BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— During an April 24 workshop, the city council tabled a motion by Chris Thompson that would have replaced the city’s independent airport authority board with an advisory committee.
Council member Tony Brown, who, along with Thompson, recommended the workshop to evaluate the board’s function, said he needed more information before deciding whether to reconstitute the airport’s governing board.
Brown acknowledged the growth and achievements of the airport over the last several years. He added, however, that as a council member responsible for the city’s welfare, he had an obligation to review the airport’s governance. Brown added that because of Florida’s Sunshine statutes, a public meeting was the only forum in which council members could undertake that review.
The council member said he wanted the city to consider hiring an airport manager who reported directly to the council instead of an independent airport board. He added that under the concept he was considering, the current board would remain in place but would serve as an advisory board to the council rather than having final decision-making authority.
Vice mayor Steve Hart said he was worried that converting the board to an advisory role would expose the city to additional liability. He added that the council could increase its oversight of the airport by its rule-making authority rather than converting the airport board into an advisory panel.
Highly focused skillset
During the workshop, airport board members and tenants advised against the move. They said shifting decision-making from the board, whose sole responsibility was to manage the airport, to the city council would slow down the airport’s responses to tenants’ requests. They also said council members lack the technical aviation knowledge to make informed decisions about the 2,476-acre facility, which straddles Clay and Bradford counties.
The airport’s engineer, Bill Prange, told the council that running an airport requires a highly focused skillset.
“The aviation skillset and understanding FAA laws and guidelines related to the airworthiness of aircraft, how to operate a flight school and down to funding, it’s a pretty narrow skillset,” he said, “which is why most airports engage a consultant to help them manage that.”
The engineer said changing the governing board could endanger Rural Economic Development Initiative funding from the state because that funding was secured, naming the airport authority board as the sponsor.
“As an example,” he said, “you currently have a project at the airport, the estimated value about $800,000. That’s the runway lighting project. It’s a hundred percent (Florida Department of Transportation) funded. If you lose your REDI status, you’d be on the hook for $80,000.”
Prange also described the three models for airport governance in Florida: an independent board created by the state legislature, an independent board created by the local government, and the airport operating as a department of the local government.
“Of the eight (airports) I represent, there are all three examples of typical airport governance,” he said. “The least stable of those airports are the municipal-run (airports).”
Tenants favor current board
Todd Falconer, vice president of flight operations for MHD Rockland, told the council his company is one of the airport’s largest tenants and probably the most significant financial contributor to the facility.
He said changes to the airport’s governance would lead the company to reevaluate its future investments at the facility.
“We have concerns as a company with some of the past council meetings that we’ve reviewed and really don’t understand why you want to change something that isn’t broken,” he said. “We are on the precipice of now having (an approval) letter from the FAA spending tens of millions of dollars, and from a company standpoint, the atmosphere, I’ll just say that and over the last few months has made us step back and reconsider whether there’s stability here for us to make those kinds of financial decisions.”
Several airport tenants compared the Keystone facility’s current governance model with the Palatka-Kay Larkin Airport, which is run as a city department.
Jeff Hathorn told the council he served on the Palatka airport’s board for 14 years until the city converted it into a municipal department.
“They have been affected by city hall taking over, and the airport has gone down the toilet, and you can put me on record saying that,” he said. “The tenants are upset there. There’s no continuity between real-time activities and the city council, and it’s just a mess.”
Grant Hooks told the council he rented a hangar from the Palatka Airport for six months.
“The only reason I went over there is I was able to get a hangar at the time, and (when) we were able to get a hangar at Keystone, we ran back as fast as we could,” he said. “In dealing with that setup over there, just trying to resolve the prorated monies paid for the hangar that month and get them back when we left early took six to eight weeks to get that check back from the city. And when I called the city, they had no idea who I was, what I was talking about, and it was not good.”
