Jay,
I sent you a long private email about this subject and
strategies to deal with it, most have worked for me
out here in the shadow of the Peoples Republic of
Boulder, of which our airport resides in the county
of.

I'd add to that..to help in your airports survival, which
is what we're talking about here, is maybe to offer
a money saving alternative to getting rid of the airport
commission and instead combine it with the Airport Zoning
Board of Adjustment and the Airport Zoning Commission.
Get 7 members, plus 1 councilman to sit in on meetings,
plus 1 city staff employee. These 6 year terms are too
much, make it like 2 years with no term limit. That way
you aren't stuck with garbage, or if someone does a good
job they can be retained. Having 3 airport related
commissions is a little much, and I'm betting the city
is using that excuse to get rid of the airport commission.
If you add that councilman and staff member, they feel
more involved, although they probably wont show
up most of the time anyway, and if they do they don't
do or say much anyway (that's our situation here).

Get people out in force to council meetings, write into
the Opinion section of the paper, or even better, a guest
editorial. Get on a first name basis with council and
staff members.

I'd also add when anybody writes into the council members,
dont make it look like a mass emailing to all at once, do
each one individually or use BCC to the members with the
Mayor as the main recipient. Also, casually mention a copy
is going to the local paper.

Let me know if I can be of any help, Chris