Philadelphia airport chief won't fight residency claim

Philadelphia Aviation Director Charles J. Isdell said he believed he could prove he was a city resident - an issue raised by a television station that prompted him to resign abruptly this week - but he did not want to waste time trying.

Isdell, who has managed Philadelphia International Airport since 2000 and been a city employee for 37 years, said in an interview yesterday that after he married a New Jersey woman 18 months ago, he "worked very hard to maintain my residence in Philadelphia." He said his tax, automobile insurance, and driver's license records would show that he still lives on Tackawanna Street in the Northeast.

City employees are required to live in Philadelphia.

Isdell, 58, offered Mayor Nutter his resignation Tuesday, six months before he planned to retire anyway, after deciding that he would have to spend too much time on the controversy. City officials said yesterday that they planned to name an acting aviation director by the time Isdell leaves Jan. 30.

A Fox29 investigation that aired Tuesday night questioned his city residency after he was videotaped on several days leaving his wife's home in Cherry Hill and was confronted by Fox29 reporter Jeff Cole.

"I believe I am a bona fide resident of Philadelphia," Isdell said. "I've spent part of every day in New Jersey and in Philadelphia. On every day he taped me, on those same days he could find me going into my house on Tackawanna Street in Philadelphia."

Isdell said that in trying to explain his version of his residency, "I felt my side of the story was never going to get any fair play, at least not by that station." He offered to help Nutter and others with the transition to a new director.

Isdell's supporters say he is a good administrator, levelheaded and personable. He has worked at the airport since 1993. During his tenure, he oversaw development of a long-range master plan, completion of the construction of a new international terminal, expansion of a runway, and building of a new "connector" building between terminals D and E.

"We're sad to see Charlie leave," said Suzanne Boda, US Airways Group Inc.'s senior vice president for East Coast and international operations, who is based at the airport. "We've had an extremely good working relationship with him and with all the staff."

John Minor, Southwest Airlines Co.'s Philadelphia station director, said Isdell and others on his staff had been helpful to the discount airline since it started service here in 2004.

"He was a great guy," Minor said. "I felt like we had a very good ally running the airport."

Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler confirmed that she would head the search for a successor, whom Nutter will name. Cutler said local candidates were not precluded from landing the job, which paid Isdell $163,894 a year.

Local candidates could include Mark E. Gale, deputy aviation director for operations and facilities; and James M. Tyrrell, deputy aviation director for property management and business development.

Former Mayor John F. Street named Isdell interim aviation director in March 2000 after firing Alfred Testa Jr. as director. Isdell was named aviation director in December 2000.

Isdell said he had thought for several years about retiring. He said yesterday that he had been working for several years on getting certification from the University of Pennsylvania to teach high school English.

"That's been my dream as a retirement job," he said.

During Isdell's tenure, low-fare carrier Southwest came to the airport, a step important to Philadelphia travelers because it introduced competition to the dominant carrier, US Airways, and lowered fares to numerous destinations.

Isdell has come under occasional scrutiny, including in 2003, when he disqualified himself from involvement in the contracts of two major airport vendors because his relatives worked at the firms.

The nonprofit group Common Cause criticized Isdell for allegedly helping his brother John get a job with one contractor - Redwood Airport Management Inc. - at the same time Isdell was supervising the firm's work as part of his overall duties. Airport spokesman Mark Pesce said then that Isdell did not "exert any undue influence or pressure" to get his brother hired.

Isdell's son Kevin was a technician in 2003 with Elliott-Lewis Corp., which ran the airport's computers. Isdell disqualified himself from involvement with Marketplace/Redwood and Elliott-Lewis. Responsibility for those contracts was handled by the city commerce director.

Isdell told an Inquirer reporter in 2001, "I'm not your classic airport director." He said dancing was a passion. He earned a master's degree in dance education from Temple University. He also was a cycling enthusiast and could often be spotted biking a complete circuit of the roads surrounding the airport at the end of his workday.