Haley, the transportation executive, said enthusiasm for airport
planning dipped after Sept. 11, when the travel industry slowed
dramatically. Over time, airport capacity again will be seen as a
problem, but it's not now. 

"The SCRAA focus has essentially been overwhelmed by events," Haley
said. "The world changed dramatically in the middle of the process."

ATTENDANCE RECORD--Voting members of the Southern California Regional
Airport Authority, and their current status: 

--San Bernardino County Supervisor Jon Mikels, the authority's chairman
-- active, regular attendee. 

--Orange County Supervisor Chuck Smith -- active, regular attendee. 

--Riverside County Supervisor Jim Venable -- inactive, county voted in
July to leave the authority. 

--Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe -- active, but has not
attended recent meetings. 

--Los Angeles city representative -- vacant for several months, new
appointment has been described as pending for most of this year.


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