City of Santa Fe Airport Advisory Board met March 14.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
1. CALL TO ORDER
Meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL
Members Present:
Member Len Rand
Member Rosemary Thompson
Member Randal Limbacher
Member Gabriel Martinez
Member Troy Padilla
Member Jyl DeHaven
Chair Signe Lindell
Members Excused:
None
Others Attending:
None
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
MOTION: Member Rand moved, seconded by Member Thompson, to approve the agenda as presented.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Rivera, Member Rand, Member Thompson, Member Limbacher, Member Martinez, Member Padilla, Member DeHaven, Chair Lindell
Against: None
Abstain: None
4. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC
a. Public comment will be limited to three minutes per speaker.
(Due to technical difficulties with our recorder, information is missing or did not capture names clearly).
∙ Mr. Ross, Mr.Ortega, Ms. Smith, Bruce Adams, Dan Johnson, Michael Donovan, Andy Wells, David Rowe, Shiloh Old, David Old, John Maldonado, Robert Gray, all made a public comment about the rates and fees, and the rules and regulations after the new business.
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MOTION: Member Limbacher moved, seconded by Member Martinez, to approve the minutes as amended.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Rivera, Member Rand, Member Thompson, Member Limbacher, Member Martinez, Member Padilla, Member DeHaven, Chair Lindell
Against: None
Abstain: None
6. OLD BUSINESS
a. Project updates (James Harris, Airport Manager, jcharris@santafenm.gov, 505-955-6740)
(Due to technical difficulties with our recorder, information is missing or did not capture names clearly).
∙ James Harris gave a project update about our incoming funds that are going right back into the airport including Jaguar Road. James mentioned the potential for a food truck here at the airport among other things. He touched base on how we have expanded our staff here at the airport. We have our new Airport Security Manager Jimmy Gunn, Allan Mantle our new Operations Manager and James Garduno being promoted to Project Manager now leaves us with an open position for a Project Administrator.
∙ James Garduno gave a project update on the terminal construction that should be completed by the end of March and the parking lot construction should be completed at the end of July. The sneak peak for the terminal is this Saturday for the public from 10-2pm and there will be a shuttle bus to transport guests from the parking area to the terminal.
∙ The city manager John Blair and Councilor Signe Lindell warmly congratulated James Harris and the airport team for their hard work and acknowledged the assistance we received from the governor for the Jaguar Road extension.
∙ In response to Member Troy Padilla’s question regarding badges. Jimmy Gunn expressed that it should be running smoothly within 2 months, and we will be running full background checks and re issuing badges for the entire airport.
7. DISCUSSION ITEMS
a. Subcommittee Report (Len Rand, Airport Advisory Board Member, len@randland.com)
(Due to technical difficulties with our recorder, information is missing or did not capture names clearly).
∙ Subcommittee Report presented by Member Len Rand. The subcommittee is working very hard to examine these documents and they are going through each and every detail.
8. MATTERS FROM STAFF
∙ James Harris addressed everybody in the room in regards to public comments that were said. He understands people are upset with rules and rates and things changing at the airport. They've been there for a long time, but it hasn't been working. The way this airport operated in the past did not work and when he got here the airport was supposed to be shut down. We were going to lose our federalization and our operations. If that had happened, it would have been 10 to 15 years before we would have been able to get any of it back. Once Part 13 opened it uncovered a barrel of other issues that the airport has such as revenue diversion for PD and wastewater which is now taken care of. The FAA and TSA gave us a specific list of things they needed us to fix to get us out of this situation we're in. One of the requests was to do an appraisal. Referring back to what Gabriel Martinez said, James Harris admits he did put the “cart before the horse”. James Harris is not upset with anyone's concerns, more so grateful because information like this helps him make the airport better. This is Mr. Harris’ sole goal for coming here. He wants to make the airport better. He would like to make the airport a true enterprise firm where we take care of ourselves, and we don't have to rely on other departments, and we then can become more reliable for fixing things at the airport. If the rates are wrong, the review will pick it up. We are waiting for reviews from the FAA. The rates we have currently have not been keeping up with the current rates that they should have been. We haven't had a rate increase since 2005 or 2008 and for us not to have an appraisal to say what our rates should be, that's not how you operate. An airport should be a mixture of family and business. James Harris acknowledged that the airport needs major improvements. He is here to help do that and to get us into compliance with the FAA. He expressed how much he wanted to be here in person for the AAB meeting to express his support for the community but physically couldn’t be.
