San Bernardino airport director resigns

Airport Executive Director Donald L. Rogers announced his retirement today at a meeting of the airport authority in Loma Linda.

While the announcement comes amid an FBI investigation into operations at San Bernardino International Airport, Rogers initially informed county Supervisor Josie Gonzales and San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris of his decision in an April 26 letter.

In that letter, Rogers, 71, wrote that his resignation would be effective Aug. 31, saying:

"It has been my pleasure to serve as executive director for both the IVDA and SBIAA for the past 8 years. This amazing development opportunity has been very special for me and I truly appreciate the confidence shown in me by the members of the boards of both agencies, over the many years."

Rogers went on to say in the letter that his time with the airport began when he was a part of land negotiations involving the former Norton Air Force Base.

He then wrote of working with airport attorney Tim Sabo and Bill Leonard, former chairman of the California Transportation Commission, to negotiate the Hillwood Master Development Agreement, which brought companies such as Kohl's and Pep Boys to the airport area.

Rogers said in the letter that the airport has grown from $1.5 billion in assessed valuation to $5.3 Billion in assessed valuation, and grown from a few hundred jobs to roughly 4,000 jobs created.

He also said the Inland Valley Development Agency is now able to financially assist San Bernardino International Airport until it becomes viable on its own.

In a letter to the IVDA and San Bernardino International Airport Authority boards on Wednesday, Rogers said since the airport authority had not taken action near the end of August, he offered to continue a few more months until his replacement could be found:

"I now think the process will proceed faster, and that it will be in the best interests of the IVDA if I retire now," Rogers wrote. "Therefore, effective at 5 p.m. today, I hereby retire from the position of executive director of both agencies. My assistant director Mike Burrows can continue operations until an interim director or replacement executive director can be located."

Rogers made the public announcement one week after federal agents served search warrants at the airport and at the Riverside home of airport developer Scot Spencer.

More than 80 FBI agents filled a 26-foot U-Haul truck with records - including computers and mobile phones - as they are investigating allegations of mail and wire fraud, bribery, conspiracy, money laundering, and theft and fraud related to federal funds.

Investigators, through documents and other records, are trying to show a relationship between Spencer and Rogers, San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris, Assistant Aviation Director Bill Ingraham, Burrows, former airport director Thomas "T. Milford" Harrison, and South Carolina-based aircraft materials company Tiger Enterprises & Trading, according to the warrant.

Morris presides over the airport authority board.

The FBI raid came nearly three months after a county civil Grand Jury report criticized the airport authority on matters of construction costs of financial oversight.

The Grand Jury commissioned an audit of the airport following complaints it received two years ago of irregularities occurring there.

San Francisco-based Harvey M. Rose Associates, which performed the audit, said the airport authority entered into multiple contracts with Spencer, and found that the airport authority fast-tracked and increased the scope of an airport terminal construction project based only on the developer's projections, creating a "clear conflict of interest" because increases in project costs equate to increased money for the developer.

Construction costs and infrastructure improvement projects have ballooned to more than $200 million in the past six years.

The Grand Jury report says Spencer is a convicted felon who served time for bankruptcy fraud and in a separate matter stemming from businesses he managed at the airport, was ordered by the U.S. Department of Transportation to "permanently cease and desist from further marketing or other involvement in air transportation operations so that he is banned from the aviation industry."

Spencer has not returned phone calls seeking comment.

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