Finnila suggested for airport board

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 29, 2006 1:55 AM PST ∞

NORTH COUNTY -- It is looking like former Carlsbad Councilwoman Ramona Finnila will become the next coastal North County representative on the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board.

Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis said Tuesday that all five current and incoming mayors on the coast -- those in Carlsbad, Del Mar, Encinitas, Oceanside and Solana Beach -- have indicated their support for naming Finnila to the nine-member board that operates Lindbergh Field and writes land-use plans for 16 county airports.

A majority, or three, of the five mayors -- Lewis, Del Mar's Crystal Crawford and Solana Beach's David Powell -- have sent letters of support for Finnila to the airport authority. Incoming Encinitas Mayor Jim Bond, who is to be sworn in one week from today, said he intends to support Finnila's nomination, pending a discussion with the Encinitas City Council next week.

"Unless I hear some serious opposition from my council, I will sign off on a letter of support for her," Bond said.

Under the 2001 state law that created the airport authority, the coastal North County position is to alternate between the mayor of Oceanside and a citizen whom the five coastal mayors agree to nominate. The term of former Mayor Terry Johnson, which was filled later by Bob Maxwell of Oceanside, is up in December.

Finnila has been the chairwoman of the McClellan-Palomar Airport Advisory Committee for 20 years. She also served on a noise control hearing board in the 1980s that heard grievances from neighbors about noisy jets taking off from Lindbergh Field.

More recently, Finnila served as chairwoman for the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional transportation and planning agency.

"Her long-standing interest in aviation makes her uniquely qualified to serve," wrote Crawford.

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