In our July 7th newsletter, I stated that our airport noise ordinance is not serving its intended purpose. The evidence is contained in the chart below that shows the noise violation fines for each year from 2012 to present. You'll notice the column on the far right exceeds the annual dollar amount of all the others. Here's the kicker: it's for only the first half of 2017! It is clearly time to look for solutions, and we're anticipating a major announcement on that front within the next 30 days.
Source: Councilman Supernaw July 21, 2017 newsletter
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As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, on July 7 Councilman Supernaw signaled that he plans to introduce a City Council agenda item (date not specified) to examine the issue of the LB Airport ordinance's fine structure in the context of providing a better deterrent.
In his July 7th weekly newsletter, Councilman Supernaw headlined an item "JetBlue Fined Record-Breaking $168,900 for June Noise Violations" and wrote:
It has become painfully obvious, especially to those living under the flight path, that our "coveted" noise ordinance is not serving its intended purpose. JetBlue violated the 11:00 pm curfew 31 times (every night on average) and the 10:00 pm curfew 48 times last month. This clearly indicates the fine structure is not an adequate deterrent to violating the curfew. For that reason, I will be introducing a city council agenda item in the very near future to examine this issue.
Councilman Supernaw's newsletter included the following chart:
| Month | 10:00 pm-11:00 pm | 11:00 pm-7: 00 am | Total | Fines |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39 | 31 | 70 | $144,000 |
| February | 39 | 15 | 54 | $90,300 |
| March | 34 | 17 | 51 | $72,600 |
| April | 30 | 17 | 47 | $85,200 |
| May | 36 | 16 | 52 | $78,900 |
| June | 48 | 31 | 79 | $168,900 |
| Total | 226 | 127 | 353 | $639,900 |
| Monthly Avg. | 37.6 | 21.1 | 58.8 | $106,650 |
Councilman Supernaw's July 7 newsletter attached a report on JetBlue's June ordinance violations at this link. For months extending back into 2016, Councilman Supernaw has done a slow-burn on the issue, documenting JetBlue operations exceeding the ordinance's late night flight limits and publishing the data in his newsletter for his Airport-impacted constituents but not directly bringing the issue to the City Council...until now.
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LB's Airport ordinance, adopted in 1995 in a federal court approved settlement of airline litigation and maintained under a Congressionally-enacted grandfathering provision in a federal law (ANCA), allows the City of LB to regulate the number of daily flights and their hours at its airport, an ability that only handful of U.S. airport operators have.
The LB City Attorney's office has on previous occasions cautioned against tampering with LB's Airport ordinance out of concern that such changes might cause the FAA, or a federal court, or both, to hold that LB had forfeited its federal grandfathering protections. Such an outcome would leave the City of Long Beach legally unable to protect itself and its residents from unlimited daily take-offs and landings at all hours on all runways at its own Airport. The potential downside of unprecedented, likely permanent increased noise and jet aircraft pollution (with property tax revenue impacts citywide) has led LB officials to repeatedly state that the Airport ordinance is an extremely valuable City asset that must be safeguarded and protected.
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LB's Airport ordinance includes a "curfew" requiring air carriers to schedule all departures and arrivals between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. However air carrier operations between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. are allowed if the delays result from weather, air traffic, or mechanical issues. Violations between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. caused by unanticipated delays beyond the operator's reasonable control (such as weather, air traffic or mechanical issues) are waived on presentation of evidence satisfactory to the City that the delayed arrival or departure resulted from these circumstances. Air carrier operations after 11 p.m. are automatically deemed violations and fined; after two warnings, a third violation brings an administrative fine of $100; the fourth and subsequent fines are $300.
However there's a second, significantly higher level of fines -- outside the terms of the ordinance itself -- applicable to JetBlue. Under the terms of a "consent decree" negotiated in 2003 by the LB City Prosecutor's office and now renewed annually, JetBlue avoids criminal prosecution for ordinance violations by paying $3,000 for each of the first six times it violates the Airport ordinance in any calendar quarter and the amount increases to $6,000 per violation thereafter in that calendar quarter. JetBlue pays these sums to the non-profit LB Public Library Foundation.
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On a separate but related track, the City Council's Airport Advisory Commission (whose Mayor-chosen/Council-approved members can recommend but not enact Airport-related actions) brushed back an item in the form agendized by Commissioner Jeff Rowe "to ask the City Prosecutor to examine whether it is feasible to redirect late arrival fines from the Library [non-profit LB Library Foundation] to noise." Commissioner Rowe (who in March tried and failed to gain a Commission majority to recommend that the City Council reconsider its January vote not to proceed with a federal customs facility to enable international flights) said it seemed logical to him to take funds generated by late arrivals (under a 2003 "consent decree" between JetBlue and the City Prosecutor's office) and spend them "trying to solve that problem...My onl intent was, let's examine whether it's feasible to do that, to solve the problem that's created by those late arrivals."
Newly-elected Commission President Wayne Chaney read from a lengthy list of programs funded by the LB Library Foundation's receipt of consent decree revenue. Commissioner Phil Ramsdale suggested possibly splitting consent decree revenue, with a base sum allocated to the Library Foundation and any additional sums to some other purpose.
LB Public Library Foundation Public Affairs VP Margaret Smith submitted written testimony detailing how it distributes its consent decree revenue and testified that her organization "will be a vocal participant in any discussion that talks about redirecting these funds, and our many, many passionate library supporters throughout this city will also be vocal participants in that discussion."
Los Altos community advocate Joe Mello testified that "the problem is JetBlue is violating the noise ordinance. Well, if you have a law, which an ordinance is, and you have fines, what you're saying is well let's just give 'em to the victims and let's let them continue to break the ordinance. That's what my neighborhood is hearing. The problem is not that the fines are going to the library; the problem is that JetBlue is violating the noise ordinance, and it continues to violate the noise ordinnace, almost nigthtly...The problem is not the fines; the problem is JetBlue."
The Commission ultimately voted to approve a substitute motion by Commissioner Scott, seconded by Commissioner Sherman, to hold the item over until City Prosecutor Haubert [a former Airport Advisory Commission chair and member] is available to attend the Airport Advisory Commission meeting [Airport staff will invite him.] The substitute motion carried 6-0, with Castillo and Gosling absent.
One of the Airport Advisory Commission's nine chairs remains vacant...after Mayor Garcia abruptly withdrew his July 11 agendized appointment of Evelyne Angeles, after residents discovered (and LBREPORT.com reported) she's the spouse of a former high level FAA official who now handles matters involving Los Angeles World Airports in the L.A. City Attorney's office...and the couple apparently only recently moved to Long Beach in late 2016.
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