January 2023 Special Meeting Minutes

MEET­ING MINUTES

PANA­MA CITY – BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

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SPE­CIAL BOARD MEETING

The Spe­cial Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., Jan­u­ary 13, 2023 by Chair Hol­ly Melzer. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Vice Chair Mark Sheldon.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Chair Melzer.

Roll was called. In atten­dance were: Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams, Mr. Glen McDon­ald, Mr. Will Cramer, Vice Chair Shel­don and Chair 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 Agen­da that any Board Mem­ber would like to move or open up for fur­ther dis­cus­sion, and if not, to make a motion to accept the Agenda.

Mr. McDon­ald made a motion to accept the Agen­da, and Vice Chair Shel­don sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

3. Approve Con­tract with FCS for Com­pre­hen­sive Jan­i­to­r­i­al Services

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan dis­cussed the Jan­i­to­r­i­al Ser­vices Agree­ment. Since the Decem­ber Board Meet­ing, with the assis­tance of legal coun­sel, and FCS, we have put togeth­er a Com­pre­hen­sive Jan­i­to­r­i­al Ser­vices Agree­ment. The Agree­ment address­es the con­cerns of the Board, with regard to the expan­sion of space, penal­ties for not doing the work, and oth­er con­cerns that were dis­cussed at the Board Meet­ing. It pro­pos­es a real­lo­ca­tion of rev­enues to address the over bud­get issue. It is a great time to get the com­pa­ny start­ed as it gives them a month to get set­tled before Spring Break. Mr. McClel­lan intro­duced Mr. Roger Bar­rios, the Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer of FCS Facil­i­ty Services. 

Mr. Bar­rios explained that his father began the busi­ness in 2002. Mr. Bar­rios and his sis­ter have worked with the fam­i­ly busi­ness since high school and now run the busi­ness. They are a Cer­ti­fied Minor­i­ty, Women Owned Busi­ness through the FDOT, and cur­rent­ly employ approx­i­mate­ly 500 employ­ees. They tran­si­tioned sev­er­al air­ports and were suc­cess­ful through the pan­dem­ic, chal­leng­ing times with the econ­o­my, min­i­mum wage strug­gles, etc. He said that they are very hon­ored to be able to work at ECP and are con­fi­dent that they will be suc­cess­ful here. They cur­rent­ly per­form jan­i­to­r­i­al ser­vices at the Pen­saco­la Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, as well as Jack­sonville, Tam­pa and Orlan­do airports.

Board asked sev­er­al ques­tions includ­ing the cost per square foot. The first year will be $1.17 per square foot, and the cost will esca­late per year and is includ­ed in this Board Item. Also, the Board want­ed clar­i­fi­ca­tion on the Ter­mi­na­tion Clause in the Agree­ment. The Mr. Davis explained that in order for the Con­tract to work, there will need to be con­stant com­mu­ni­ca­tion. There will be reg­u­lar inspec­tions and the com­pa­ny will be told if things are missed. If they fail an inspec­tion, they are giv­en a rea­son­able time to cor­rect the issue, and if depend­ing on the nature of the vio­la­tion, if it is not cor­rect­ed, they will be assessed a $75 penal­ty. If they repeat the same vio­la­tion with­in 60 days of the first, they will be assessed a $150 penal­ty, and a third vio­la­tion will result in a $500 penal­ty. If the com­pa­ny does not work out there is a 60-day ter­mi­na­tion clause at any point dur­ing the agreement. 

Chair Melz­er asked if there were any ques­tions for FCS, or for Mr. McClel­lan. There were no questions.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to accept the Agen­da, and Mr. McDon­ald sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

4. Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion Design and Con­struc­tion Update

Mr. McClel­lan explained that this is a focus on the North Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion, not the Build­out. Con­struc­tion is begin­ning lat­er in Jan­u­ary, as well as the Bag Room Expan­sion. The Park­ing Lot, Admin Lot, and Cell Phone Lot are also all com­ing up. Today, we are focus­ing on the Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion, which is the approx­i­mate 280 ft exten­sion to the North. It is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for any input from the Board in regard to the direc­tions that the project is head­ing. There will be some areas which will make a state­ment. He turned the pre­sen­ta­tion over to Mr. Rick Mellin with ZHA. 

Mr. Mellin explained the his­to­ry of the Ter­mi­nal being built to han­dle small­er jets and the growth, to what it is today with the large air­lines that are here now.\ We have been award­ed grant mon­ey to help start the three expan­sion projects to help the Air­port meet its cur­rent capac­i­ty needs. Mr. Mellin, along with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from DAG, AVCON and Fitzger­ald Col­lab­o­ra­tive were also here to explain some of the design plans, options and to answer any ques­tions that the Board asked. They shared dif­fer­ent design ideas, with dif­fer­ent options with the Board to expand the Air­port Ter­mi­nal to the north. They dis­cussed dif­fer­ent ways of relo­cat­ing and expand­ing TSA, and what that would mean for the flow of pas­sen­gers. They addressed the bag­gage area, and chal­lenges of mov­ing the esca­la­tor. In mak­ing the design plans, they also made a con­sid­er­a­tion that there will even­tu­al­ly be future expan­sion and the build plans cho­sen should make it eas­i­er to add on to them when that time comes. 

