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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-09-2003 Airport Commission Meeting Minutes MINUTES IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION THURSDAY,OCTOBER 9.2003—5:45 P.M. IOWA CITY AIRPORT TERMINAL MEMBERS PRESENT: Randy Hartwig, ,Baron Thrower, Rick Mascari STAFF PRESENT: Sue Dulek,Ron O'Neil CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Thrower called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the September 11,2003,Commission meeting were approved as submitted. AUTHORIZATION OF EXPENDITURES: Mascari asked about the bill for the lift station repair. Mascari asked if this was covered by insurance? O'Neil said this would be considered a routine repair. The lift station has not required any repairs for 16 years. O'Neil said the air conditioner repair was from July. He had just received an invoice for the repairs last week. Mascari made a motion to pay the bills. Hartwig seconded the motion.The motion passed 3 -0,with Robnett being absent. O'Neil asked the Commission if they wanted the bills held for a month before they are paid. He said he has discussed this with the Commission a year ago. The bills listed at the monthly meetings have all been budgeted for in the annual budget that the Commission submits to the Council. O'Neil said he has included a list of the bills mainly as an update to the Commission on what some of the daily expenses are. Mascari said that he thought the bills should all be approved before they are paid. O'Neil said he wanted direction from the Commission. He said that either the routine bills would all have to be held for a month or the Commission would be advised of bills after they are paid. A third option was not to include this as an agenda item since the funds have been approved by the Commission in the budget. Mascari said that except for emergency status,the Commission should approve the bills before they are paid. Mascari made a motion to direct the Airport Manager not to pay bills unless approved by the Commission.There was no second to the motion. Thrower said O'Neil should continue to pay the bills as he receives them. PUBLIC DISCUSSION—ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: Mark Anderson said he was contacted by someone that was interested in being on the Commission to fill the open spot. He told the individual to contact Thrower if he wanted additional information about the Commission. Anderson said there was some conflicting information in the new t-hangar lease. He has discussed this with O'Neil and it will be corrected in the next lease. O'Neil said there was a three-member group of evening MBA students that would like to volunteer their help to work with the Commission on the business plan. They introduced I themselves and said they would help the Commission with situation analysis and information gathering. They will work directly with the Commission. O'Neil will be the point of contact. O'Neil said he had met with the group on Monday evening for a couple of hours. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/ACTION: a. Environmental Assessment project—Richard Blum, from H.R. Green,said they are in contact with the FAA and are Waiting for a response from Mark Schenkelberg to complete the EA report. b. Vertical Infrastructure Grant—Bldgs.B&C,bid opening—O'Neil said bids were due by 5:00 p.m. No bids were received for the project. H.R. Green developed plans and specifications for the project. O'Neil said Green would contact the contractors that had expressed interest and see why there were no bids. Green will report back to the Commission. c. Obstruction mitigation project-O'Neil said he met with two engineers from Stanley Consultants to discuss the next step. He said Stanley is ready to put bid packages together for the mitigation. The preliminary work is done and the construction phase is next. d. Aviation Commerce Park(ACP)—Scott Byers and Tracy Overton,from Iowa Realty,were present. Overton said he had sent his monthly report to the Commission. He said there was a slight increase in activity this month in the commercial real estate market. He said he ran a couple of ads in the Press Citizen to increase awareness of the Aviation Commerce Park. He said he received an offer for Lots# 16&# 17. He met with the City Manager and Airport Manager to discuss the offer. Due to the terms and conditions of the offer,the offer was not accepted. The offer was below market price and was requesting extended financing. Thrower asked what the concerns were about the offer? Overton said the concerns were from both the Commission's interest and the Council's interest. He said that the proposed use might not be the best use of the lots at the entrance to the development. He said O'Neil had suggested an alternative location if the financial part of the offer had been acceptable. Overton said that in discussing this offer with the City Manager,they discussed the Council's land use expectations. Thrower asked ifthe Council has a written land use policy? O'Neil said that unless it is in the agreement with Iowa Realty,he did not think there was a written land use policy for the ACP. O'Neil said one of the Council's intents that Overton was referring to was to sell or lease ACP property to businesses that paid taxes that produced revenue for the City's general fund. O'Neil said the offer Overton was referring to was from a non-profit,tax-exempt business. O'Neil said