With airport noise settlement talks continuing, there's also pressure on Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak to deliver on his promise of a better deal for homeowners.

The mayor expressed strong reservations about a deal tentatively agreed to earlier this year in a separate class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of those affected by airport noise.

But can Rybak -- who won a following as an activist against airport noise before becoming mayor in 2001 -- deliver a better package?

The answer has been delayed several times.

Rybak touts a 2005 lawsuit brought by Minneapolis, Richfield and Eagan to force added noise insulation, which resulted in a procedural ruling favoring that claim this year.

Hennepin County District Judge Stephen Aldrich this summer told the cities and the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to reach a settlement by Aug. 24 or he'd rule.

That date came and went as lawyers continued to negotiate. This week, they asked the judge for an extension until next Wednesday.

"It's a good sign because it means the conversations are still substantive," said Sandra Colvin Roy, who heads the council's transportation committee.

"Because we're in the middle of negotiations I can't say as much as I'd like to," Rybak said late Wednesday. "However, I've been fighting for homeowners of airport pollution for years and they should know that I am going make sure they finally get justice."

Sara Strzok, a political supporter of Rybak's and a co-activist in an anti-noise group, acknowledged that Rybak is under pressure to produce.

Jim Spensley, president of the South Metro Airport Action Council, which also wants home sound insulation, said "politically the mayor would be greatly embarrassed" if the lawsuit doesn't require the MAC to fund at least the $150 million program the city supported several years ago.

The settlement proposal announced on June 1 in the separate class-action lawsuit would provide up to $65 million in noise abatement work. That would cover about 4,400 homeowners.

Those without air conditioning would get it, and they would get up to $1,750 for insulation.

Rybak raised concerns about the settlement, saying almost half of homeowners would get nothing. He noted that Aldrich, who is handling both lawsuits, had ruled in the cities' lawsuit that MAC broke its soundproofing commitments.

Rybak was involved in the 1998 founding of Residents Opposed to Airport Racket, which once hosted a mass pajama party at the airport terminal to dramatize night plane noise.

"He got elected by being raucous. I think he ought to be raucous again," Spensley said. "He sued MAC to wild applause. It's been three years and not a single house has been insulated."

But Council Member Robert Lilligren said he thinks that Rybak wins just by getting the lawsuit filed because it shows his strongest political base, in southwest Minneapolis, that he's made it a high priority.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438