Hahn Removes Airport Panelist

Just three days before a critical hearing on his $9-billion modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport, Mayor James K. Hahn has removed an airport commissioner who recently questioned aspects of the controversial proposal.

The mayor announced late Thursday afternoon that Alan Llorens, a Southern California Edison public relations executive whom Hahn appointed only 18 months ago, would be leaving the commission more than a year before his term expired.

Hahn appointed entertainment executive Walter Zifkin to replace Llorens. The mayor also announced that he had tapped Westchester lawyer and community leader David Voss and sports agent Jerome Stanley to fill two other vacancies on the airport panel, one of them created by the resignation last month of commission President Ted Stein.

The turnover means that nearly half of the seven-member panel could be new at a time when the commission is being called upon to review the complex LAX modernization proposal.

The commission is scheduled to hold its first public hearing on the master plan Monday, and is supposed to vote on it three weeks later.

Hahn’s plans to demolish terminals and garages at LAX and build a massive new check-in complex near the San Diego Freeway have been under intense fire in recent months, forcing the mayor to scramble for support just as the Airport Commission and the City Council were preparing to consider the proposal.

Last week, under pressure from council members, the mayor reversed himself and backed a study of whether his plan would improve security at the airport.

Council members -- many of whom have questioned the mayor’s leadership on the airport plan -- said Thursday that they were stunned by his decision to drop Llorens, who just a few weeks ago questioned why the airport didn’t require engineering firms bidding on an advanced planning contract to include cost estimates.

“I hope these decisions were not made in an effort to manipulate a predetermined outcome,” said Councilman Tony Cardenas. “I will now be required to view the proposed plan with an even finer-toothed comb.”

A council committee chaired by Cardenas will review Hahn’s appointments. The full council must confirm them.

Hahn denied that he was trying to eliminate a critic.

“Commissioner Llorens has done a great job for us,” the mayor said. “We move commissioners around from time to time. We’re looking to put together a different look there at the airport.”

Hahn declined to say, however, what was wrong with the current look. And he expressed confidence that the new commissioners would not handicap the panel’s work, which he said was largely complete on the LAX plan, despite the pending vote.

Llorens said he was not given a specific reason for the mayor’s decision, but expressed no bitterness. He said, however, that he was disappointed that he would not be able to participate in the decision about the airport plan.

“My mind was not made up,” he said.

Llorens said he was not told he had been removed until Thursday, but an announcement from the mayor’s office dated three days earlier indicated that he was leaving. It also erroneously announced that one vacancy would be filled by Michael Mahdesian, chairman of a building maintenance company.

Hahn said the premature news release was a mistake.

Several council members expressed bafflement at the mayor’s decision to create more turnover at such a critical stage in the process.

“It doesn’t make sense to create more confusion in a process that’s already been full of chaos and confusion,” said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes LAX and who has been a leading critic of the mayor’s plans. “I don’t understand it.”

Said council President Alex Padilla: “The charter gives the mayor this choice. But to see not one, not two, but three new members makes matters that much more difficult.”

Two of the new appointees said Thursday that they would approach Hahn’s modernization plan with open minds.

“I think people would find my view is more balanced than they might expect,” said Voss, who as president of the Westchester/LAX/Marina del Rey Chamber of Commerce presided over its endorsement of the mayor’s plan.

Zifkin, a Marina del Rey resident who heads the William Morris Agency, said, “I don’t bring any preconceptions to it.” He and six talent agents at William Morris gave nearly $4,000 to Hahn’s anti-secession campaign two years ago.

Stanley, who sits on the city’s Convention Center board, could not be reached for comment.