that may be a Council consideration,but his concern in representing the Commission was that it was not a good financial offer. Thrower said that if there is a land use policy that the Council is using to make decision,the Commission and Iowa Realty should have a copy of the policy. O'Neil said he would see if he could find a written policy. Dulek said she did not think there was a written policy. Mascari asked Overton how he became aware of the potential tenant? Overton said an offer was brought to him by another commercial real estate broker. Thrower said the Commission 2 should give the broker a range of acceptable prices. There was discussion on what the Commission would consider a reasonable offer. Overton said the prices listed are competitive. He said they reflect the marketplace in the Iowa City/Johnson County area. Mascari wanted to know if there could be something additional done to advertise the ACP? He said he brought a copy of a flyer to the last meeting that he thought might be a good way to advertise. Overton said they could do a direct mailing,but the cost of that mailing would have to be paid by the Commission. Overton said the mailing Mascari referred to would cost the Commission about$4000.00. Mascari said Scott Byers sent the Commission a letter,summarizing the money Iowa Realty had spent on marketing the ACP. Byers wrote that about$20,000 had been spent to date. Thrower had raised the question on how that$20,000 was spent. Mascari asked Byers how the money had been spent? Byers said it boils down to the question of"Is the money being spent in the best way"? Byers said he discussed this with Overton in detail and they compared the expenditures to three other commercial/industrial parks that they represent. He said more money has been spent on the ACP than their other properties. He said a commitment was made up front to spend a specific amount in addition to their regular costs. Byers said Iowa Realty is the Commission's public relations representative to the real estate market. He said to do their job well they must constantly evaluate their marketing strategy. The most important part of the marketing is to interact with other brokers and professionals. Mascari asked if lots in their other developments had sold? Overton said several lots had sold. Mascari asked if Iowa Realty had a more lucrative contract with the other developments? Byers said the real estate contracts were identical. Mascari wanted to know why other lots sold and none were sold in the ACP? Byers said initially,the"lease-only" policy was a drawback. He said the interstate visibility was a plus in the other development. He said all the buyers were exposed to the ACP,as well as the lots they eventually bought. Hartwig asked if they thought the ACP were priced competitively? Byers said the prices were very comparable. Mascari asked why other lots sold and not the ACP? Byers said all of the controversy surrounding the Airport might have had a negative impact on selling the lots. In many developments,the first deal is the most difficult. Overton said he is not certain why the lots are not selling. They have a good location,near down town. They are priced appropriately. He said one of the main issues is getting a good quality first sale. Mascari said other lots are selling. Overton said that since the beginning of 2003,only seven commercial lots have sold in the Iowa City/Coralville area. Mascari wanted to know why one of those lots wasn't in the ACP? Byers said every one of those buyers was given exposure to the ACP. Byers said that if everything else was equal,a buyer would buy a lot on Scott Blvd. instead of the ACP because of the 1'IFN district. That is a fixed expense that makes for an unequal playing field. Byers said he thought Iowa Realty would go back to the drawing board to think of something to help level the playing field. Thrower recognized Mark Anderson from the audience. Anderson said a request had been sent to the Council,requesting a TIFF district. No reply has been received. Mascari said the interest being charged to the Commission was going to take all of the profit out of the development. Mascari said there needs to be a change. He wanted to know if a new action 3 plan could be developed in the next week? Byers said he would work with Overton to try to develop new marketing ideas. Byers said he has monitored the aviation park in Waterloo/Cedar Falls. He said that although the commercial market in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area has been active the last few months,there has been no activity in their aviation park. He said he would not count on aviation uses necessarily being drawn to the park. e. Strategic Plan—Thrower said there was an e-mail in the packet that he had written that outlined a schedule for completing the strategic plan. He said there were five key areas of consideration. The first area is to agree to a vision statement. Thrower asked O'Neil if there is a current Airport mission statement? O'Neil said he does not think there was ever a mission statement agreed to by an Airport Commission. Hartwig said he would volunteer to do that part of the plan. He said he would check with outside sources to help develop a statement. Thrower said the second category was market differentiators. The Airport represents a capability within the marketplace. This would include what makes the Airport viable,what makes it critical to the environment. He said a SWOT analysis should be done.