Loudoun County’s only representative on the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board of directors, Dennis Martire, was re-seated during a board meeting Wednesday morning, but the controversial Democrat won’t be back for long.
The board’s chairman announced during the meeting a settlement had been reached between Martire, the authority and the Commonwealth of Virginia in the ongoing legal dispute stemming from an attempted ouster of Martire from the board. Martire filed a lawsuit against Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and MWAA representatives challenging his removal. He claimed the governor had no grounds to unseat him and was doing so strictly for political reasons.
Quickly after reclaiming his seat Wednesday, however, Martire announced he’d resign after October’s board meeting.
“While I remain confident about the litigation in which I was involved, there are reasons why resolving those lawsuits was worthwhile,” Martire said. “First, the lawsuits threatened to be disproportionately expensive for MWAA, for me personally and for the taxpayers of Virginia. Second, the authority needs the litigation resolved so that it can continue with the important work that it does. Operating Reagan and Dulles airports and overseeing the Silver Line construction are among the most important jobs in the region.”
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. According to MWAA officials, all litigation in the matter will be dismissed under the agreement. An independent third party will review legal fees for reasonableness prior to payment by the Authority.
Martire, the vice president and regional manager of Laborers’ International Union of North America’s Mid-Atlantic region, and the MWAA board as a whole, have been plagued with criticism in recent months over lax ethics and travel policies.
During one overseas trip, Martire tabbed MWAA more than $10,000. Altogether, his expenses have surpassed $35,000.
Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who appointed Martire to the board more than three years ago, told the Times-Mirror Tuesday he had urged the Loudoun resident to step aside in June. Kaine has been under calls from his opponent in a heated Senate race, Geroge Allen, as well as other key Republicans, to call for Martire’s removal.
Also Wednesday, the board passed measures aimed at bolstering its ethics standards, including travel and contracting procedures. The authority also launched a review of contracting processes and moved to close out a number of sole-source contracts, according to a spokesperson.
@bob smith, Perhaps it would be good to know what everybody role of that group does??? Manage two airports, so why is DC and Md even have anyone on the board? The toll road is a road, not an airport. The airport should pay for itself. Each airport could have a small staff and board to figure out what it’s needs. There is no reason for someone to travel overseas to a conference that is going to benefit either airport. did MWAA hire more people when they took on Silver Line and DTR? So, once the the Silver line is paid for will DTR go back to VA? Will the extra people hired to work on Silver line be left go? Of course since they have no process and just spend money, nothing will really change. Scary to think you’ll vote and could sit on a jury. There is no logic or common sense for that group to have anything to do with DTR.
Just a part of the replacement would be to sell the toll road with limits on the tolls. Inflation adjusted dollars since 2006 the 3.52 billion value of the toll road comes to about 4.2 billion dollars. That’s a 4.2 billion dollar loss thanks to Kaine and if you add the profits from the toll road we creep closer to building the whole thing.
Take the toll road back and sell it with limits on tolls pay 270 million for your silver line with the excess 3.2 billion going into our school and infrastructure and let the MWAA find another cash cow.
OK, MWAAA is gone, let’s imagine. Who fills the void for the things it does? Please tell us that? Who operates, and PAYS FOR, the airports, the DTR, and yes, the Silver line? Is there a cache of non-tax payer money I don’t know about that MWAA can’t get their hands on, but some other entity can???
Really, I want to hear to the solutions you have in mind if the nemesis, MWAA, just goes away as you so wish.
I’m waiting…
I agree with all posts. MWAA is very corrupt. Not held accountable until after issues found. And never in a million years should they have any say on DTR? That is highway robbery to all northern va.
I believe Dick was in Richmond when this was given to MWAA, so where was he then? Sounds good, but he and all the other northern va politicians should grow a pair. How any of them thought giving it to MWAA was a good idea?
So, he uses a lawsuit to extort money from MWAA when he should of been shown the door without a dime.
At least he is gone.
Now, if we could just get rid of MWAA….
How about Martire telling us who else was abusing the ethics from the MWAA.
This still doesn’t get to the root of the problem: we still have an unaccountable board committing highway robbery. They will continue to drive up the costs of commuting on the Dulles Toll Road unless Virginia takes control back.
Virginia State Senator Richard Black is asking Gov. Bob McDonnell to have VDOT take the DTR back from MWAA- this is a huge step towards slowing or stopping toll increases.
Toll Road users and local residents need to contact the governor at (804)786-2211 and ask him to take our toll road back.
Terms of the settlement need to be made public.
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