"Mayor looks to headhunter to find new Lambert chief"

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Slay looks to headhunter to find new Lambert chief
By Elisa Crouch
The St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch


In searching for a new airport director to lead Lambert Field, Mayor Francis
Slay is starting from scratch. 

He's looking to hire a headhunting firm and calling on his personal point
man at the airport, Barry Beracha, to help in the search for a new director.
Beracha is the former Sara Lee chief whom Slay sent to Lambert to try to
make it more attractive to its customers and keep costs in line. 

Director Leonard L. Griggs Jr. is retiring at year's end after two stints
and 21 years on the job. He has been the director of Lambert since 1993 and
did a 10-year run from 1977-87 until he left in a feud with Mayor Vincent C.
Schoemehl. 

To many, Lambert's top job would be daunting: leading an airport where the
biggest air carrier, American Airlines, halved its flight schedule by some
200 flights last year. About 60 new flights have been added since then,
officials said. 

Construction on a $1 billion runway is under way and on-time completion in
2006 is vital to attracting additional flights and air carriers. Lambert's
key source of revenue, its lease and operating agreements with the airlines,
expire at the end of next year. The new director will oversee the new
contracts. 

"Clearly, we want someone who has knowledge of airports, someone who has
good leadership, someone who can manage well under stress and change,"
Beracha said. 

At other airports, a top contender would certainly be the No. 2 person. This
was the situation at Los Angeles World Airports, operator of Los Angeles
International and three other airports, which promoted its deputy director
recently to top executive. 

But in Lambert's case, the second-in-charge is Gerard Slay, the mayor's
older brother. He became deputy airport director before Slay's election in
2001, but family ties make his appointment to director unlikely. The mayor
has said his brother wasn't being considered for Griggs' job. 

Because the director's job is a municipal one, the mayor's office will be
bound when negotiating a salary. The director's job cannot earn any less
than $109,044 a year or more than $163,592, Deputy Personnel Director Linda
Thomas said. The amounts will increase by 2 percent in June. 

And, the city cannot waive the city's residency requirement, even if the top
candidate wants to live elsewhere, Thomas said. In the late 1990s, Griggs
irked the St. Louis Board of Aldermen when he refused to comply. Griggs
eventually compromised, renting an apartment in the Central West End but
keeping his home in Chesterfield. 

The position and its qualifications have yet to be advertised. A 1968
ordinance requires the director to be at least 30 years old and have spent
five of the last 10 years working at an air carrier airport. 

Beracha is scheduled to brief airport commissioners on the search today. 

"Experience is certainly a big issue," said Richard Hrabko, an airport
commissioner at Lambert and director of Spirit of St. Louis Airport in
Chesterfield. "Someone who has experience with running an airport and
negotiating with airlines and businesses, and the ability to communicate." 

As an airport commissioner, Hrabko said he'd like to play some sort of role
in the director search. There will not be a formal search committee, Beracha
said. And he expects a new director to be named early next year. 

In the end, only Slay decides who gets the job. No vote from aldermen or the
airport commission is required. Even so, several commissioners criticized
Slay for not keeping them updated. 

"I think we ought to be part of the process," said John Krekeler, the
commission's St. Charles representative.

Attached Photo:

Col. Leonard L. Griggs Jr.(right) and Mayor Francis Slay at the retirement
announcement.

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