(strengths, weaknesses,opportunities,threats) This will guide the targeted actions of the plan. Mascari said he write this part of the report. The next category was financial and strategic objectives. He said the Commission might want to wait until points 1 &2 are completed before attempting#3. Or the Commission may want to set their objectives and develop 1 &2 to meet those objectives. Mascari and Hartwig said 3 should be deferred until 1 &2 are completed. Number 4 are the key processes. These are the actions that will be taken to deliver on the vision. This would involve the Airport Manager and the FBO. Thrower said this would fit in with Robnett's experience and knowledge. Another element was key measurements. After the objectives are selected,what measures are used to evaluate progress towards those objectives? Thrower said he would volunteer for that category. He asked the MBA students if they would be interested in that part of the plan? They said they would work with Thrower on the key processes. O'Neil said he has the name and phone numbers of the students so they could be contacted. He will send those - to the Commission members. Thrower asked when the Commission could report back to O'Neil with their information? He said the deadline for getting information to the Council is December. Hartwig said he could get the information for his part by October 17. Mascari said he could meet the same timeline. Thrower asked O'Neil to contact Robnett to let her know what part of the plan she would be working on. He said that if she has any questions,she could contact him. He said everyone should work on their tasks individually and they will all be combined when there is enough data. Thrower reminded the Commission they have a short timeline to complete the project. He said he would have his draft done by October 20. He would like the other sections completed by the November 13th meeting. Hartwig said that one thing that was reviewed in the ABS report was the question of how or who should manage the Airport. He said he would like a copy of the manager's job description. He said it would help to know what the Commission's duties are and what the 4 manager's duties are. O'Neil will get a description to the Commission. Mascari said the management issue should be discussed as part of this plan. Hartwig said the Commission had agreed that the current system was favored. He said he was somewhat surprised that there were no comments from Council about management when the Council and Commission had their meeting on September 22. Mascari said there are more issues for management consideration than just financial consideration. f. Runway 07 project—Thrower said the Commission received six sets of qualifications for the project and selected three companies to interview. There were three very different styles of presentations. He said that he thought all three were capable of doing the project,but the Commission would need to select the one they felt was the best. Thrower asked if the Commission had read the materials submitted by all three companies at the interviews and were prepared to vote? The consensus from the Commission was that they were ready to select a consultant/engineering company. Hartwig made a motion to select Earth Tech. Thrower seconded the motion. The vote was 2—1,with Mascari voting in the negative and Robnett being absent. Hartwig said he was comfortable with all three companies. Mascari said he wasn't at the interviews but he read the material. He said he was leaning toward the Snyder/Green team. He said Robnett had called him and she favored Anderson-Bogert. Hartwig said it was a difficult decision. O'Neil will notify the companies. Dulek said a contract would need to be developed. O'Neil will discuss the selection with Earth Tech and work with them and Dulek on a contract. O'Neil said he received a letter from the FAA, stating that if Congress appropriates the funds,Iowa City will receive$ 1,391,058.00. This will fund Phase 1 and part of Phase 2 of the project. The third phase will be the paving. g. Fuel flowage fees—Thrower said he asked to have this on the agenda to see if there was some way to increase the flowage fee or attach some other fee to the flowage fee. O'Neil said Dulek had reviewed the Jet Air contract and unless Jet Air would agree to reopen the contract,the Commission could not increase the flowage fee. O'Neil said the Commission could initiate some other type of fee,but it would rely on the cooperation of the FBO to collect it. O'Neil said he would discuss the flowage fee with Jet Air. He said if the goal is to have the transient aircraft pay an additional fee, it would probably be based on fuel sales. Since the FBO sells the fuel, it will require their cooperation to collect an additional fee. Mascari asked what the current fee was? O'Neil said Jet Air pays$.05 per gallon flowage and$.05 per gallon maintenance fee. Dennis Gordon,from Gordon Aircraft, said that his original contract provided for a flowage fee of$ .05. Since the Commission is now responsible for the maintenance,he would be willing to amend his lease to pay the$ .05 flowage fee and the$ .05 maintenance fee. Mascari said he appreciated Gordon's willingness to amend his lease. Thrower said a review of all the Airport charges and fees should be part of the analysis of the business plan. 5 h. Civil Air Patrol lease— O'Neil said a copy of the lease is in the Commission packet. The Civil Air