The Long Beach City Council voted 8-1 to receive and file the proposal, effectively killing the hopes of JetBlue Airways to offer international flights from the city to Mexico and other destinations south of the US border.
Sixth District Councilmember Dee Andrews was the lone vote against the project. He advocated for an international airport that would create jobs.
JetBlue is the Long Beach Airport’s biggest tenant. Airport spokeswoman Stephanie Montuya-Morisky confirmed in a statement to the Signal Tribune that JetBlue was the only carrier to express real interest in the airport’s international makeover.
Fifth District Councilmember Stacy Mungo’s voice cracked as she delivered her verdict on the proposal for the international airport by making a motion to simply receive and file the staff report on the plan. Mungo and others on the council described the enormous pressure that they had felt from advocates on both sides of the issue.
Rae Gabelich, a former councilmember and now leader of Long Beach Neighborhoods First, in an interview last week talked of plans to form a political-action committee to be ready for a future election. Gabelich had emphasized her desire to back candidates who “support the neighborhood” and stand against those councilmembers who vote “against their communities.” Her advocacy group organized the residents who were opposed to the international airport and who had regularly turned out in masses in previous meetings.
Tuesday night’s meeting attracted hundreds of protestors against the plan. At one point, all of the seats in the council chamber were filled. A couple of mothers cradled their children in the aisles. Other parents allowed young children to play a game of Mancala in the back of the chamber before one child descended into tears. Those who couldn’t arrive at City Hall in time were directed to overflow seating in the building’s lobby and the downstairs cafeteria. Some weary residents chose to camp out in the aisles next to the professionally printed orange signs that protested the airport.
Dozens of residents on both sides of the issue stood in a queue to get a few minutes to speak during the public-comment period. The issue was discussed for about 4.5 hours, most of that time was dedicated to the public testimony. Fire Marshal Richard Brandt estimated between 380 to 400 people watched the proceedings from wherever they could get a seat in the building.
In an atmosphere that could have turned hostile, the 5th-district councilmember addressed the assembly.
“I want to thank those of you who have given me your patience,” Mungo said, “and let me decide on my own without threat of what you will do to me if I don’t do what you want to do, respecting that the person who lives next door to you may not agree with you.”
She also praised JetBlue, whose representatives took on many negative comments during community meetings. Mungo noted that the airline had recently hired almost 40 people from the city.
Mungo made the motion to simply receive and file the airport staff report after asking pointed questions to the airport director about the airport’s debt of $110 million and the estimated $10 million cost of the federal-inspection services (FIS) facility that an international airport would need to be built for customs and border protection. She noted that there were other projects that the money from airport-passenger charges could support.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”250px” img=”https://signal-tribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screen-Shot-2017-01-27-at-11.14.17-AM.png” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Protestors rallied on Jan. 24 against the proposal that would build a customs facility at the Long Beach Airport and effectively transform the airport into an international one. A few attendees at the Long Beach City Council meeting opted to camp out on the aisles during the nearly 4.5-hour discussion of the airport’s fate.” captionposition=”right” revealfx=”off”] Her surprise motion delighted many in the council chamber. Many residents, particularly those who say they live along the flight path near the airport, had opposed the idea of an international airport from the outset. Many cited fears that a change on this scale to the airport could threaten Long Beach’s long-standing noise ordinance, a unique municipal law intended to reduce airplane noise in the area as well as prohibit flights late at night.
Addressing the fears that a change to an international airport would open the door for competing airlines to challenge the noise ordinance, Airport Director Jess Romo cited letters from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that had concluded in 2015 and 2016 that concerns over a new international service would undermine the city’s noise ordinance are “unwarranted.”
The FAA’s assurances were not enough to persuade residents near the airport who attended many of the meetings, and they certainly didn’t change the minds of the community advocates vehemently opposed to a potentially busier airport on Tuesday night.
Over the last two years of community meetings, many residents cited particular concerns about nighttime airport activity and fears that their quality of life would change, should other competing airlines find a way to sue the City and challenge the noise ordinance.
JetBlue does have planes that often arrive into the airport after the proposed hours, and when it does, it does pay a fine for each violation. Robert Land, JetBlue’s senior vice president for Government Affairs and associate general counsel, told the Signal Tribune in an interview last month that those late-night flights occur due to mechanical problems or weather-related issues.
“On occasion, on average less than once a day,” Land said last December, “sometimes when there’s a big storm out east and all our planes primarily out east are caught up in that storm, we don’t get permission from the FAA to take off.”
Fourth District Councilmember Daryl Supernaw delivered a presentation to the city council last December that deeply criticized JetBlue’s record of compliance with the limits of the noise ordinance. He said that the airline “violated” the noise ordinance 375 times in a 366-day period.
Third District Councilmember Suzie Price credited Supernaw’s presentation as one of the deciding factors behind her decision to back Mungo’s motion Tuesday night.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”250px” img=”https://signal-tribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screen-Shot-2017-01-27-at-11.14.02-AM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”Advocates on both sides of the controversial plan to transform the domestic Long Beach Airport into an international one took up every available seat in the Long Beach City Council Chamber on Jan. 24. Latecomers spilled into the outside lobby and downstairs cafeteria to watch the proceedings on TV monitors.” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off”] “It has been,” Price told the audience Tuesday, “by far, the most difficult decision that we have had to make as councilmembers.”
She noted the competing interests and passions on both sides of the issue. A number of those who spoke in favor of the international airport and the FIS came from the business community and the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. A few JetBlue employees spoke in favor of the terminal. There were a few residents who favored the international airport and carried black signs with the slogan “Yes on FIS” , but they were outnumbered by those who held up bigger orange signs that declared “No International Airport Expansion.”
While Price had already seconded Mungo’s motion earlier that night, the 3rd-district councilmember went on to explain the reasons why she could not support a change to the airport.
“I have a family,” Price said, “and the best way I can grapple with this difficult issue is to put myself in other people’s shoes and consider how my family would be affected with even the fear of potential harm. Putting myself in that mindset makes the weighing process a lot clearer for me.”
The debate had turned heated at many times over the last two years. In a follow-up phone interview Wednesday, Supernaw noted that some of the councilmembers faced rude comments in the process.
“It just would be nice to keep these discussions a little more civil,” the 4th-district councilmember said.
During the late-night council meeting, Mungo noted that during this discussion and even during the last election, some residents had said “mean and hurtful” comments online. She asked that they delete those comments.
“Let’s all make a commitment today,” Mungo concluded, “that on every issue going forward, we exemplify kindness.”
Do not be fooled by Mungo’s crocodile tears…..she is only afraid of next year’s election. She should be recalled for her part in bringing this forward and wasting the city’s $350,000 (taxpayer $$$). And, this is only the tip of the iceberg.