Tri-Cities shoving match gets really nasty: controversy over airport threatens other issues.

BURBANK - The battleground in the war over airport expansion here moved to court last week, possibly endangering the Tri-Cities' previously cooperative efforts on a variety of issues and threatening to tie up the sale of 130 acres of Lockheed Martin Corp. land for years.

The battle has been brewing for more than a year - ever since voters in Burbank elected two new city council people who vocally opposed expansion plans at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport.

The Burbank City Council wants some control over how large the airport's new terminal will be and how many flights will be allowed, and it wants a nighttime curfew. The more Burbank has tried to impose its will on the airport, the more Airport Authority Commission President Carl Raggio, a former Glendale mayor, has pushed Burbank's commissioners out of the picture, through both his ability to control talk at meetings and his majority voting block.

By June 7, the Burbank City Council had scheduled a closed-door session for June 11 and a news conference for June 12. The agenda for the executive session listed "anticipated litigation ... number of potential cases: 2."

City Hall insiders said the council would be filing two lawsuits in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

One would be against the Airport Authority, to force it to comply with state law requiring city approval of airport expansion. The other would be against the cities of Glendale and Pasadena, seeking a court declaration affirming Burbank's position that, under state law, the Airport Authority Commission must have a "super majority" vote of two out of three members from each city to take action that may increase the airport's "noise impact area."

Also at the Burbank executive session, council members were supposed to review some sort of "ultimatum" or "final proposal for resolution of the present dispute," in the words of Burbank officials, as submitted to Burbank by Airport Authority negotiators.

First suit

But the Airport Authority, on June 11, filed suit against Burbank in U.S. District Court, seeking a declaration that it does not have to comply with the state law requiring city approval of airport expansion plans "prior to the acquisition of land." The Airport Authority claims that the law is unconstitutional and that federal laws provide that only airport operators and federal agencies have the power to make decisions affecting airport safety and noise.

Airport spokesman Victor Gill said commissioners had met June 3 in closed session, after which they announced that they had authorized attorneys to pursue litigation, the details of which would be announced after it was filed. He said Burbank's commissioners were precluded from telling anyone, even the Burbank City Council, that the authority was suing the City of Burbank.

The Burbank City Council learned of the authority's lawsuit from City News Service and was served with copies during its June 11 meeting. At the June 12 news conference, Burbank officials announced they were suing Pasadena and Glendale and would "aggressively" defend the authority's suit. Burbank City Councilman Ted McConkey said Burbank still plans to sue the authority in state court at a later date.

Lockheed, for its part, has threatened to sue the Airport Authority unless it completes the land purchase promptly.

Meanwhile, although Burbank Mayor Bill Wiggins said he hopes all these lawsuits won't hamper the three cities' cooperative efforts in other arenas, such as economic development, McConkey said the airport dispute "puts a strain on every agreement we have."

"If they won't cooperate with us on something so important to us, why would we want to bend over backwards to do something good for them?" McConkey posed. He pointed specifically to the pact Glendale wants with Burbank to both pitch in on bringing a Metro Rail line to the community.