∙ City manager John Blair wanted to comment that he has been in this job about 2 years, a little over and James Harris has been in his job about a year and a half a little less. The great tension for him in his job as city manager has been, how do we keep what everybody loves about family? But be able make the city function in a model? That is a great tension because we have great fondness for how things work. In this case here, as we modernize, we get some whiplash. As we look at the fair market value for rental prices, or the leases here, it may be worth examining a stagger over a period of time to adjust as any rate increases. There is a tension here that we're trying to juggle. He also would like to apologize, and he is grateful to see everyone here. He wants to convey, sort of underline to what James said, that there's a whole lot of stuff going on here at the airport that we don't talk about and that you don’t see on the news. It has nothing to do with the great work that you all are doing and what we love about you being here but there have been some significant legal policy deficiencies here for a long period of time. There's considerable work done by this team, James and Kelly and Kevin and others, working around the clock every day. We were on the verge of being shut down in the last 2 years and there are significant concerns in the FAA and the TSA. We want to be inclusive. We want to hear your ideas. He was taking notes of everyone's comments, and we are trying to achieve the right outcome. Additional to James' point, any ideas that you have of what we can do to make the airport work better, to serve the residents better, were happy to talk about it. We genuinely want this to be a crown jewel airport.
9. MATTERS FROM THE COMMITTEE
(Due to technical difficulties with our recorder, information is missing or did not capture names clearly).
∙ Member Gabriel Martinez addressed the public and acknowledged the people and board members who attended and took time out of their personal life to come to this meeting to express their concerns. We put the “cart before the horse”, and he apologized for it getting out to everybody before we had a time to address it. It sounds like there's a lot of emails and attorney letters going to the seat and if they haven't been responded to they need to be addressed.
∙ Member Rosemary Thompson expressed gratitude for everyone who came and to James Harris. She had a comment on the rates and fees for the car rentals and the commercial airlines because we haven't really addressed that. If anybody's been in contact with car rentals, Avis, Hertz, American, United, and we need to include them.
∙ Member Rosemary Thompson stated that the airports that were comparable to ours need to be evaluated further and why they were chosen. Member Jyl DeHaven said the appraisal should be further evaluated and we should find out if we can find another appraiser.
10. MATTERS FROM THE CHAIR
∙ Councilor Lindell wanted to touch base about how we do not send invitations out for these meetings. They are during every second Thursday of each month. The next meeting will be April 11th, and they're here at 4 o'clock.
∙ Councilor Lindell also made a comment on what she saw today and how it was a really productive meeting for this community. “I think people can see that everybody's working in the same direction, trying to make things better, trying to be considerate of everyone's position. I appreciate you coming out today, Blair (City Manager). I know that you do hold a meeting every week about the airport. The airport is getting a lot of attention. It may have been news to some people in this room that we were teetering on, having this airport closed down. We really dug in and doubled down and put in an indescribable amount of work. James, you're in the hospital. I hope it's not over this. I kind of think it might have contributed a little bit. We believe that everyone in this room wishes you well and we can't wait to see you back at work. I hope the feeling that everybody has in this room is that we have a lot of communication going on in this community. It's welcome communication, and you're heard.”
11. NEXT MEETING: April 11 2024
12. ADJOURN
Meeting was adjourned at 5:35 p.m.
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