Appointment process sees new political wrangling
On the surface, last week’s city council appointment of Ofer Grossman to the Santa Monica Airport Commission seemed straight forward.
But Grossman — a novice to airport issues — was chosen to replace Todd Cleary, the influential and experienced sitting chairman.
While the appointment ends Cleary’s six-year career guiding the city’s aviation policies — both as a member of an airport task force and the commission — it sends a strong message from city council members that they want airport commissioners to take residents’ concerns more seriously.
Although some residents and elected officials believed Cleary worked tirelessly on airport issues, they felt the commission as a whole did not emphasize concerns of residents living around the airport.
They said they hoped the new appointment would send a clear signal to other airport commissioners to be more resident-friendly. “(Cleary) generally voted with the majority, and I think we need a new direction,” said Councilman Ken Genser, the city council’s liaison to the Airport Commission. “It’s not about Todd, he has been a diligent, hard working public servant. I just think we need a bit of a different emphasis on the commission.”
Cleary said he is hurt by the accusations, and claimed no council members had ever complained about his actions on the Airport Commission until he wasn’t re-appointed.
“I don’t think it’s really fair that the city council would listen to a small group of citizens who are concerned about a specific issue and then use that to unseat a sitting chair,” Cleary said. “It would have been one thing if I had been doing a bad job, but we had taken a contentious city commission and turned it into a viable commission.”
“I really feel stabbed in the back here,” he said. “I did so much work for them, and nobody had the courtesy to tell me they were having any problems with me.”
“I really feel stabbed in the back here. I did so much work for them, and nobody had the courtesy to tell me they were having any problems with me.” — — TODD CLEARY Former Airport Commission Chairman
Cathy Larson, co-chair of the airport committee of the Friends of Sunset Park, a neighborhood association whose residents live closest to the airport, said residents felt they were not being represented by Cleary or almost any member of the commission.
According to fliers distributed by neighborhood organizations, residents were upset airport commissioners didn’t recommend a stricter noise ordinance for airplanes, that they approved facilities that supported jet operations, that they didn’t try to mitigate jet noise while the planes were still on the ground and that commissioners were insensitive to resident concerns.
“People were frustrated because they felt their complaints were falling on deaf ears,” Larson said. “Residents would go up and complain and nothing would ever be done.”
But Cleary said he only supported improvements that would make jet operations at the airport safer, and that he is completely behind the city’s noise ordinance.
“They are saying don’t support anything having to do with the jets,” he said. “Well, I believe we need to support some things that will ensure the safety of the airport and the planes taking off from there.”
“Putting our heads in the sand and pretending the airport is going away... is irresponsible,” Cleary added. “We need to actively manage it and continue to pan for its operation in the future.”
And for the first time the appointment process for anything less than the planning commission took on a political connotation.
The Friends of Sunset Park and the Ocean Park Community Organization endorsed Grossman, a member of Friends of Sunset Park. Members of the two neighborhood associations actively campaigned and lobbied city council members to appoint Grossman.
Larson vowed the groups would continue the practice until they felt represented on the Airport Commission.
“Being passive doesn’t do anything,” she said. “We’re moving toward a more proac-tive commission that makes a conscience effort to look into opportunities to mitigate the affects of the airport on the community.
“We are looking for candidates that will be conscience of that impact and who will be proactive, and who will endorse measures that would mitigate as much as possible under federal regulations,” she added.
But the campaign to appoint Grossman upset some council members who feared politicizing the appointment process could essentially turn it into a popularity contest.
“I would suggest that input is always welcome, but it should be helpful input and not I want so-and-so,” Genser said. “It should be based on the quality of the comments and the quantity of them.”
Councilman Robert Holbrook said he thought campaigning for appointments was a bad idea.
“They can do it, but I think that it’s a mistake,” he said. “I think they have pushed that button too hard and for too long.”
Holbrook also noted that Cleary had a nearly perfect attendance record on the Airport Commission and had taken on a lot of responsibility, but in the end he did-n’t fight Grossman’s nomination because it was a losing battle.
“I kind of counted noses and thought what’s the point of fighting it,” he said. “I noted that Todd had only missed one meeting in a year and a half. He had a good attendance record, and I really appreciate that.”
Cleary said if neighborhood organizations begin to affect the appointment process then commissioners may feel less inclined to vote their conscience and instead vote the way residents want them to.
“As a former commissioner and board member, I have the responsibility to listen to what everyone has to say,” Cleary said. “But if I think they are wrong, I’m not going to vote that way just because there is a lot of pressure being applied.”
But Larson defends campaigning for appointees because unlike the pilots association, jet operators and the federal government, residents do not have advocates looking out for their best interests.
“The federal government already has their advocate in the FAA, and the aviation interests have their own lobby groups in existence that have ties to the FAA and who can put pressure on them,” she said. “Well, residents don’t have that, and we are looking for commissioners who will represent the views of the community.”
However, Holbrook pointed out that there isn’t much the Airport Commission, or the city for that matter, has the power to control.
“I wouldn’t want to be Mr. Grossman because he is going to find out that many of the problems at the airport are beyond the city’s control,” he said. “And his neighbors are going to expect him to deliver some changes that we haven’t been able to. And then what’s going to happen?”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 22, 2002. Read the original PDF.