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# Airport bill gains steam in Assembly
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/airport-bill-gains-steam-in-assembly/
- Published: 2006-05-27T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T21:04:37.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica Airport, #archive-import

*Airport bill gains steam in Assembly*

CITY HALL — Siding with residents concerned about airport pollution, the City Council on Thursday voted in support of a bill requiring Santa Monica Airport staff to monitor and record the length of time aircraft engines are left idling.

However, with that support comes conditions, the most important being funding. If AB 2501 is approved by the state Legislature and signed by the governor, it must include money to pay for the monitoring, estimated to cost City Hall around $400,000, council members said. If costs to the city look like they may exceed $35,000, the council directed staff to immediately draft an ordinance in opposition to AB 2501, known in Sacramento as the “Santa Monica Airport bill.”

City Hall has a policy against supporting any legislation that involves an unfunded mandate from the state, according to council members, regardless of a given bill’s purpose.

As of Friday afternoon, AB 2501 was on the Assembly floor awaiting action.

Residents living near the airport have complained for years about what they believe are toxic fumes coming from jet operations and other aircraft at the airport. Many said they have tried to force City Hall to address the issue, but so far they have received only promises and one air quality study, which is currently underway.

Frustration with the alleged lack of cooperation from City Hall led a group of Los Angeles residents living just east of the airport to contact their elected officials and draft AB 2501, forcing Santa Monica to respond. Since the bill’s introduction, members of the city’s Airport Commission and the neighborhood group Friends of Sunset Park have joined in support of AB 2501\. The National Resources Defense Council is also supporting the measure.

“I frequently am awash in fumes. I walk through Clover Park. I walk through Sunset Park … and all of a sudden you are assaulted by these fumes,” said Susan Hartley, an airport commissioner. “Santa Monica is an environmental Mecca. That is our reputation, and for us to back off from conducting studies that are finally looking at what is going on at the airport would be sending the wrong message.”

The bill’s author, Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-El Segundo, said he was pleased with the council’s decision and pledged to work with representatives from City Hall on amending the bill so that it can include cost-saving measures, such as requiring only the monitoring of jets during regular hours of operation. Lieu said other amendments are in the works to address the council’s concerns.

However, those amendments may not come until after the bill is passed by the Assembly.

“Because of how the legislative process works, we may have to add those amendments on the Senate side,” the assemblyman said. “We certainly know the council’s concerns and we are doing everything we can to make this less costly for the city.”

What kind of relationship the council will have with Lieu remains to be seen after some members criticized the lawmaker for failing to contact them before the bill was introduced. Elected officials said they knew nothing of the bill until it was well on its way to the Assembly floor, prompting Mayor Bob Holbrook to fire off a letter of opposition before the full council had a chance to publicly debate the issue. Holbrook said he was acting on the council’s behalf because of a previous agreement that the council would not support an unfunded mandate by the sate.

“Frankly, this was a sneak attack on the city of Santa Monica, and that’s deplorable,” Councilman Richard Bloom said. “We found out about this almost by accident. There’s something wrong with this picture. This is not how things are supposed to work. We should be working together to find solutions to what is a regional problem with airport pollution.”

Lieu said his staff had notified City Hall of the bill, but regrets any misunderstanding.

If approved as is, the bill would require airport staff to monitor all aircraft, including helicopters and blimps. What they would be looking at are the idling times of those aircraft to determine how much pollution is being created.

If the monitoring shows significant levels of toxic fumes being created by idling, Lieu’s hope is that the legislature can force Los Angeles International Airport to review its landing and take-off procedures to cut back on idling times, as planes flying in and out of Santa Monica must receive clearance from LAX.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 27, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052706.pdf?ref=smdp.com)