February 2022 Meeting Minutes

MEET­ING MIN­UTES

PANA­MA CITY - BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

Open­ing:

The Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., Feb­ru­ary 23, 2022 by Vice Chair Hol­ly Melzer.

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Mr. Will Cramer.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Vice Chair Melzer.

Vice Chair Melz­er asked if there were any pub­lic com­ments. There were no pub­lic comments.

The Amend­ed Agen­da was pre­sent­ed to the Board. May­or Shel­don made a motion to accept the Agen­da. Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Man­ag­er of Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion, Mark Adams, called the roll and Board Mem­bers present were Mr. Jason Cut­shaw, May­or Mark Shel­don, Mr. Will Cramer, Mr. James John­son, Mr. Les McFat­ter, and Vice Chair Hol­ly Melzer. 

Board Mem­bers not present were Chair­man, Chair Glen McDon­ald who arrived at (Time).

Air­port Reports:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. He report­ed that the suc­cess of the Air­port is still trend­ing up and that as of Jan­u­ary we were up 35% over 2021. He said that the Pan­han­dle has been dis­cov­ered, we are in line with oth­er air­ports in the Region, and that we are main­tain­ing 22% mar­ket share and he pre­dicts con­tin­ued growth.

Mrs. Dar­lene Gor­don, Direc­tor of Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion pre­sent­ed the Finan­cial Report. She report­ed that our rev­enues are strong and at 143% of bud­get. She men­tioned that like oth­er busi­ness­es, we have strug­gled to find per­son­nel. We’ve had sev­er­al employ­ees leave and have 8 open posi­tions, how­ev­er we have recent­ly filled 3 posi­tions. She cit­ed the Dept of Labor as say­ing that 33% of work­ers vol­un­tar­i­ly left their jobs last year, call­ing 2021 ​“The Great Res­ig­na­tion”. She men­tioned that util­i­ty costs are on the rise and exceed­ing our bud­get, but over­all our finan­cials are very positive.

Vice Chair Melz­er made a motion to approve the Con­sent Agen­da, and May­or Shel­don sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously. 

Busi­ness Items:

Mr. McClel­lan dis­cussed Agen­da Item 6.a. Approve Air­port Oper­a­tions Cen­ter (AOC) Radio Con­sult Pur­chase. He said it became very appar­ent after Hur­ri­cane Michael that the radio sys­tem need­ed replaced. The con­soles need to be pur­chased to meet the capac­i­ty of the ones uti­lized by the Bay County.

He also added that the sec­ond Agen­da Item 6.b. Approval of Agree­ment for Fiber Optic Line Sup­port-Bay Coun­ty, Flori­da request­ing approval of the agree­ment with Bay Coun­ty for the fiber optic line which will allow us the activ­i­ty for the oper­a­tion of the radio and will also pro­vide us with records man­age­ment with the Sheriff’s Depart­ment. It will give us a back­up as far as inter­net capa­bil­i­ty, since we only have a sin­gle line oper­a­tional at this point in time.

a. Approve Air­port Oper­a­tions Cen­ter (AOC) Radio Con­sole Purchase

This item pro­vides for Board approval for the pur­chase of two Har­ris Sym­pho­ny Dis­patch Con­sole Sta­tions, includ­ing instal­la­tion and asso­ci­at­ed net­work switch­es and peripherals. 

The Air­port owns and main­tains a com­mu­ni­ca­tions dis­patch cen­ter locat­ed at the Air­port Pub­lic Safe­ty Build­ing. This pur­chase is for two replace­ment radio con­soles that are com­pat­i­ble with the new coun­ty-wide 800MHz radio sys­tem. The exist­ing con­soles are at end-of-life, have lim­it­ed com­pat­i­bil­i­ty, and have an oper­at­ing sys­tem that can­not be updat­ed and is no longer supported. 

This pur­chase of $90,564 is pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s FY 2022 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get and will be fund­ed from FAA COVID-relat­ed grants. The equip­ment is being pur­chased through Williams Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Inc., of Tal­la­has­see, Flori­da, the com­pa­ny award­ed the Bay Coun­ty P‑25 Pub­lic Safe­ty Radio Sys­tem Con­tract #15 – 32.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval of the pur­chase of two Har­ris Sym­pho­ny Dis­patch Con­sole Sta­tions, Instal­la­tion, and asso­ci­at­ed net­work switch­es and periph­er­als in an amount not to exceed $90,564.

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

Motion was made to accept by Mr. Cramer, and Mr. John­son sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

There were no pub­lic comments.

Approval of Agree­ment for Fiber Optic Line Sup­port – Bay Coun­ty, Florida

This item pro­vides for the Board’s approval of an Agree­ment with Bay Coun­ty, Flori­da for the use of a fiber optic line from the Ter­mi­nal Build­ing to the Bay Coun­ty Emer­gency Oper­a­tions Cen­ter (EOC). This fiber optic line will be in sup­port of the County’s new 800 MHz radio sys­tem and the Sheriff’s Records Man­age­ment Sys­tem, of which the Air­port participates.

