Tony Young liked Lee Burdick’s airport credentials
I ran into San Diego City Councilmember Tony Young today down at City Hall. He said CityBeat pretty much nailed down the back-story with this week’s editorial about the City Council’s choice of attorney Lee Burdick for the Port Commission. However, Young said, he didn’t just jump on Council President Ben Hueso’s bandwagon for the sake of currying favor, as we suggested.
Young said his choice of Burdick was based mostly on her knowledge of airport issues. Burdick used to be the in-house attorney for Jimsair, an aviation company based at Lindbergh Field. Young is the city of San Diego’s representative on the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. He said he wanted a port commissioner who’ll be an advocate for the airport when the Port Commission takes up airport-related issues. The airport used to fall under port jurisdiction until state law separated the two.
So, it sounds like that trumped the benefit of having a community activist like Diane Takvorian on the commission, I said. He countered that not everyone in the “community” supported Takvorian, and he mentioned Rachel Ortiz, former director of the nonprofit youth center Barrio Station, as being among them. Young then stressed that Ortiz’s opinion isn’t what swayed him, echoing what Hueso told voiceofsandiego.org.
I call BULL.