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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Airport Board - 06/11/2008 REGULAR MEETING MINUTES CORPUS CHRISTI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BO ECEIV - 1000 INTERNATIONAL DRIVE AVIATION BOARD ROOM FEB 1 0 CORPUS CHRISTI,TEXAS CORPUSCERTST! ,N1vE 11,2008,3:30 P.M. INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT CITY SECRETARY'S OFFICE BOARD MEMBERS Jerry Kane,Chairman Don Feferman,Member J.C. Ayala,Member William Dodge,Member Jay Wise,Member Jesse Olivares,Member Sara Susser,Member Ed Hicks, Sr.,Member George Fisher,Member George Richard,Member AIRPORT STAFF Fred Segundo,Director of Aviation Enrique Castillo,Asst. Director of Aviation Adelle Ives,Management Assistant Diana Boatright, Management Assistant Roy Rodriguez,Facilities Manager Mario Tapia,Finance&Admin Manager Carl Gross,Operations Manager John Hyland, Chief of Public Safety Amy Gazin,PR&Mktg. Coord. Gary Williams,Aviation Maint. Manager Eddie FIores,Technical Specialist I. Call to Order The meeting of the Corpus Christi International Airport Board was called to order by Chair Kane at 3:32 p.m. A quorum was present. H. Approval of the minutes for the May 21st,2008,Special-called meeting of the Airport Board Chair Kane called for a motion to approve the minutes for the May 21"t Special-called Board Meeting. A motion was made by Board member Susser to approve the minutes. Board member Feferman seconded and the motion carried. III. Approval of Board member absences for the May 21`t9 2008 Special-called Board meeting Director Segundo reported that Board member Dodge and Chair Kane did not attend the May 21"I meeting. Chair Kane stated he was out-of-town for medical reasons and requested his absence be excused. Board member Dodge also stated he was out-of-town on business. Chair Kane called for a motion_ Board member Wise moved to excuse Chair Kane and Board member Dodge absence from the May 21"meeting. Board member Olivares seconded and the motion carried. IV. Public Comment* There was no public comment. V. Discussion and Action an Airport Board By-laws Chair Kane reported that at one time Airport Board By-laws had been created. Director Segundo reported that Airport staff and the City Secretary's Office did not have any record of By-laws being adopted. Chair Kane felt that since procedures were not in place for the election of officers and because there were some vacancies on the Board,it was felt that it would be better to elect officers once the Board is fully seated. Chair Kane called for discussion on the draft By-laws developed by staff. Board member Feferman discussed several aspects of the draft By-laws. Director Segundo interjected that the"amendment" article would be important in that it would allow changes to the By-laws should the need arise. Chair Kane questioned the Board on whether a special committee would be needed to create the By-laws for the Airport Board. Director Segundo reported that he, along with Legal, could draft a Corpus Christi International Airport Board Agenda June 11, 2008 Page 1 of 6 set of By-laws for the Board's review. Board member Susser felt that it would be important for the Board to also include,within the By-laws,the purpose for the Airport Board. Director Segundo responded that the Board's purpose has been established within the City's Code of Ordinance and this purpose can be included within the By-laws and also include more specific duties. Chair Kane also asked the Director to include the expanding purpose of the Board with respect to increasing enplanements. Board member Susser requested that staff present a first draft to the Board for their review. Director Segundo stated that it would be best to send out the draft By-laws to the Board for their review. Chair Kane called for a motion to establish By-laws for the Airport Board. Board member Wise moved and Board member Dodge seconded. The motion passed. Vl. Discussion and Motion on participation on the Airline lease agreement negotiations Director Segundo reported the original purpose for this item was to form a sub-committee that would assist in this process. He added that he has met with the Legal Department who brought up the issue that the Airport Board did not have the authority to form sub-committees. He added that this issue could be resolved by creating an amendment to the Code of Ordinance that would allow the formation of sub-committees for the purpose of assisting staff on issues pertaining to lease agreement negotiations,FBO's and By-laws. This amendment would be brought before City Council for approval and,once approved,the Board would then have the authority to form sub- committees. The sub-committees would then hold meetings in a sub-committee format. The Airport Board monthly agendas would include reports from each sub-committee for the Board review and or action by the sub-committee Chair. Board member Susser questioned whether a sub-committee meeting was subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act. Director Segundo responded that this was the issue the Legal Department had with the Airport Board forming sub-committees. He added that because the Code of Ordinance gives authority to the Airport Board to perform it's duties and the Board can not advocate this authority to a sub-committee. Board member Susser moved to have staff amend the Code of Ordinance to include the authority of the Airport Board to form sub-committees. Board member Dodge seconded. The floor was opened to discussion. Board member Olivares questioned how this measure would be addressed. Director Segundo reported that an Agenda item would be written for City Council's