August 2023 Meeting Minutes

Open­ing:

The Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., August 23, 2023 by Chair Hol­ly Melzer. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Vice Chair Sheldon.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Mr. Will Cramer.

Roll was called. In atten­dance were: Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams, Mr. Will Cramer, Mr. Les McFat­ter, Mr. Glen McDon­ald, Vice Chair Mark Shel­don and Chair Hol­ly Melzer.

Chair Melz­er asked if there were any Pub­lic Com­ments. There were no Pub­lic Comments. 

Chair Melz­er asked if there were any items on the Amend­ed Agen­da, includ­ing the Con­sent Agen­da, that any Board Mem­ber would like to move to a Busi­ness Item for fur­ther dis­cus­sion, and if not, to make a motion to accept the Amend­ed Agenda.

Mr. Les McFat­ter made a motion to Accept the Amend­ed Agen­da, and Mr. Glen McDon­ald sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Reports:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. The month of July was up 18.5% over last year. The load fac­tors con­tin­ue to be good. This is the first time that we have exceed­ed 1 mil­lion pas­sen­gers this ear­ly in the year. Based on our present tra­jec­to­ry, this could end up being the Airport’s biggest year. The Air­port con­tin­ues to main­tain its mar­ket share across the Region at 24% with over 200,000 pas­sen­gers and is con­tin­u­ing to grow. 

Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don pre­sent­ed the Finan­cial Reports for the first 10 months of the Fis­cal Year end­ing July 31, 2023. In the month of July, total cash increased $719,000 over June. Com­pared to last year, cash increased $6.9 mil­lion for a total bal­ance of $43.4 mil­lion. Of that num­ber, unre­strict­ed cash is $30.6 mil­lion and restrict­ed cash is $12.8 mil­lion. In July of 2023, total lia­bil­i­ties decreased $586,000. Excess rev­enues over expen­di­tures to date are $16 mil­lion. Oper­at­ing Rev­enues account for $8.8 mil­lion with Non-Oper­at­ing Rev­enues mak­ing up the remain­ing $7.2 mil­lion. Oper­at­ing Rev­enues to date are $17.4 mil­lion and are at 113% of budget.

The Ter­mi­nal Com­plex Rev­enues con­tin­ue to be the prof­it leader, con­tribut­ing $1.4 mil­lion in excess funds. Park­ing exceed­ed bud­get by $800,000. Ground Trans­porta­tion Fees are exceed­ing bud­get by $319,000. Turo, Inc. report­ed $570,000 in sales, from which they paid the Air­port $57,000. Gen­er­al Oper­at­ing Expens­es and Per­son­nel are at 90% of bud­get. There are cur­rent­ly 6 posi­tions open that we are try­ing to fill. Over­all, the Total Oper­at­ing Expens­es are $942,000 under bud­get. This is the best year that the Air­port has ever had finan­cial­ly. From FY2022 to present, the Air­port is pro­ject­ed to spend $8.2 mil­lion in COVID Funds. For FY2024 the pro­jec­tion is about $6.8 mil­lion with $3.8 mil­lion for Cap­i­tal and Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and just over $3 mil­lion for new Board­ing Bridges. The remain­ing $2.4 mil­lion will be applied to FY2025 for Debt Ser­vice as well as Cap­i­tal and Oper­at­ing Expenses.

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Board Meet­ing Min­utes – July 19, 2023

This Item pro­vides for Board approval of the July 19, 2023 Board Meet­ing Minutes.

b. Approve Reef Park­ing Bonus

The REEF Park­ing Man­age­ment Con­tract pro­vides for a bonus of up to 100% of the annu­al man­age­ment fee for the oper­a­tion and man­age­ment of the park­ing facil­i­ties based on an eval­u­a­tion of per­for­mance com­plet­ed by Air­port Staff. The eval­u­a­tion has been com­plet­ed and a copy is attached for your infor­ma­tion. The rat­ing, based on the eval­u­a­tion, is 78.75%. When this rat­ing is applied to the annu­al man­age­ment fee of $31,212.00, a bonus of $24,579.45 is calculated. 

REEF Park­ing con­tin­ues to pro­vide excel­lent local ser­vice to our Air­port and focus­es on cus­tomer service. 

The bonus amount is includ­ed in the approved FY 2023 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Budget.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval of the incen­tive bonus as not­ed above.

c. Approve Pur­chase of (2) High Capac­i­ty Mow­ers – Deere & Company

.

Ongo­ing and expand­ing main­te­nance oper­a­tions at the Air­port require the acqui­si­tion and main­tain­ing of addi­tion­al equip­ment. This pur­chase is for of two (2) high capac­i­ty, pull-behind mow­ers, to be uti­lized by Air­port main­te­nance per­son­nel in sup­port of over­all air­port main­te­nance operations.

