He tells the mayor he doesn't want to be 'a distraction'
Former New Orleans Aviation Board Chairman Dan Packer, facing questions about his use of an airport credit card, resigned from the board Monday.
Dan Packer said earlier this month that he documented every charge he made on his card. 'There was a reason for every one of the expenses,' he said.In a letter to Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Packer said he did not "want my continued service to be a distraction or burden to your administration or the board's day-to-day responsibilities."
Packer, a former CEO of Entergy New Orleans, was appointed Aviation Board chairman in 2002, shortly after Ray Nagin became mayor. He served as chairman, an unpaid position, until August, when Nolan Rollins succeeded him. However, Packer remained on the board until this week.
A recently released review of credit-card use at Louis Armstrong International Airport raised questions about the legitimacy of charges incurred by top administrators, including Packer, and a lack of oversight of how the money was spent.
The report by a local accounting firm found "significant travel expenses by several employees" and "significant meal and entertainment expenses" by former Aviation Director Sean Hunter, who resigned in 2009.
Hunter this month pleaded guilty in federal court in a case in which he and his wife are accused of collecting insurance proceeds on a car that was undamaged in Hurricane Katrina and then covering up their crime. Packer and other board members have never been implicated in that case.
The credit-card analysis covers activity from January 2008 through October 2010. During that 34-month period, Packer submitted charges of more than $76,000. In 20 months, Hunter's total was more than $77,000.
A local TV station also has run several stories questioning airport officials' credit-card charges.
Packer said earlier this month that he documented every charge he made on his card. "There was a reason for every one of the expenses," he said.
He said he often charged airport-related business dinners and lunches.
He said the airport paid for a trip he took in 2008 to Dubai, where he and other local business leaders attended a meeting of the World Trade Organization. He said he also traveled to Hawaii each January for meetings of the American Association of Airport Executives and visited Washington, D.C., several times a year on airport business.
Asked about findings that Hunter's expenses were sometimes excessive and undocumented, Packer said, "Our controls were probably not as good as they could have been."
At the direction of the Landrieu administration, all city agencies have instituted tighter restrictions on credit-card use.
In his letter to Landrieu, Packer said he first spoke with the mayor in August about his intention to leave the Aviation Board. "Now, I feel compelled to finalize my decision," he said.
He said his eight-year tenure as chairman was "a period of unprecedented activity for the board" during which it "achieved many notable successes and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles," including Hurricane Katrina, which shut the airport to commercial service for two weeks and caused a loss of business from which it has yet to recover fully.
He declined Monday night to elaborate on his reasons for resigning beyond the contents of his letter.
Landrieu issued a brief statement in which he said the airport's new management team has "significantly improved existing policies that are in line with our aggressive financial reforms at City Hall. We are committed to increasing accountability and transparency in the spending of public dollars."
Landrieu's statement did not thank Packer for his service or make any comment on his resignation.
The appointment of Packer, one of the city's best-known business leaders, in 2002 was seen as a step to reform the Aviation Board, which had been a focus for charges of excessive patronage during Mayor Marc Morial's administration. Nagin had made the idea of selling or leasing the airport one of the central planks of his campaign, though nothing ever came of that.
Packer's resignation comes after resignations in recent months by the directors of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad and the French Market Corp., both public boards, after findings of improper spending. Both those jobs are paid positions.
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Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.