Patrol(CAP)is leasing the office space in Building G where the Airport Manager's office was. The lease is for approximately 165 square feet of office space and is a two-year lease. This was discussed at a past meeting. Mascari made a motion for a resolution to accept the lease with the CAP. Hartwig seconded the motion and at roll call vote,the motion passed 3—0,with Robnett being absent. O'Neil said the CAP uses the office three to four days a week. They have a general membership meeting once a month. They are also trying to organize a cadet unit. There seems to be a strong core group interested in the cadet unit. O'Neil said the CAP is going to get some equipment for their aircraft that will allow them to send digital images from the aircraft to vehicles on the ground. This would help them with search and rescue missions. They are exploring how this information could be used by local fire and police departments. i. FY 2005 budget review- Mascari asked if this needed to be done now? He said some of the items might change depending on how their business plan is developed. Thrower said if there were changes,the budget could be amended. O'Neil said he completed the majority of the operating budget line items,but he had a few line items he wanted input on. Mascari • said he had some items he would like to discuss. The first item Mascari wanted to address was overtime. He said that should all be eliminated. O'Neil said the Manager does not receive overtime. Thrower asked what would require overtime? O'Neil said that if there is overtime, it is usually for plowing snow. This would occur after 8 hours in a day or on weekends. There is also some time required for special events. An example is the fly-in breakfast in August. The Commission is a sponsor of the event. What they contribute is the Manager's time and the maintenance worker's time. Although there is no charge for the Manager's time,it is overtime for the maintenance worker. The event is on a Sunday,but it takes all day Saturday to set up and most of the afternoon on Sunday to take things down. There was also an aviation open house in June that was on a Saturday. Thrower asked if the Commission wanted to leave the overtime in the budget? He said the Commission needs to answer the question of whether or not they think the functions that require overtime are of value to the Airport. Hartwig and Thrower said it should be left in the budget at this time. Mascari said that if extra help was needed,the Street Department or someone else could be called to help. O'Neil said that whomever provided assistance would charge the Airport for their services. Mascari said he also wanted to talk about the equipment replacement fund. He said last year the Commission talked about cutting the vehicle replacement fund in half. He said that wasn't done. O'Neil said one of the line items he Wanted to review with the Commission would cover the replacement fund. O'Neil said ho will check,but he didn't think the Commission agreed to cut the fund by half. O'Neil said the operating budget that he has given the Commission for review reflects a 9% decrease from last year's budget. He said it was difficult to find 9%to cut. There are no capital projects included in the budget. Mascari asked if the budget submitted to the Council was to be their final budget? Thrower said the budget should reflect what the Commission currently views will be required to operate the Airport next year. When the strategy plan is completed,the budget may be revised. 6 O'Neil explained the steps the budget goes through before being approved by Council. He said he receives a proposed budget from Finance. He revises it where necessary and presents it to the Commission. The Commission reviews it,recommends changes and the budget is returned to Finance. The Airport Manager meets with the Finance Department and City Manager and reviews the budget,explaining changes made by the Commission. The Finance Department and City Manager have the last review before sending it to Council. If there are Commission changes not acceptable to the City Manager and Finance Department, they will make changes before sending it to Council. The Commission would have an opportunity to review the budget and address the Council in January. The final City budget must be approved and submitted to the State by March 15. O'Neil reviewed several line items. One was for appraisal services. No money was budgeted for it. Thrower asked if the Commission has relied on local appraisers to appraise property in the past,as an example,before a lease is renewed? Mascari said they had not done that. O'Neil said the only time in the past that an appraisal was completed was for the Aviation Commerce Park. No money was added for appraisal services. The next item concerned advertising. In FY 2004,the amount was$2000. Last year,Ellis wanted to buy some newsprint ads. O'Neil suggested this was one of the areas to cut. Thrower suggested reducing the line item to$.00. Mother item was for general repair and maintenance. O'Neil said cathodic protection would be needed for the Jet A tank by Building H. He said it would be about$ 6000. The Commission said to leave the repair in the line item O'Neil had it scheduled in. Last year,the Commission wanted a corporate membership in AAAE. O'Neil suggested this was a place for the Commission to cut$ 700. Mother line item was the contract weather service. The Commission had discussed buying a computer and providing weather