Ex-TV Newsman Named to Burbank Airport Panel

BURBANK — The Burbank City Council has selected a dark horse candidate, former television newsman John Flynn, to represent the city on the strife-torn Burbank Airport Authority.

Flynn, 65, who said he has never been to an Airport Authority meeting, acknowledges he is just beginning to learn the details of the bitter, years-long dispute between Burbank city government and the airport commissioners over a planned expansion of the airport terminal.

“I have no preconceived notions,” said Flynn, who was selected Tuesday to replace Margie Gee, fired by the City Council last month. “I’m not with either camp, if you know what I mean.”

Burbank, which operates the airport under a joint powers agreement with Pasadena and Glendale, has been at odds with the two other cities over the airport’s plan to expand to 19 aircraft gates, with the potential to add eight more.

But in recent months, the City Council has softened its rhetoric on the airport issue, and entered into negotiations to settle the dispute. Gee, a longtime airport opponent, was dropped because some council members considered her too stridently opposed to the expansion.

David Golonski, who backed Flynn’s nomination together with council members Bill Wiggins and Stacey Murphy, said he had met Flynn only briefly, but that he “has exhibited the ability to understand the airport issue from an analytical standpoint.”

Others close to the airport controversy say they know little about Flynn. Longtime airport opponent Don Elsmore, who also applied for the job, said he was disappointed by the council’s choice. But “I’d like to give Mr. Flynn the benefit of the doubt,” he said.

Flynn, who retired as a newswriter and producer from KNBC--TV (Channel 4) earlier this month, said he worked for Life magazine as a war correspondent in Vietnam and later for CBS.

He comes from a family of 12 siblings in Burbank, where he now lives with his wife and the youngest of his four children, who is about to leave for college, he said.

He is still forming his views on the airport, he said. But in his application for the commission seat, he declared “the airport problem at the moment appears to be more one of listening than leadership,” saying his experience as a journalist would help.