approval.Board member Olivares also asked who would be representing the Board at the City Council meeting. Director Segundo responded that he would be representing the Board but added that Chair Kane or any of the Board members could address the Council regarding this item during the Public Comment section of the City Council meeting. Board member Wise questioned whether there would be any resistance to this item. Director Segundo felt there usually is little resistance to most agenda items unless there is a change or request in fiduciary responsibilities. Discussion was heard on when this item could be presented to City Council. Mario Tapia, Finance Manager, reported that getting this item to City Council would take two weeks. Board member Susser commented, that based on his impression of the Airline Use and Lease Agreement consultant,Trillion Aviation,he did not feel that there was a need to participate in negotiations. He did ask that Director Segundo update the Board regularly on the agreement process along with having the Board approve the final agreement before moving forward with the leases. Director Segundo clarified by stating that the intent for the Board to meet with Trillion Aviation's representatives was to give the Board an understanding of the methodology that would be used to put the lease together. He has given Trillion Aviation direction to put a lease agreement Corpus Christi International Airport Board Agenda June 11, 2008 Page 3 of 6 together that will not hinder any new entries and that would be flexible enough to allow the airlines to continue operating in today's environment but, should that environment improve,not negatively impact the Airport. He also directed Trillion to include verbiage that does not interfere with the Airport's plans of non-aeronautical development. He also asked that they form a methodology to put rates together. Once the methodology is established and the rates calculated,the agreements can be written with new rates for exclusive use space and landing fees. He added that a meeting with Trillion is scheduled once a final draft to brief the Board on the agreement. Board member Susser asked that the Director ask Trillion to research on how CCIA's agreement compares to other airports of comparable size and usage with respect of rates and charges. Director Segundo responded that he has accessed results of an informal survey done by Laredo's airport that includes Laredo,McAllen,Brownsville, Harlingen,Victoria and San Antonio,which does show that CCIA's rates are somewhat higher with the exception of non-signatory rates. He added that CCIA's rates are just as high as San Antonio's. Board member Susser added that a broader, nation- wide survey should be conducted.Director Segundo stated that he would be working closely with Trillion to insure how affectively CCIA can lower the cost per enplaned passenger for the airlines to increase their ticket sales.He added that it is also necessary remove obstacles or barriers to new entries as well. Chair Kane asked how often Trillion updates staff. Director Segundo responded that staff is in contact with Trillion on a daily basis. He also added that Trillion is agreeable to a tole-conference to update the Board at the next meeting. As there was no further discussion, Chair Kane called for the question. The Board voted unanimously to approve the motion to have staff amend the Code of Ordinance to give the Airport Board authority to form sub-committees. VII. Director's Report a. Parking Revenue Report Director Segundo reported that parking revenues are down from last year due to a slow down of enplanements. He added that the numbers are a better reflection of revenues since the Parking Lot Supervisor has been with the Airport over a year and implemented better procedural and accounting procedures. Director Segundo reported that one of the improvements being implemented at the Parking Lot is an upgrade of the credit card lane to better improve service. Mr.Tapia also added that a better, centralized payment process has been implemented. b. GAR Director Segundo reported that enplanements have decreased and added that, in contacting other airports, this is industry-wide. He added that this was due' to higher gas prices and the impact of household discretionary spending which, he felt, could be impacting leisure travel. He commented that business travel is still doing well. He reported that Continental's numbers were down with more seat availability. American Eagle also showed lower seat availability, but their load factors were up. In the enplanements year-to-date, American Eagle's decrease of 2,000 and the departure of ASA Delta, reflects the 2,500 difference from the previous year. Director Segundo interjected that with the addition of a second flight by American Eagle they will attempt to maintain the flights subject to CCIA keeping the load factors up. Director Segundo continued his report on the GAR by stating a 4% increase is due to military operations, but they may cut back as their fiscal year end draws near. He added that cargo is down approximately 9% but he is hopeful that this will increase once enplanements increase. He also stated that staff is looking in way to improve in this area. Chair Kane questioned which Corpus Christi International Airport Board Agenda June 11, 2008 Page 4 of 6 cargo carriers flew out of CCIA. Director Segundo responded that DHL, Southwest and UPS fly cargo out of CCIA. Southwest uses belly cargo and DHL and UPS use small aircraft. c. Airport Budget Director Segundo reported that he would be going before City Council on the Airport's budget for fiscal year 2008-2009. Board member Sasser asked that