service through the internet. O'Neil said that by the time the Commission bought the computer,paid for a phone line and bought a service, it would not be saving any money. Many of the better weather sources on the internet are now charging for their service. Some of the radar information is not updated as quickly as Meteorloglic. O'Neil suggested leaving the dollar amount that was budgeted and if a less expensive weather source was discovered,the Commission could switch to it. O'Neil said all of the capital projects submitted last year were deleted by the Finance Department. One of the projects he has received a lot of comments on from the tenants was the renovation or replacement of the asphalt aprons around buildings A,B, and C. He contacted a contractor and it would cost about$7000 to slurry coat the asphalt. He said the best thing to do is replace the asphalt,but that would cost a substantial amount of money. O'Neil said the slurry coat would extend the life of the asphalt for two or three years. Thrower asked if there was some other type of overlay that would work? O'Neil said he didn't think there were too many options. The Commission said to include this as a capital improvement. Dennis Gordon asked to address the Commission. He said he has sat through several of these Commission budget reviews over the years. He wanted to comment on the discussion about equipment replacement. He said the equipment at the Airport is well maintained. He said stretching a replacement schedule to 20 years might not be a good thing. Hartwig said that when it comes time to replace a vehicle, it would still be up to the Airport to make that decision. Mascari said that once a vehicle is amortized,the Airport gets a new vehicle, whether it needs it or not. O'Neil said that is not correct. He said that each vehicle is judged 7 individually on its own merits on whether or not it needs to be replaced. Gordon suggested Mascari look at the whole picture of the Airport budget and not be fixated on just the vehicle replacement fund. Mascari made a motion to accept the proposed FY 2005 budget. Hartwig seconded the motion and it was passed 3—0,with Robnett being absent. ELECTION OF OFFICERS: Thrower asked for a motion to nominate someone for the chairperson position. Mascari nominated Thrower. Hartwig seconded the motion. The vote was 2—0,with Thrower abstaining and Robnett absent. Because Thrower was the vice-chairperson and acting chairperson, it was necessary to select a vice-chairperson. Mascari nominated Robnett. Hartwig seconded the motion. The vote was 2—0,with Thrower abstaining and Robnett absent. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT: Thrower said he has reviewed the budget information,the strategic planning,the information from ABS and has had conversations with the Commission members and he thought the Airport was on track to make improvements to the operations of the Airport. He said that of the concerns that have been expressed,they are addressable and easily responded to in the strategic plan. COMMISSION MEMBERS'REPORTS: Hartwig made mention of a broken window by the front door of the Terminal. He also asked O'Neil if he would talk to the cleaning company about doing a better job cleaning the Terminal. O'Neil said it was time to have the carpet cleaned. He said the cleaning company is supposed to spot clean the carpet every time they clean. Mascari suggested a personal invitation be extended to the City Manager to attend a Commission meeting. O'Neil will contact Steve Atkins. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: O'Neil said that he sent a thank you letter to the FAA for providing the temporary tower for the annual fly-in. At the last meeting,Mascari had asked about some fill dirt in the ACP by the Alexis Park Inn. O'Neil said that had been taken care of. Also at the last meeting,the Commission had requested the budget numbers provided by H.R.Green for disposition of the United hangar be sent to the Council. O'Neil said a letter was sent to the Mayor. Another question raised pertained to testing of fill dirt. O'Neil said he discussed this with the Public Works Director,Rick Fosse. Fosse said it depends on where the fill is coming from on whether or not it is tested before it is accepted as fill on City owned property. The Council will appoint the new Commission member on October 14th. The reply to the Council concerning the strategic plan is due the first part of December. O'Neil said the Commission meeting in November is the 13"'. Thrower said the response should be ready for the Council by the Council's first meeting in December. 8 O'Neil said he received a letter from the FAA saying that a back-up project needs to be on file for the entitlement funds. The entitlement funds are usually incorporated into larger grants. O'Neil suggested the back-up project could be to overlay part of Runway 12 or some of the taxiways. O'Neil said he met with the volunteer MBA students for a couple of hours on October 6 to discuss the strategic plan and how they could assist the Commission. O'Neil said the Iowa Aviation Conference is scheduled for October 16 and 17 in West Des Moines. O'Neil said he has plans to meet with the FAA officials at the conference to discuss the upcoming projects for the Airport. SET NEXT MEETING: The next regular Airport Commission meeting is scheduled for November 13,2003,at 5:45 p.m. ADJOURNMENT: The meet' adjourned at 8:37 p.m. Ill1 aron . I • ' e ,Ch.' ,erson 9