"Lydia Kennard reappointed to top LAX post"

Thursday, October 6, 2005

Opinion
Welcome back, Lydia
Massive LAX growth plan sidetracked in favor of regionalized approach
The Los Angeles (CA) Daily News

 
With the re-hiring of Lydia Kennard to head Los Angeles World Airports,
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has, with a single action, repudiated his
predecessor's grandiose scheme to massively expand Los Angeles International
Airport.

Kennard, LAWA's whip-smart former executive director, was run out of the job
in 2003 after enduring years of an imperious Airport Commission led at the
time by developer and attorney Ted Stein, who was doing the bidding of
then-Mayor James Hahn until the investigations of pay-to-play contracting
led to his resignation. 

Kennard was too decent to make a federal case out of her maltreatment and
didn't really have to. That's because nearly everyone in the region shared
her skepticism over Hahn's $11 billion LAX modernization plan, as well as
her belief that a regionalized approach was best. 

Her resignation was a loss to Los Angeles. Kennard was largely credited with
the tight security at LAX before and during the 9-11 crisis. Considering
that LAX has been high on the list of terrorist targets, there's a good
chance that Kennard's leadership has actually saved lives. 

Kennard was replaced with Kim Day, whose main task was to ram through Hahn's
LAX plan before election day, even if it stood no chance of ever being fully
carried out. The result was a half-commitment to a half-baked plan that
security experts say didn't address safety and no one in the city liked
other than those who would profit from it. 

Luckily, it's not too late for the city to extract itself from this bad
plan. 

Villaraigosa opposed most of Hahn's plan during his campaign, except a few
immediate safety issues like fixing the runways. He says he's still feels
the same way and supports regionalization. So far, those have only been
promises. But the reinstatement of Kennard is a hopeful sign that the $11
billion fiasco that Los Angeles nearly got stuck with has been permanently
derailed. 

Welcome back, Lydia. The airport and the city of Los Angeles will be better
for your return.


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