Watkins to represent county on Airport Authority

Bob Watkins is the County of San Diego’s new representative on the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

Sheriff Bill Kolender recommended Watkins for the four-year term which expires on December 15, 2010, and on December 12 the San Diego County Board of Supervisors confirmed the appointment. Watkins, who also serves on the San Diego County Board of Education, will retain that seat.

“My intent is to follow the rules, the laws, and what the public has said,” Watkins said.

The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority was created by state legislation signed into law in 2001. The airport authority manages the operations of San Diego International Airport and works with local jurisdictions to create land use plans which ensure that development near airports is compatible. The airport authority is also charged with finding a new airport, a task which led the airport authority into conflict with the county supervisors and the military when the airport authority recommended use of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar for civilian commercial flights.

The proposed airport at Miramar went to the county’s voters as an advisory measure in the November election and was rejected. The proposal has created acrimony and also generated calls for the restructuring of the airport authority. Watkins feels he can help mitigate the acrimony. “My reaction there is there’s another opportunity to take a look at something from a governance point of view,” Watkins said.

Watkins places economic viability as his top priority for his tasks on the airport authority. “I really think that the residents of San Diego and the tourists and visitors we get here need to know that we’ve got the best access and the best facility we could put out,” Watkins said. “We need to be a functioning airport.”

Minimizing land use conflicts through coordination is also on his priority list, and his governance priority includes making the airport authority more accountable to the public.

“I have no agenda other than those things,” Watkins said of his plans for airport authority service.

An amendment to the original bill creating the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority gave the Sheriff, rather than the Board of Supervisors, the authority to appoint the county’s member, although the Sheriff’s choice is ratified by the supervisors. In 2002 Kolender sought applicants. “I picked up along the grapevine that the county had not been successful in identifying somebody,” Watkins said.

Watkins called the Sheriff’s Office and was told that Bill Lynch had been recommended just days before. Lynch was appointed to the four-year term but did not seek a second term. “When it came up this time I got a call from the Sheriff’s Office asking me if I still had an interest,” Watkins said.

Watkins currently lives in Alpine and grew up in San Diego. He attended Jefferson Elementary School, Horace Mann Junior High School, Crawford High School, and San Diego State University.

Watkins was appointed to the County Office of Education board when Jim Kelly resigned after being elected to the Grossmont Union High School District board in November 2002. “There was a lot of acrimony on that board at the time,” he said of the county education board.

At the time the County Board of Education included Ernie Dronenburg, who later resigned to move to Fallbrook. Dronenburg is also a Crawford High School graduate; Watkins was a sophomore at Crawford when Dronenburg was a senior. “Ernie was on the board, and together we got the acrimony out of the way,” Watkins said. “I think we’ve done a good job.”

Watkins was on the Crawford baseball team before graduating in 1961. His coach was Ash Hayes, who later served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. “Ash is still a very good friend, and I still have the greatest respect for the man,” Watkins said.

Watkins is professionally the chairman of R.J. Watkins and Company, a management consulting firm which assists in organizational development, executive recruitment, and venture capital, and his professional career has focused on regional economic development. He is a founding member and trustee of the San Diego National Sports Foundation, which organized and built the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, and he has previously served as chairman of the board of the San Diego County American Red Cross and on the board of directors of the San Diego International Sports Council and the YMCA. He is also chairman of the United States Rugby Foundation and serves on the boards of the San Diego Economic Development Corporation, the Corporate Directors Forum, the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine, and Regenesis Biomedical, Inc.