Old-timers and Caddyshack movie goers remember comedian Rodney Dangerfield. The comedian “who got no respect.” Recall a Rodney comedy routine highlight: Once when I was lost I saw a policeman and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, “Do you think we’ll ever find them?” He said, “I don’t know kid. There are so many places they can hide.”
I get that feeling about Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall. When he should be representing Carlsbad interests (not his), he disappears.
The December 8, 2021 County Board of Supervisors Palomar Meeting
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Matt Hall was AWOL at the County Board of Supervisors’ December 8 meeting. Confronting the Supervisors were two issues: how much does county lengthen the Palomar runway (0 or 200 or 900 feet) and does county keep Palomar an FAA-rated B-II airport or convert it to a D-III airport for larger, faster, more fuel-laden planes?
The Supervisors voted for the B-II option with a 200-foot runway extension and committed to a new BOS meeting vote if county staff down the road wanted to pursue a future D-III option.
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Why should Mayor Hall have attended? Because in 2019, the Carlsbad council adopted resolutions to support a B-II airport and oppose a D-III airport. Did Carlsbad send county the resolutions? Doesn’t appear so.
Instead, a few days before the hearing, Carlsbad raised environmental issues. Hardly, a thundering threat. When Carlsbad raised similar issues in 2018, it sued, and then dropped the lawsuit, leaving to Citizens for a Friendly Airport (C4fa) the task of alone pursuing and winning a suit against the county.
As the court held in Braude v. City of Los Angeles, 226 Cal. App. 3d 83 (1990), a council member must abide by a council decision even if that member voted differently. The council member has no standing to sue.
Mayor Hall could have formally introduced the Carlsbad anti D-III resolutions into the record so that the FAA knows that Carlsbad does not support a D-III airport.
He also could have noted that while a longer runway may reduce noise over homes to the west of the runway (the position of the airport director), a longer runway increases noise over the homes that aircraft thunder over as they land from the east at a lower altitude to reach an extended runway sooner.
So Mayor Hall's absence made his position clear. He favors campaign-contributing business interests but not ordinary Carlsbad residents impacted by Palomar traffic, noise, pollution, and greenhouse gases.
