Airline group leads opposition to LAX moves.

Grass-roots group was formed by airport users

LAX - The group that led the opposition to Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan's effort to divert $30 million from Los Angeles International Airport, Citizens for a Strong LAX, is a creation of the Air Transport Association, an airline industry trade group.

The Washington, D.C.-based ATA, which represents and lobbies for the airline industry, spent $373,618 on the group's campaign to defeat Riordan's latest attempt to divert money from LAX to the city's general operating budget, according to a filing with the City Ethics Commission.

In addition, the ATA spent another $54,000 on other lobbying efforts in Los Angeles, according to the ethics commission report on lobbying expenditures in the first quarter of the year.

The expenditures are just for Los Angeles and do not include any lobbying efforts in the U.S. Congress. which also has taken up the issue of diverting funds from LAX to the city's general fund.

Last week, by a 14 to 1 vote, the Los Angeles City Council rejected Riordan's bid to take $30 million out of LAX and put it into his proposed $4 billion budget for the city.

Officials at Citizens for a Strong LAX acknowledged the $373,000-plus figure, but said they have no information on any other expenditures. Representatives of the ATA declined to comment on expenditures, saying the organization has complied with all reporting requirements.

The ATA created and funded Citizens for a Strong LAX last November, and hired Woodward & McDowell, a Burlingame, Calif.-based public affairs company, to run the organization. Woodward & McDowell set up an organization office on West Olympic Boulevard in West Los Angeles and went about creating a letter-writing and public awareness campaign to defeat Riordan's proposal to divert funds from LAX.

Citizens for a Strong LAX is headed by Ted Green, a Woodward & McDowell employee. He said the primary activity of the group has been a letter-writing campaign to Riordan and members of the city council. Other activities included demonstrations at city-hall and at city council meetings, and a public relations campaign with local media.

Green said about 23,000 postcards with a preprinted message in opposition to diversion were sent to members of the city council and Riordan. The prestamped postcards were provided by the group.

The postcards were sent in by businesses and individuals in Los Angeles. Officials at two companies listed as senders said they did not recall sending in postcards from Citizens for a Strong LAX.

A spokesman for the organization, Scott Macdonald, said, "I'm sure there are many people who don't remember sending the postcard in. You know how that is, you get something, send it in and forget about it."

Macdonald said the postcards were sent to people who work at the airport, airline employees in Los Angeles, members of frequent flyer programs that live in the city and businesses around LAX. Members of several unions were also sent postcards to mail to Riordan and the city council, he said.

Since Riordan took office three years ago, he has tried to divert revenues from cash-rich LAX to the city's cash-strapped general fund. Riordan has said he wants to use money from the airport to hire more police officers, or for other general expenses.

The city owns and operates LAX through the city Department of Airports. However, under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, airport-generated revenues can only be used for airport-related expenses.

Since Riordan began his efforts to divert funds, the airlines that use LAX and the city have been at loggerheads. In addition to the funds diversion issue, the airlines and city have fought over other related policy changes since Riordan came into office, including two increases in the landing fees airlines pay to use LAX. The airlines have charged that the increase in landing fees was a veiled attempt to make it possible to divert funds from the airport by increasing airport revenues.

Green said his group is a one-issue organization that will go away when Riordan stops trying to find ways to divert airport funds. Following the city council vote, it is now up to Riordan to forget the issue or pursue other methods of diversion, said Green. Riordan's office did not return a phone call for comment, but the mayor reportedly is not yet ready to drop the issue.

In the meantime, said Green, Citizens for a Strong LAX is going to keep watch on a proposal to impose a city jet fuel tax on domestic airlines at LAX. He said the tax would be another way to divert money from the airport.

The city attorney's office is studying the possibility of a fuel tax on airlines of between 2 and 5 cents a gallon, proceeds of which would go to the city's general fund.