"San Bernardino airport board to get paid"

Wednesday, May 12, 2004
 
Airport board to get paid
GOVERNMENT: Profits at the San Bernardino airport authority make the
payments possible.
By PHIL PITCHFORD
The Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise


The San Bernardino International Airport Authority, having suffered through
years of financial losses, is proposing to reflect its newfound
profitability by paying board members for the first time. 

The authority is made up of elected officials from local governments of San
Bernardino County and the cities of San Bernardino, Colton, Loma Linda and
Highland. A proposal from interim executive director Don Rogers calls for
paying members $100 for attending each board meeting and assorted ad hoc
meetings, a total of about 30 meetings each year. 

The payments, if approved at a meeting this afternoon, would take effect
July 1 and cost the authority about $18,000 per year, according to a staff
report. The authority oversees development of the airport and adjacent land
at what used to be Norton Air Force Base. 

The authority never paid its members before because the airport was
suffering financial losses from operations, Rogers wrote in a report to the
authority. But because the agency is now profitable, it makes sense to
compensate members for travel to and from meetings and for preparing for
each meeting, Rogers wrote. 

Paying adequate fees will ensure that more elected officials from each
agency will be able to participate in the process, instead of just those who
are relatively well off financially, according to Rogers. 

The authority's sister agency, the Inland Valley Development Agency, which
oversees development on land immediately outside the airport, also is
contemplating an increase in its members' compensation. That agency also is
made up of representatives of San Bernardino County and the cities of San
Bernardino, Loma Linda and Colton. 

A proposal to be discussed today calls for increasing the fee paid to IVDA
board members from $75 per meeting to $100. The agency has about 20 board
meetings and about 10 ad hoc meetings each year, according to a staff
report, meaning the pay increase would be about $750 a year per member.
Because not all board members attend all the ad hoc meetings, the total cost
to the agency was estimated at $5,850 per year. 

The airport agency meets at 3 p.m. at Loma Linda City Hall, 25541 Barton
Road. The development agency meets immediately afterward.


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