As one of five candidates in next month's special City Council election, Dontanville is taking a step toward being able to make those choices.
Ballots for the all-mail election will go out on Jan. 3, and must be mailed back to the City Clerk's office by 7 p.m. on Jan. 24.
The candidate receiving the most votes will take the seat former Councilwoman Stacey Murphy vacated in August after being charged with one felony cocaine possession charge and one misdemeanor child endangerment charge.
While future development, traffic and increasing recreational opportunities are important to Dontanville, his overriding reason to seek a council seat is safety at Bob Hope Airport, he said.
Specifically, he wants to relocate the 14-gate terminal so that it meets Federal Aviation Administration design guidelines of being 750 feet away from an active runway.
But a relocated terminal would not mean a larger terminal, Dontanville said.
"Fourteen plus zero equals fourteen," Dontanville said. "I don't see any expansion there."
Since the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority assumed control of the airport in 1978, the FAA has urged that the terminal be moved but never mandated it, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.
The administration considers the terminal to be safe and has taken steps such as not allowing eastern takeoffs and building a concourse to replace a parking area to keep fast moving aircraft away from the terminal, Gill said.
Dontanville's awareness of safety at the airport comes from his 12 years as an air traffic controller, most of that at the Burbank airport. It was a position he landed following his graduation from Cal State Long Beach on the advice of a family friend who worked for the FAA.
Friend and supporter Tim Patterson is well aware of Dontanville's focus on the airport safety issue, which he said sounds logical and important enough to address.
