AIRPORT WORK ON KING HOLIDAY SPARKS DEBATE.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

BURBANK - While most public employees will be off Monday to remember civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., workers at Burbank Airport will be at their posts - even though the authority's appointed commissioners have the day off.

That employees will be at work angered airport watcher R.C. ``Chappy'' Czapiewski, who complained Tuesday that because the authority is set up as a joint-powers authority among Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, it should be treated as a public entity.

``There are still parts of the country where Martin Luther King Day is not observed, still places in the country where people denigrate the holiday for that man,'' Czapiewski said. ``This man is a genuine American hero.''

He said office workers were given the day off last year, and he questioned whether the holiday was eliminated by its contractor, TBI - a British company.

Airport authority spokesman Victor Gill said like those in many private businesses, the authority's workers have never had Martin Luther King Day as a regularly paid holiday; that did not change when TBI took over.

Gill said the authority is run by a private entity, but its commission is public, so while employees have to work, the commission's regularly scheduled Monday meeting was postponed a day.