Santa Monica Airport Director Resigns Post

Santa Monica Municipal Airport Director Hank Dittmar, who oversaw the recent renovation of the facility, has resigned to take a job with San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Dittmar, whose resignation is effective Jan. 5, said he is leaving the $71,500-a-year job because he thinks he has finished what he set out to do in Santa Monica, and because of the death of his wife last month.

“I’m excited and sad to leave,” he said.

Dittmar began his career with the city of Santa Monica in 1983 as a planner with the city’s Municipal Bus Line. The next year, at the age of 28, he was named to head the airport by City Manager John Jalili.

“We will miss him,” Jalili said. “He is exceptionally capable.”

Dittmar implemented the provisions of an agreement between the city and the Federal Aviation Administration to upgrade the airport. A new administration building was recently completed, runways and taxi areas improved and a noise abatement program was developed.

Dittmar also oversaw the addition of other facilities to the city-owned airport property, including the Museum of Flying, the DC-3 restaurant and a Santa Monica College satellite center.

Although he was not directly involved in planning the proposed Santa Monica Common commercial development, Dittmar said it, too, represents a step toward making the airport a significant revenue source.

“It’s important for the airport to contribute economically to the city,” he said.

In his new job, Dittmar will be project manager for the Southern Crossing, a proposed bridge across San Francisco Bay.

In addition to facing new professional challenges, Dittmar said the death of his wife, Sarah, contributed to his decision to leave.

“We had been talking about going back up north for about eight months,” Dittmar said. “But with her death it made even more sense. I don’t like being around my house anymore.”

Sarah Dittmar, 33, died of complications from AIDS. Dittmar said she contracted the disease from her first husband, who died after contracting the disease, and that she had tested positive for the AIDS virus seven years ago. The Dittmars were married for three years.

“I hope her death helps to make people understand that AIDS is an epidemic that reaches all parts of our society, including middle-class women,” Dittmar said.