3 Councils to Huddle Over Airport Terminal Plan : Aviation: Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena officials hope to clear the air. But some expect the worst.

In what could be the first time since the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority was created 18 years ago, the three city councils will hold a joint meeting tonight in an effort to reach a consensus on building a larger airport terminal.

“We want to clear the air and resolve issues about the airport,” said Pasadena Mayor William Paparian, who arranged the meeting. “It won’t be the only or final step, but the fact that we are meeting is a positive sign.”

Other city officials were less optimistic about the tri-city summit.

“There is a significant amount of animosity and distrust among us,” Burbank City Councilman Bill Wiggins said. “And although I hope it will help create constructive dialogue, I have the feeling it could turn into a finger-pointing, exchange-of-threats and name-calling episode.”

Whether the meeting is constructive or detrimental to the relationships among the three cities, which already share a fire and police dispatch center and are discussing a plan to combine their utility companies, will depend on those who attend.

Glendale City Councilman Larry Zarian said he is looking forward to meeting new council members and wants to discuss mutual needs.

“We are all interdependent on each other,” Zarian said. “I want to concentrate on what we have in common and not our differences.”

Ted McConkey of the Burbank City Council said he is sure all city officials will be on their best behavior and are meeting mainly to get acquainted.

“We probably won’t get anything substantial done,” McConkey said. “And I doubt there will be any melodramatic confrontations.”

But if the history of some of the relationships is any measure, things might not go as smoothly as predicted.

Plans to build a new, larger terminal at Burbank Airport have been at a standstill since April, when Burbank City Council members opposed to the project said they were being left out of decisions about financing and vetoed the proposal.

Earlier this month, animosity between some Burbank council members and the Airport Authority flared again, forcing the dissolution of a mutual collaboration agreement called the Memorandum of Cooperation.

The 14-page document stated that the Burbank City Council and the Burbank Redevelopment Agency should accept the concept of an expanded terminal and should be willing to rely on the authority’s consultants to determine the best size and location for it--ideas that were unacceptable to the Burbank officials who voted to end the agreement.

Hard feelings erupted again last week when four members of the Airport Authority’s negotiation committee--three Glendale airport commissioners and a Pasadena commissioner--met without notifying other airport commissioners in time to attend.

“I didn’t even know about this meeting,” said Paparian, who is also a Pasadena airport commissioner. “These meetings get held and notices don’t get sent out to everybody.”

Carl W. Raggio Jr., the newly appointed president of the Airport Authority, said the informal meeting was held to discuss whether the authority would be interested in land that may be contaminated.

“Sometimes, mountains are made out of molehills, and this is one of them,” said Raggio, who maintained that commissioners were mailed notices about the meeting. “The property owners just wanted to know if we were to buy the land what would our concerns be about the potential contamination.”

Raggio said that if other commissioners were concerned about the meeting, they could have called him.

“I have not had one call from a commissioner to complain about the meeting,” Raggio said. “They aren’t even curious as to the content of the meeting.”

But the Burbank commissioners are still smarting from the perceived snub.

At Tuesday’s Burbank City Council meeting, airport Commissioner Phillip Berlin told council members: “We are not really in the loop and we really should be. It is insulting.”

But with the first collective meeting looming, city officials agree that they will keep their expectations low.

“If nothing else, I hope we are able to understand that we are not adversaries,” Zarian said. “If we leave that place and have accomplished that, I think that is a major step.”