Sees No Problem Using FAA Airport Money To Ruin Airport

In a case of chutzpah unchained, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's administration has sent a 43-page legal brief to the FAA, saying it was indeed within its rights to demolish Meigs Field -- and use FAA airport money to pay for it.

The FAA has fined Chicago $33,000 for not giving 30-days' notice before closing and destroying the airport.

"We make the point that these costs are related to the removal of airport infrastructure and environmental remediation," city Law Department spokeswoman Jenny Hoyle said, as quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times. "It's not in the public interest for a municipality to leave behind an abandoned airport.... We used the revenue carefully. It was not used for redevelopment or urban renewal."

Meigs was destroyed in March, 2003, as Daley and his staff moved in "stealth mode" by tearing up the runway under cover of darkness.

While the GA airport was described by FAA spokesman Paul Turk as an "unobligated" field, meaning no FAA money was used to maintain it and had no federal facilities on site. But Chicago's admission that it indeed used airport funds to destroy Meigs could lead to allegations of misusing federal money. That, according to the Sun-Times, could open the city up to as much as $4.5 million in FAA fines.

FMI: www.faa.gov