Rob Whitfield, a member of the Dulles Corridor Users Group, raises a good point regarding Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) governance. Earlier this year, the board refused to seat two new members appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell in accordance with federal legislation that expanded Virginia’s representation on the board. MWAA officials justified their defiance by noting that the authority’s bi-state compact between Virginia and Washington, D.C., had not yet been ratified by both Virginia and D.C.
Why, then, asked Whitfield in an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner, did not MWAA seek similar ratification “when former Gov. Tim Kaine unilaterally decided to transfer control of the Dulles Toll Road and responsibility for building Dulles Rail to MWAA in December 2005, an action that significantly amended provisions of the 1986 congressional act, which created the bistate MWAA compact?”
It’s blatant inconsistencies like this that make many outsiders regard the current MWAA board as a self-dealing clique eager to amass power and authority with no accountability. Controversial decisions to build a super-expensive METRO station at Dulles airport, since revoked, and to mandate a Project Labor Agreement for Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles project have come to light. What other decisions have been made, what other practices have been tolerated?
MWAA runs Virginia’s two largest airports as well as the Dulles Toll Road. The more the board resists accountability, the more outsiders wonder what it has to hide.
— JAB