This pur­chase is pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s FY-23 Air­port Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Bud­get. The pur­chase is part of Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment #428363 – 9‑94 – 01 in which fifty (50) per­cent of the pur­chase amount will be reim­bursed to the Air­port. The mow­ers are being pro­cured through State of Flori­da Ag & Lawn Equip­ment con­tract #25101900 – 21-STC.

Staff rec­om­mends Board accep­tance for pur­chase of two (2) high capac­i­ty, pull-behind mow­ers from Deere and Com­pa­ny in amount of $51,057.16.

Board approval as rec­om­mend­ed, and autho­riza­tion for Exec­u­tive Direc­tor or his designee to exe­cute the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments, fol­low­ing sat­is­fac­to­ry legal review.

Mr. Will Cramer made a motion to Accept the Con­sent Agen­da, and Mr. Glen McDon­ald sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

a. Accept Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment and Adopt Res­o­lu­tion #2023 – 04 for Oper­a­tions and Main­te­nance Equipment 

Mr. Richard McConnell explained that the State of Flori­da has an Avi­a­tion Grant Pro­gram that the Air­port par­tic­i­pates in annu­al­ly. This Grant was request­ed 3 years ago and is for monies begin­ning July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. 

This item pro­vides for the accep­tance of Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment #428363 – 9‑94 – 01 that will pro­vide par­tic­i­pa­tion fund­ing for the pur­chase of sev­er­al pieces of oper­a­tions and main­te­nance equip­ment to be used on the Airport.

Ongo­ing and expand­ing main­te­nance oper­a­tions at the Air­port require spe­cif­ic types of equip­ment to accom­plish required oper­a­tions and main­te­nance activ­i­ties. Includ­ed in the Airport’s 2024 FDOT grant pro­gram are sev­er­al pieces of equip­ment sched­uled for pur­chase and/​or replace­ment. This FDOT Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment includes fund­ing for a vehi­cle mount­ed pas­sen­ger stair­way, com­pact exca­va­tor, zero turn mow­ers, util­i­ty trac­tor, high-capac­i­ty mow­ers, and small area mower.

The Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion is pro­vid­ing a 50/50 Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment (PTGA) grant to assist in the ref­er­enced equip­ment acquisition. 

The total project amount for the equip­ment acqui­si­tion is $536,900. Fund­ing is antic­i­pat­ed to include par­tic­i­pa­tion in the amount of $268,450 by the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the amount of $268,450 by the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion through a the PTGA.

Staff rec­om­mends Board accep­tance of Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion – Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment #428363 – 9‑94 – 01 and autho­rize the Board Chair or their designee to exe­cute required documents.

Mr. Will Cramer made a motion to Accept the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment and Adopt Res­o­lu­tion #2023 – 04 for Oper­a­tions and Main­te­nance Equip­ment, and Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

b. Approve Con­ces­sion Agree­ment with Go Rentals

Ms. Tris­sy Pick­ett with Gitib­in & Asso­ciates (Go Rental) gave a pre­sen­ta­tion to the Board pro­mot­ing their lux­u­ry car rental com­pa­ny Go Rentals. 

This item pro­vides for Board approval of a Con­ces­sion Agree­ment with Gitib­in & Asso­ciates, Inc. dba Go Rentals for an off air­port rental car con­ces­sion at the South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion FBO.

Recent­ly, South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion and Go Rentals met about pro­vid­ing rental car ser­vices at the South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion FBO. 

Go Rentals pro­vides vehi­cles for the FBO cus­tomers. The com­pa­ny is an elite vehi­cle rental ser­vice that pro­vides high lev­els of cus­tomer ser­vice with a focus on the pri­vate jet indus­try. Go Rentals pro­vides this ser­vice at more than 80 air­ports and fine hotels through­out the Unit­ed States. South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion, our newest FBO, has entered into an agree­ment with Go Rentals for this ser­vice at their FBO.

Go Rentals will enter into a Con­ces­sion Agree­ment with the Air­port to allow them to oper­ate at ECP and pro­vide ser­vices at South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion. The Con­ces­sion Agree­ment out­lines oper­a­tional require­ments of the Air­port and includes con­ces­sion fees of 10% of gross rev­enues as defined with­in the Agree­ment. The Agree­ment is in the review process by both the Air­port and Go Rental’s legal counsel. 

There will be no impact to the Airport’s FY23 bud­get and the FY24 bud­get will reflect an increase in con­ces­sions rev­enue as a result of this Agreement.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval to allow the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor to exe­cute the Con­ces­sion Agree­ment, fol­low­ing sat­is­fac­to­ry legal review.