The Air­port owns and main­tains a Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Dis­patch Cen­ter (AOC) locat­ed at the Air­port Pub­lic Safe­ty Build­ing. The Air­port recent­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in a coun­ty-wide ini­tia­tive to replace the exist­ing radio sys­tem with a new 800 MHz radio sys­tem. A direct, ded­i­cat­ed, fiber optic line between the Air­port and the Bay Coun­ty EOC is required to sup­port radio dis­patch oper­a­tions from the Air­port. Staff is request­ing to enter into a sup­port agree­ment with Bay Coun­ty for fiber optic line use. The new fiber optic line will also pro­vide redun­dan­cy for the Airport’s tele­phone and inter­net ser­vices should an emer­gency occur.

The fiber line will be pro­vid­ed by Uni­ti fiber and be a joint effort between Bay Coun­ty and the Air­port. The total cost for the fiber cir­cuit will be $14,440 and Airport’s por­tion of the cir­cuit will be $10,440 and the Air­port will pay the one-time splic­ing fee and equip­ment to enable this circuit.

This will be a 10-year agree­ment with Bay Coun­ty to ensure con­nec­tiv­i­ty as well as sig­nif­i­cant cost sav­ings. The Agree­ment is being devel­oped by the Coun­ty and the Air­port and its legal coun­sel will pro­vide input into the Agree­ment. Due to the time­li­ness of this agree­ment, Staff is request­ing approval to exe­cute the agreement.

The annu­al cost of the Sup­port Agree­ment is $10,440 for the Airport’s por­tion of the fiber cir­cuit and the cost of splic­ing and nec­es­sary equip­ment will be fund­ed through the Airport’s FY 2022 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Budget. 

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval of the Fiber Optic Line Sup­port Agree­ment with Bay County.

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

Motion was made to accept by Mr. John­son, and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Con­struc­tion Updates:

Richard McConnell, Deputy Exec­u­tive Direc­tor gave the con­struc­tion updates. 

Air­port Entrance Round­about and State Road 388 Realignment

He stat­ed pri­or to the next Board Meet­ing there will be a sig­nif­i­cant change in the traf­fic flow at the entrance of the air­port. The detour will go into effect by March 11, 2022 in antic­i­pa­tion of the Spring Break rush. He said that the work on the Round­about will con­tin­ue over the next month or so and that things will begin to move more quick­ly now. 

Gate 7 Pave­ment Repair

The Gate 7 repair project will be delayed due to the avail­abil­i­ty of aggre­gate, but tem­po­rary repairs have been done so that the gate can be oper­a­tional and should be restored pri­or to the Spring Break rush. It is antic­i­pat­ed the restora­tion will be com­plete before Memo­r­i­al Day just pri­or to the sum­mer rush.

There were no questions.

Bay EDA Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Bec­ca Hardin trav­elled to Sin­ga­pore and met with 12 com­pa­nies. Received 2 project requests, one of which is Project Stream which should proved 600 jobs dur­ing the first phase. The sec­ond project is called Tar­ragon that should proved 140 jobs. They have start­ed a huge avi­a­tion mar­ket­ing blast in Sin­ga­pore, and plans on attend­ing sev­er­al oth­er events and shows in the upcom­ing year both here and abroad.

Chair Glen McDon­ald arrived to the meet­ing at 9:50am and Vice Chair Melz­er passed the gavel.

The Moore Agency Report (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Katie Spill­man talked about the ECP com­mer­cial spots that aired dur­ing the Super­bowl. She men­tioned that Park­er was inter­viewed on the ​“Veron­i­ca Live” Radio Show. She gave an update about the win­ners of the ​“Tag You’re It” Hol­i­day Cam­paign con­test. One of the win­ners is a deployed mil­i­tary mem­ber that she will be send­ing a care pack­age to and she passed a card around for every­one to sign. 

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan intro­duced Mr. Thomas Edson as the new Main­te­nance Man­ag­er. He also intro­duced Lisa Brady, the new Exec­u­tive Admin­is­tra­tive Assistant.

He remind­ed every­one that next week is the annu­al War­rior Beach Retreat. He wants every­one to come out to wel­come the wound­ed war­riors as they arrive at the Airport.

He invit­ed every­one to take a look at our new firetruck that arrived today from Detroit. 

He attend­ed Routes Amer­i­c­as in San Anto­nio and met with 7 air­lines and updat­ed them about the Air­port. He said it was a very fruit­ful meeting. 

Park­er went over slides show­ing some vis­it­ing air­craft, one from the Slav­ic Nation and he showed pic­tures of the updat­ed news and sun­dries con­ces­sion oper­at­ed by Tail­wind and con­fig­u­ra­tion of the Con­course restau­rant oper­at­ed First-Class Concessions. 

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:00 a.m. By Chair Glen McDonald. 

Meet­ing Schedule:

The next meet­ing will be on March 23, 2022 at 9:00 a.m.

______________________________ _______________________________

Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Glen McDon­ald, Chair