Legal bills for airport disputes continue to grow.

Airport commission OKs $1 million to pay lawyers

The cost of fighting lawsuits and other legal actions resulting from policy changes at the Los Angeles Department of Airports keeps rising.

Last week the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners - the citizens panel that oversees department operations - approved a $1 million appropriation to pay legal bills from a law firm hired to represent the city.

With the new appropriation, the commission has now spent almost $5 million to implement new airport and airline policies since Mayor Richard Riordan took office in July 1993.

Of that total, $4.4 million has now been spent fighting lawsuits and other legal actions. The other costs have been incurred for lobbying, travel and a bond refinancing.

To put the $4.4 million for legal bills into perspective, Los Angeles County spent about $9.5 million on the prosecution of O.J. Simpson.

The primary beneficiary of the legal work is the San Francisco-based law firm of Morrison & Foerster, which is representing the department in at least six lawsuits that concern the new policies.

Last week's $l million appropriation was for legal bills from Morrison & Foerster, which brings the firm's total billings for department work to $3.5 million over the past two years.

The Los Angeles-based law firm of Wilson & Becks has been paid at least $200,000 for legal work concerning the new policies and the resulting lawsuits. Wilson & Becks has also shared $1 million in billings with Morrison & Foerster.

Spending blasted 

The commission, with only three of the five members present, adopted the spending resolution without comment and on "consent," which means there was no actual vote taken.

A spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Air Transport Association, an airline trade group opposed to the changes, blasted the new expenditure.

"We think it's important for the taxpayers of Los Angeles to recognize that what is going on there is the department is pursuing policies that are against federal law. and they are paying outside law firms to do that work," said ATA spokesman Chris Chiames.

"The bottom line of all this is these legal costs are being passed on to the airlines that operate there and then they are passed on to the passengers," Chiames said.

The president of the airport commission, Ted Stein, did not return a phone call for comment.

The department, a city agency, operates the city-owned Los Angeles International, Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys airports. Since Riordan took office and appointed an all new five-member commission, relations between airline users of LAX and the department have deteriorated greatly.

The reason for the decline has been policy changes at LAX that have been aimed mostly at the airlines. The changes, including big increases in fees airlines pay to use LAX, have been implemented by the board with the ultimate aim of diverting revenue from the airport to the city's general fund.

Current Federal Aviation Administration policies mandate that revenue generated by a commercial airport can only be used for airport operations and capital improvements. Riordan and other city officials are frying to change the regulations to permit the diversion of LAX revenues to the city's general fund.

The work Morrison & Foerster has done for the department primarily concerns legal action thai has resulted from the commission raising LAX landing fees from just over 50 cents to $2.06 per 1,000 pounds of aircraft weight since Riordan appointed the board. Landing fees are what airlines pay to operate at an airport.

Recently, an administrative law judge for the U.S. Department of Transportation ordered that the landing fee increase be partially rolled back and that the airlines are due a refund. Secretary of Transportation Frederico Pena has until Dec. 22 to accept or reject the ruling.