Vice Chair Shel­don made a motion to Approve the Con­ces­sion Agree­ment with Go Rentals, and Mr. Will Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

d. Approve and Adopt Res­o­lu­tion #2023 – 05 for One Time Bonus for Dis­trict Employees

Mr. McClel­lan asked the Board to approve a One Time Bonus for Dis­trict Employees. 

The ded­i­ca­tion of our staff to ensure the con­tin­ued eco­nom­ic via­bil­i­ty and the suc­cess of the Air­port is rec­og­nized every day. In today’s eco­nom­ic envi­ron­ment, it is a dif­fi­cult and chal­leng­ing time for employ­ers and employ­ees with increas­es in cost of goods, infla­tion and high prices of fuel. The Senior Staff and Board want to reward our employ­ees and thank them for their efforts.

Over the last 4 years, the Air­port Staff has been resilient to change, see­ing both record low pas­sen­ger num­bers due to the Pan­dem­ic and counts that rebound­ed to record high pas­sen­ger lev­els. In July 2023, the Airport’s pas­sen­ger traf­fic was up more than 18% and there are 11 vacan­cies. These vari­ances cre­at­ed orga­ni­za­tion­al and facil­i­ty chal­lenges to ensure our pas­sen­gers nev­er saw the impact. Dur­ing the high pas­sen­ger activ­i­ty lev­els, the staff con­tin­ued to excel with no addi­tion­al staff and main­tained the com­mit­ment to serve the com­mu­ni­ty with exem­plary cus­tomer service.

The con­tin­ued high­er cost of liv­ing, price of fuel and the over­all cost of goods has had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on our team mem­bers due to the loca­tion of the Air­port and the dis­tance they dri­ve to come to work. 

This one-time non-recur­ring longevi­ty pay­ment is based on numer­ous fac­tors and it is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to rec­og­nize our employ­ees for their con­tri­bu­tions to the suc­cess of ECP. The pro­posed amounts are as follows:

$2,500 for those employed on or before March 1

$1,250 for those employed March 2 – June 1

$625 for those employed June 2 – August 1, 2023

$250 for those employed August 2 and after

This item is fund­ed with­in the District’s FY23 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get and the cost to pro­vide this Non-Recur­ring Longevi­ty Incen­tive Pay­ment is esti­mat­ed to be $173,000.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approve and adopt the Res­o­lu­tion 2023-05 for Non-Recur­ring Longevi­ty Incen­tive Payment.

Mr. Will Cramer made a motion to Approve and Adopt Res­o­lu­tion #2023 – 05 for a One Time Bonus for Dis­trict Employ­ees, and Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Con­struc­tion Update (infor­ma­tion only):

a. Park­ing Lot Expansion

A por­tion of the Over­flow Park­ing Lot has been paved, pend­ing the arrival of some con­crete fix­tures. The fix­tures have been installed and the oth­er half can now be paved. This por­tion of the Project is slat­ed to be com­plet­ed in the next 2 – 3 weeks. This week the fiber com­mu­ni­ca­tions and pow­er to the exit/​entry plaza are being installed. And on August 28 and 29, the sub-con­trac­tor will begin instal­la­tion of the Point of Sale equipment.

b. Ter­mi­nal Buildout

More sheetrock has been com­plet­ed, and more elec­tri­cal con­duit and HVAC pip­ing has been added. Deliv­ery of ODP Equip­ment and sup­plies for the build­out has begun. The fire pro­tec­tion pip­ing need­ed to be replaced, so a Change Order has been approved to relo­cate some of the fire pip­ing. The next phase, sched­uled for the first half of Sep­tem­ber, involves expand­ing the con­crete over the exit lane to add to the avail­able square footage on the sec­ond floor. 

c. Bag Make­up Expansion

This project is ongo­ing. The pri­ma­ry pow­er to the Ter­mi­nal Build­ing was not locat­ed where it was sup­posed to be. There was a Change Order approved that will allow the Con­trac­tor to work around this issue by rerout­ing the storm sew­er and san­i­tary sew­er. This should allow this project to move for­ward. In the mean­time, the plan­ning for the equip­ment and elec­tron­ics for the space has started. 

d. South­ern Sky Aviation

South­ern Sky is fin­ish­ing up. They have skinned the two main hangars and have poured the slab for the third hangar. They are plac­ing walls and sheetrock inside the Exec­u­tive Ter­mi­nal. They have relo­cat­ed their project trail­er so that they can begin work on the ramp por­tion of the Project. 

e. Sheltair

Sheltair is in the process of erect­ing their hangar. Sheetrock has gone up in their new office space and the Project is mov­ing along quickly. 

