Ontario International Airport Authority Board of Commissioners members Curt Hagman and Alan Wapner were paid about two and four times as much as fellow board members over the past 10 years, records show.
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Wapner earned almost a quarter of a million dollars from 2017 through 2026 as an airport board member.
On July 28, FBI agents searched the Chino-area home of board member Hagman and the Ontario home of former board member Wapner. Hagman is also a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors while Wapner is a member of the Ontario City Council. Subpoenas for information were delivered to Ontario International Airport and Ontario City Hall.
It’s not publicly known what FBI agents were searching for.
But OIAA records suggest Hagman and Wapner were doing things differently than their fellow board members in at least one area.
Between 2017 and July 2026:
- Jim Bowman made $62,100 in stipends
- Julia Gouw made $59,865,
- Ron Loveridge made $64,050,
- Hagman made $131,239,
- And Wapner made $233,449
The information on board member stipends — which they are paid instead of a formal salary — was released by the airport authority to the Southern California News Group in response to a California Public Records Act request.
According to Wapner, there’s a good reason he made almost four times the $62,005 average stipend paid to Bowman, Gouw and Loveridge.
“My stipends are higher than my colleagues’ because I work more and deliver results,” Wapner wrote in an email.
Hagman did not respond to requests for comment for this story, nor did board members other than Wapner.
The airport board first set its stipends soon after the airport returned to local control — a battle both Wapner and Hagman had been involved in — at the board’s Dec. 8, 2016 meeting.
That stipend marked the first time board members were paid, but not the start of them doing work on behalf of the airport, according to Wapner.
“I was involved more than full time to gain control of the Ontario International Airport without any compensation,” he wrote in his email. “In fact, I was first elected president of the commission in 2012, thus serving on the commission for five years without compensation.”
According to the board’s initial bylaws, board members received a stipend of $150 per meeting attended, up to six per month. Meetings could also include “any other Authority-related business function.” An additional two such meetings, at $150 each, could be attended with approval from the board president. More than that would require approval by the full board.
A little over seven years later, on Jan. 25, 2024, the board amended its bylaws, giving members a base monthly stipend to $1,000 a month.
The new $1,000 monthly stipend covered six meetings or other board-related business. After that, board members are eligible for an additional $150 stipend for other such meetings, with board approval.
Under both versions of the stipend policy, commission members are also “reimbursed for necessary expenses,” including mileage, incurred in the performance of their duties.”
According to Wapner, he was extremely busy on behalf of the airport, even before the stipend policy was in place.
“After being elected president, and before we even had control, I began educating myself on aviation,” he wrote. “I sat on many transportation policy boards, having held president or chair positions for nearly every one of them. I achieved that because I became an expert on what I was leading.”
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Wapner was also in multiple aviation trade organizations, he wrote, including American Association of Aviation Executives. He also held leadership positions on the Aviation Council International – North America, he said.
Being involved in the trade organizations meant “attendance at many meetings and conferences,” Wapner wrote. “These positions allowed me to develop relationships with federal agencies, federal legislators and other airports to the benefit of our airport.”
If anything, Wapner wrote, he didn’t ask for all the compensation he believes he’s entitled to.
“I have absolutely spent considerably more time than the stipends requested, and definitely more than the six meetings that the $1,000 covers,” he wrote.
Wapner has resigned from the city-appointed committees and commissions he serves on, including the airport board. And Hagman has temporarily “stepped back” from his committee roles at the county board of supervisors.
Other than Lucy Dunn, who left the board in July 2017 after serving on it for five years and was replaced by Julia Gouw, board membership has remained stable until this summer.
On Tuesday, at the airport board’s first meeting since the FBI raids, the new board — with fellow Ontario City Council member Debra Porada replacing Wapner as a permanent member — moved to rein in stipend spending.
Board President Ron Loveridge and Gouw recommended creating a fixed stipend for board members each month.
“There’s no need to have a stipend for meeting with the general manager,” said Porada. “There’s no need to have a stipend for a lot of the things that were happening.”
Gouw suggested disclosing board members’ stipend amounts on a monthly basis.
“This should not be a secret,” she said.
Specific changes to board bylaws will be voted on at the board’s next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 24.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Loveridge said he wants an outside investigator to look at the airport’s contracts, especially two unnamed ones he said were the subject of the FBI’s subpoenas.
Loveridge did not offer any additional details on the contracts.
In addition to serving warrants on Hagman and Wapner, and delivering a subpoena to the airport, on July 28, the FBI also served warrants at the Rancho Cucamonga home and Ontario office of attorney Frank Lizarraga. He’s the former general counsel for the Southern California Association of Governments and a former Ontario planning commissioner.
The FBI also searched a business and home in West Covina associated with James Su. Su is the founder and president of Chinese-language multimedia company EDI Media Inc.; at a Beverly Hills mansion. The Chino office of Parkcrest Construction was also searched.
Wapner, who previously said he doesn’t believe he’s a target of the FBI’s investigation, said he’s proud of his work on behalf of Ontario International Airport.
“I am proud of gaining local control of the airport, the multi-billion dollar impact it has, and supporting the evolution of our airport to become an airport internationally recognized as a leader in aviation,” Wapner wrote.
As of Sept. 4, no criminal charges have been filed against any of the four men whose homes and offices were searched by the FBI on July 28.
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More on the FBI searches of Ontario International Airport Authority board members
- FBI serves warrants at locations tied to elected officials in San Bernardino County
- Who is Alan Wapner, the Ontario council member linked to FBI investigation?
- Who is Curt Hagman, fixture in San Bernardino County politics linked to FBI probe?
- Amid FBI probe, Supervisor Curt Hagman ‘stepping away’ from San Bernardino County committees
- Amid FBI raid fallout, Ontario council replaces Alan Wapner on all city committees
- Ontario airport board weighs independent investigation at first meeting since FBI raids