staff provide a financial report on a monthly basis for the Board. Director Segundo agreed to Board member Susser's request and turned the floor over to Mr. Tapia who provided the Board with the latest revenue and expenditure report. Mr. Tapia reported that for this fiscal year the Airport's financial status would be fine even with Delta's departure and the termination of Semtech's lease. Even with these changes and including slight increases in ground transportation and slight increases in the oil and gas revenues, the budget would end the fiscal year in the black. Director Segundo added that the philosophy for next year's budget was to go conservative on revenues and high on the expenditures which will carry over a deficit but this should not be an issue as there are funds in the Reserve Fund which has a balance of$4.1 million. He felt that the worse case scenario would be a $240,000 deficit in the difference between revenues and expenditures. He anticipates the Airport will collect more revenues and take a more conservative stand with respect to expenditures. With this in mind, he anticipates balancing the budget for next fiscal year even taking into consideration the filling of vacancies in position that had been frozen. He hopes that spending reserve funds will be a one-time occurrence until more revenue producing projects develop. d. Projects Director Segundo reported that the West General Aviation and Drainage Rehab is at 95 % completion with the Drainage Phase VI is complete with the West GA aspect still going. He added that CCIA has received FAA Grant 40 at 75% of our entitlements at $2.34 million. Grant 41 will $2.5 million in discretionary with another $2.8 million of discretionary funds of Grant 42 which is still pending. He also stated that authorization has been received to spend $1.2 million of Grant 39. In total there is $8.7 million in funding for projects with Grant 43 pending that includes the 25% of entitlements of$778,000 for a total of$9.5 million for four Airport projects. Director Segundo reported that design work is being developed for the ARFF station modifications along with initial design on a new Airport Maintenance Facility. He added that he is continuing his efforts in re-designing the 1:IS area for international flights. He will update the Board on this issue. Director Segundo reported that there were no changes on the Halo Hangar Development. Director Segundo reported that staff continues working with Texas Turbine project representatives on rescheduling the meeting canceled last month. Director Segundo stated that the FAA has agreed to fund design of the t-hangar horizontal construction once the 25%entitlement funds, $775,000, are received. Corpus Christi International Airport Board Agenda June 11,2008 Page S of 6 Director Segundo reported that the Coast Guard project is pending the Admiral's decision on the location for the project at CCIA. Director Segundo stated that he waiting on Berry Construction to response regarding T-hangar construction. Director Segundo reported that the RAC QTA project is pending PGA.L's final transaction data for verbiage to move forward with the RFP. Director Segundo reported to the Board that the Point of Entry designation is still on-going with staff working on the application. Director Segundo reported that the Coastal Bend Wildlife Photo Contest located in the terminal concourse is an effort to promote eco-tourism. This exhibit was done in partnership with the CVB. He felt that the event was very successful and he received very positive comments. Director Segundo reported that he is working on a partnership with the Padre Staples Mall's new owners to promote international tourism. He added that there may be opportunities for in kind advertising at the new La Palmera Mall. Director Segundo reported that a walk through was conducted with Del Mar College's, Dean Sloane. Del Mar has made it a priority to relocate their current maintenance training facility, flight school and air traffic control school. Staff is working with them on agreement. Director Segundo reported that American Eagle will begin their new Might on July 1St with a kick-off mixer. Director Segundo reported that he has contact Allegiant Air and will be visiting with Mr. Alberto Morales on June 26`". He will set up a second meeting with Board members, Mayor and La Palmera Mall owners. This is an attempt to bring Mexican shoppers to Corpus Christi and take tourists to Cancun. He is shooting for a 757 non-stop flight, once a month to Cancun. This is the same model that is being used in McAllen for this purpose. Director Segundo reported that there had not been any contact with Aeromar. Director Segundo reported that he did not get the opportunity to meet with Clique Mexican at the JumpStart conference. Director Segundo reported that as requests from the Board were made, they would be logged onto a form called the BARR for the membership to track the status of the request. This form would be included in their notebooks. Director Segundo had Eddie Flores, Technical Specialist at the Airport address any questions by the Board membership concerning Wi-Fi&Blackberry problems. Director Segundo informed the membership of an upcoming conference sponsored by the Boyd Group that would be beneficial for the members to attend. The information would be sent via email to the members. u ry Corpus Christi International Airport Board Agenda June 11, 2008 Page 6 of 6 VM. Adjournment As there was no further business,'Chair Kane called for a motion to adjourn. Board member Susser and Board member Feferman seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed and the meeting adjourned at 4:47 p.m.