Plan­ning Update (infor­ma­tion only):

a. North Ter­mi­nal Expansion:

North Ter­mi­nal Design – Mr. Rick Mellin pro­vid­ed a writ­ten update of the North Ter­mi­nal Project and received ques­tions from the Board. The Board is con­cerned that the Project is falling behind and the Con­trac­tor is not respond­ing to the Engi­neer­ing Com­pa­ny. The Board would like Mr. Mellin to hold the Con­trac­tors account­able for the delays and press them to move for­ward so that the projects will be com­plet­ed on time. The Board has asked for an update on the projects and a plan of action before the next Board Meet­ing. Mr. Mellin said that there is a bid for the Esca­la­tor Equip­ment, as well as one for the CM at Risk for that project. He will be meet­ing with FAA to approve the con­tracts for those projects. He is meet­ing with Hensel Phelps about the design, the TSA loca­tion and the North Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion Project, and is work­ing to get the design doc­u­ments for those projects with­in scope. The costs of all three projects are high­er than accept­able. The 95% con­struc­tion doc­u­ments will be avail­able Sep­tem­ber 8, and per­mit doc­u­ments are sched­uled for Novem­ber 17, as long as there is an agree­ment on the scope.

Bay EDA Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Bec­ca Hardin gave the Bay EDA update. She thanked Mr. McClel­lan for all of his help and sup­port with the ongo­ing Bay EDA Projects. She said that last week she and Mr. Ben Moor­man attend­ed the Tri­umph Gulf Coast Meet­ing along with Mr. McClel­lan and Chair Melz­er. Their appli­ca­tion was approved for a $90 mil­lion grant to sup­port Project Stam­per. This is the largest Tri­umph grant ever approved and the largest per job grant approved at $50,000 per job. It is the largest incen­tive in the state of Florida’s his­to­ry. She antic­i­pates a deci­sion for Project Stam­per dur­ing the mid­dle of Sep­tem­ber. She also antic­i­pates a deci­sion from Project Maple some­time next month. They have 3 approvals for $11.25 mil­lion from Tri­umph to sup­port Project Maple which will pro­vide 250 jobs and $30 mil­lion in cap­i­tal investment.

The Moore Agency Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Jor­dan Jacobs of The Moore Agency report­ed on mar­ket­ing. She went over some of the ideas that were dis­cussed at the Inno­va­tion Incu­ba­tion ses­sion. She pre­sent­ed some visu­al and mem­o­rable pho­to op dis­plays that could be pos­si­ble if they were with­in bud­get and were accept­ed by the Board. She talked about using a ven­dor to reach fre­quent fly­ers via email mar­ket­ing. They are also going to build in more Geofenc­ing mar­ket­ing so that pas­sen­gers can be mes­saged when they are on the Air­port prop­er­ty. She asked the Board for feed­back about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of using Influ­encer Mar­ket­ing. She said that Moore will be doing a social media series based on the Top Ten Rea­sons to fly ECP that were giv­en by the Board dur­ing the ses­sion. Mr. McDon­ald men­tioned that because pas­sen­gers have been on edge across the coun­try, and there have been recent prob­lems at ECP with incon­ve­niences with our tem­po­rary over­flow park­ing and TSA issues that have caused con­tention for the pas­sen­gers, that he would like for Moore to review sev­er­al upscale pas­sen­ger options along with costs in the next month to see what can be imple­ment­ed very soon to help make the pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence bet­ter. Chair Melz­er sug­gest­ed that a timer be added to the ECP web­site to show the wait times for TSA so that the pas­sen­gers will be aware if there are delays. 

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan gave the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report. There was and Air­line Bud­get Meet­ing and the air­lines were very sup­port­ive. There was an issue with TSA two weeks ago, caus­ing secu­ri­ty to have only two oper­a­tional lanes. Plan­ning was done to pre­vent back­up if it occurred again last week­end. Mr. McClel­lan and Mr. McConnell along with Staff kept the wait to a min­i­mum. The machine has since been repaired. Mr. McClel­lan attend­ed the Air Show Meet­ing for May 4^th and 5^th. The Nation­al Guard will be hav­ing their ground break­ing on Sep­tem­ber 8^th at 9:00 a.m. at the west end of John­ny Reaver Road. The Board Meet­ing for that day will be moved to 10:00 a.m. to allow attendance. 

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:25 a.m.

Next meet­ings scheduled: 

Sep­tem­ber 8, 2023 – Board Meet­ing 10:00 a.m.

Sep­tem­ber 27, 2023 – Board Meet­ing 9:00 a.m.

_________________________________ ________________________________

Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Hol­ly Melz­er, Chair