Some of the spe­cial requests from the Board for the new design that were dis­cussed were the incor­po­ra­tion of nat­ur­al light, a space for a focal state­ment piece that can be changed out, a sen­so­ry room for pas­sen­gers with autism, anx­i­ety or PTSD, a ser­vice animal/​pet relief area, a place for chil­dren to be able to play or be enter­tained, an area for busi­ness trav­el­ers to work on their lap­tops, a lounge area that might have 360 degree out­door views, excit­ing art dis­plays that relay a feel of the beach and our sur­round­ing nat­ur­al assets, and non-tra­di­tion­al seat­ing options that are not arranged in the ordi­nary straight rows that will be more com­fort­able and appeal­ing. Also, a seam­less tran­si­tion from the old sec­tions of the air­port into the new sec­tions that would update the appear­ance of the exist­ing spaces. Extra cov­ered walk­ways in the park­ing areas were also request­ed. The Board wants to make sure that the new design will incor­po­rate ele­ments that will make it a mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence for all of the passengers. 

Dif­fer­ent options of roof lines were looked at and the pros and cons of each design. The rental car relo­ca­tion to out­side of the build­ing was dis­cussed as well, along with the safe­ty and con­veyance area where it will be locat­ed. There was a con­ver­sa­tion about mod­i­fy­ing the Loop Road. There was a sug­ges­tion by Mr. McDon­ald about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of con­tin­u­ing the Loop Road on the out­side of the park­ing lot instead of cut­ting thor­ough the park­ing lot. It would involve mov­ing the rental car fuel farm, but it may be con­sid­ered so that it would add even more park­ing and elim­i­nate the prob­lem of pas­sen­gers hav­ing to cross traf­fic with their lug­gage and fam­i­ly. Mr. Mellin said that there is an open Task Order that will deal with the Loop Road plan­ning and that they would take a look at that suggestion. 

Chair Melz­er asked that a plan­ning update be added to each upcom­ing Board Meet­ing to keep them informed of how things are mov­ing along. 

Mr. McClel­lan explained that Mr. Steve Souther­land of Capi­tol Hill Con­sult­ing Group will be assist­ing Mr. McClel­lan with lob­by­ing of not only the Flori­da Del­e­ga­tion but the South­ern Alaba­ma del­e­ga­tions for FAA fund­ing and BIL Fund­ing that will be used for the improve­ment of the Airport. 

Mr. Souther­land said that the FAA and the Flori­da Del­e­ga­tion have all used ECP and knew that there was growth, but were not aware of the extent of that growth. Mr. Souther­land took a con­densed ver­sion of the Mas­ter Plan and shared it with them, along with show­ing a graph of the growth and traf­fic increase for our air­port over the last 10 – 12 years and it gave them a real under­stand­ing of the need for ter­mi­nal expan­sion. We are request­ing a share of that mon­ey, so we are hop­ing that by telling our sto­ry we will not be over­looked for the fund­ing like we were last year. He and Mr. McClel­lan were also able to attend some recep­tions with some air­port asso­ci­a­tions to be able to speak with oth­er airports. 

They were also able to talk to both Sen­a­tors Staff and Con­gress­man Dunn’s Staff about an issue that we have been hav­ing with GSA and TSA. Mr. McClel­lan dis­cussed that pre­vi­ous­ly, GSA-TSA would not sign a lease with the Air­port. After a trip to Wash­ing­ton D.C. with Mr. Souther­land, TSA has now signed a new lease with the Air­port for their leased space and will be pay­ing 2 years back rent to the Airport.

He will con­tin­ue to work with Mr. McClel­lan on lob­by­ing for rev­enue for improve­ments to the Air­port. He feels that the trip was very pro­duc­tive and said that he is thank­ful to be a part of fight­ing for the Coun­ty that he loves and the Air­port that he uses every week. 

Mr. McClel­lan said that the next step will be for Mr. Mellin to go back to the plan­ning team with the com­ments that the Board made so that he can get it to a con­cep­tu­al point as soon as pos­si­ble and Mr. Mellin agreed to update the Board at the next Board Meeting. 

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:55 a.m.

Next meet­ing is sched­uled: Jan­u­ary 25, 2023 – Board Meet­ing 9:00 a.m.

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Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Hol­ly Melz­er, Chair