Panel Rejects Evening Meetings : No Night Shift for Airport Board

By GREG BRAXTON

May 23, 1989 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

For the third time, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has rejected a proposal to hold its regularly scheduled morning meetings at night to make it more convenient for members of the public to attend.

The vote against the change was 5 to 4. Only the three commissioners representing Burbank and one of the three commissioners representing Pasadena voted for the switch Monday during a special meeting of the nine-member panel.

The board also turned down a proposed experiment to hold a night meeting in each quarter of the next 12 months. However, board President Robert Garcin said the panel would consider holding special night meetings on specific topics suggested by commissioners.

Commissioners also voted down the time change last year.

Composed of three representatives each from Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena, the authority oversees operation of the Burbank airport.

Inconvenient Timing

The Burbank City Council has pressured the board for years to meet at night. They have said it is inconvenient for the public to attend the regular meetings, held at 9 a.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month.

The Burbank commissioners --Leland C. Ayers, Mary Lou Howard and Brian Bowman--said during the special session that having night meetings would allow for more input from experts on airport issues as well as from citizens.

“There are lots of members of the community that could give us good input,” Howard said.

But Pasadena Commissioner J.C. Schwarzenbach said that the commission could handle its affairs without the additional input.

“We’re appointed officials, not elected officials,” Schwarzenbach said. “‘Our time should be spent on deliberate debate among ourselves without emotions being thrown in. If we hold open meetings, it will be a grave mistake.”

Carl W. Raggio, one of the three Glendale commissioners, said night meetings would not be as productive. “I favor night meetings for a particular subject but not for business as usual,” Raggio said.

Howard said she felt that the vote against the night meetings was partially the result of the board’s exasperation with several gadflies who regularly attend its meetings and berate board members at length.

One of the gadflies, Jules Kimmett, told the board after the vote, “You have castrated and desecrated democracy.”