Airport board’s end has history

COLUMBUS -- A plan to disband the Columbus Airport Authority, orchestrated by former Mayor Gary Giebelhaus and initiated in 2003, may come to fruition Dec. 1.

On Oct. 14, authority members voted 3-2, with Jamie Ferguson, chairman, David Duren and Cecil Jones voting in support of the proposal, for “the Columbus Airport Authority to proceed with the intent to pay all outstanding debt on or before Dec. 1, 2008.” By statute, once the authority pays off its debts, the functions of the authority automatically reverts to the city.

The initiative also included that a Columbus Board of Airport Commissioners be created by the City of Columbus to provide a smooth transition once the debt is paid.

During the council meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers, 1369 25th Ave., the council is expected to accept public comments during the second reading of Ordinance No. 08-27. The ordinance would permit the city to create the Columbus Board of Airport Commissioners in preparation to take over the responsibilities of the Authority.

The clock may have begun to wind down beginning Aug. 19, 2002, after the Authority made a $163,000 request, in addition to their levy allocation, to complete a runway project.

“The Airport Authority came before us (the council) to request dollars. We were not even aware we had to approve giving them dollars,” Giebelhaus said. “I believe that was the catalyst” to the disbanding of the Authority.

He said although the council approved the funds, n� See AIRPORT, Page 2A

there was significant concern about the lack of oversight on the taxpayers’ money.

“The city council is supposed to be the gate keeper

to taxpayer dollars, and it looked like somebody else had the keys,” he said.

So, Giebelhaus said, he began digging into the city’s archives to determine how and why the authority was created and came to learn that once the authority had paid off all debts, it ceased to exist.

According to a letter from City Attorney Stephen Hansen, the authority was created in approximately 1958 after a bond issue presented by the city to build an airport was rejected by voters. The city then created the Authority by ordinance, which began building the airport with bonded debt.

It was not until a year later that Giebelhaus was presented with an opportunity to move pieces in place that would result in the elimination of the authority.

In 2003, Authority board member Rick Gasper filed recall petitions against Tim Michaelsen and Don Hey citing excessive and frivolous expenditure of tax dollars, accounting inaccuracies and potential open meetings violations, which led to a successful recall of the board members.

In addition to the recall of Michaelsen and Hey, board member Tony Weber resigned his position because he moved to Iowa. Giebelhaus said the three openings, a majority on a five-member board, provided a window of opportunity to place people in position that would work to pay off the authority’s debts and revert control of the airport, and oversight of city tax dollars, back to the City of Columbus.

“Some airport people had approached me and said they wanted to be considered for the authority, (but) I didn’t want pilots slanting things in certain direction,” Giebelhaus said. “I decided to appoint Cecil Jones, Jamie Ferguson and Dave Duren ... because they were businessmen who had been successful in their own endeavors ” who were ratified by the council in October 2003.

Giebelhaus said although the nominations were not made with preconditions, he had an inclination that operating in the black would be the direction the new members would take.

“Once they were put on, they were out of my control, (but) yes, I thought they would lean toward getting things out of the red,” he said. “It became a plan between me and other councilmen that we hoped, at some point in time, the airport authority would cease to exist and come under the auspices of the city,” which appears to be coming to fruition.

Rick Gasper, who opposed the proposal and disbanding of the Authority, along with fellow board member Herman Person, said the airport has suffered from this agenda, one he had been suspicious of since its inception.

“I have been trying to convince people of this pre-determined agenda for the last four years,” Gasper said. “I don’t like how we got here.”

He said the three members initially nominated by Giebelhaus and appointed by the council have reduced spending to focus on paying off debt rather than to use those funds to provide proper maintenance and improvements to the airport, some that were necessary to ensure the safety of pilots, property and workers.

Gasper said he would not have been opposed to the plan and gradual reduction of indebtedness if the airport was managed properly by the authority.

“I might feel vindicated had the airport not been undermined by this board. Right or wrong the airport still suffers,” he said. “It was frustrating trying to fight for something we were never going to get done. I wanted to walk off that board out of frustration” but because he was elected, as opposed to being appointed, he said he knew he had a duty to those who elected him.

Although Giebelhaus may have had motives behind his nominations, Ferguson said he had no specific goal when he accepted the nomination.

“It wasn’t like there was a specific goal at that time to get (the authority) out of debt,” he said, “we just wanted to move the airport forward” following a recall election and facing the Authority’s $578,000 in bond debt.

“One of the ways to do that was to get the debt under control,” Ferguson said.

He contested Gasper’s accusations that reduced spending caused potential hazards at the airport.

Ferguson stated the maintenance and construction budgets were appropriately sustained while a reduction in attorney fees and efficiency changes resulted in more money being able to be used for reducing the debt and reducing the amount of interest paid on the debt.

Gasper also argued that Ferguson worked to get this item approved prior to the upcoming election Tuesday so the three Giebelhaus nominees would be in place to take action.

Ferguson countered, stating the authority has been meeting with city representatives since 2006 to discuss better cooperation and coordination between the city and the authority.

“We were able to pay off the bonds last December. With our airport manager, Jerry Schultz, retiring on Sept. 30, we knew something had to be done,” he said. “This was not a surprise and was not something that had not been discussed in open meetings before.”

Ferguson said he sees this as another step to help move the airport forward.

Gasper said he hopes the current mayor will nominate people who have the best interest of the airport at heart, if the ordinance is approved, but he would prefer to see a new airport authority created and an all new board be assembled.

“The council should dump it right back and create another airport authority,” he said, “and fill it with people who care about the airport.”

Gasper said he did not seek a seat on the board of commissioners that would be formed by the ordinance nor would he participate in a new authority if one was formed.

Hansen said is a new authority is formed, it would exist for a term of 20 years or until its debt is paid, whichever comes later.

In a letter to the council, Hansen emphasized, “the City Council has no function whatsoever in whether or not the Columbus Airport Authority goes out of existence. Neither can the City Council direct the termination of the Airport Authority or direct its continued existence.”

City Administrator Joseph Mangiamelli said once the authority’s debt is paid, the future airport budget will be rolled into the city budget. For example, the 2008 city levy is 31.55 cents per $100 valuation, and the airport levy is 1.44 cents per $100 valuation. Had the authority taken action in advance of the 2008 budget with the same amounts allocated, the city’s levy request would have been 32.99 cents per $100 valuation.

It will be one more item in the city budget, Mangiamelli said, and continue to be part of the total overall budget taxpayers pay.

In other news, the council is expected to:

n vote to award low bid to Yamaha Golf & Equipment, Le Mars, Iowa, in the amount of $56,270 for 20 golf carts plus windshield option for $1,900 and message holder for $370 for a total of $58,540, as part of the consent agenda. Of note: this is the second half of a purchase order requested by the golf board. The initial 20 golf carts were purchased in the fall of 2007 in accordance with a directive made by the council Oct. 1, 2007.

n vote on a resolution to approve the employment agreement between the city and City Administrator Joseph Mangiamelli.

n vote to award low quote to Van Wall Turf & Irrigation out of Omaha in the amount of $17,800 for a John Deere 2020 Truckster Pro Gator for the golf department and other operations, as part of the consent agenda.