July 2020 Meeting Minutes

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MEET­ING MINUTES

PANA­MA CITY – BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

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Open­ing:

The Semi-Vir­tu­al Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., July 29, 2020 by Chair­man Del Lee. Board mem­bers were offered the option of call­ing in via Zoom, or attend­ing the meet­ing in per­son observ­ing the CDC’s rec­om­men­da­tions and Gov­er­nor DeSan­tis’ Exec­u­tive Order. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Ms. Hol­ly Melzer.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Chair­man Lee.

The Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary called the roll and indi­cat­ed all the Board mem­bers were present. Those present in per­son were Chair­man Lee, Vice Chair­man Glen McDon­ald, Mr. James John­son, Ms. Hol­ly Melz­er, May­or Mark Shel­don, and Mr. Will Cramer. Mr. Jay Tusa was present virtually.

The Agen­da was pre­sent­ed to the Board. Mr. John­son made a motion to accept the Agen­da. Ms. Melz­er sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Board Chair­man Lee intro­duced and wel­comed two new Board Mem­bers: May­or Mark Shel­don, appoint­ed by the Pana­ma City Beach City Coun­cil; and Mr. Will Cramer, appoint­ed by the Bay Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers. He also rec­og­nized Mara Clements in the audi­ence, for­mer Board Chair­man Ger­ry Clemons’ grand­daugh­ter, who is intern­ing with Air­port attor­ney Hand Aren­dall Har­ri­son Sale, LLC.

Elec­tion of Officers:

Ms. Melz­er nom­i­nat­ed Vice Chair­man McDon­ald as Chair­man, and Mr. James John­son sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unan­i­mous­ly. Mr. James John­son nom­i­nat­ed Ms. Melz­er as Vice Chair­man, and May­or Shel­don sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unan­i­mous­ly. Mr. Lee passed Chair­man McDon­ald the gav­el, and Chair­man McDon­ald thanked Mr. Lee for his ser­vice as Chair­man, and thanked the Board for all they have done these past years to help weath­er and pre­pare the Air­port for the COVID-19 storm.

Reports:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed and reviewed the Activ­i­ty Reports.

Ms. Dar­lene Nel­son pre­sent­ed and reviewed the Finan­cial Reports.

Con­sent Agenda:

1. Board Meet­ing Min­utes – June 24, 2020

This item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of the June 24, 2020 Board Meet­ing Minutes. 

1. Accept FAA Grant Offer – 3−12−0159−017−2020 – Air­craft Res­cue and Fire Fight­ing Vehicle 

This item pro­vid­ed for Board accep­tance of a FAA Grant Offer for acqui­si­tion of a 1,500-gallon, Class 4, Air­craft Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing (ARFF) vehi­cle to be used in sup­port of oper­a­tions at the North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport.

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This FAA Grant Offer rep­re­sents one of the Airport’s FY20 requests for grant funds under the FAA Air­port Improve­ment Program.

Under Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion Air­port Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Reg­u­la­tions, the Air­port is required to main­tain an estab­lished lev­el of air­craft fire­fight­ing capa­bil­i­ties based on the size and num­ber of dai­ly oper­a­tions for com­mer­cial air­craft oper­at­ing at the Air­port. Up until the Sum­mer of 2019, the Air­port oper­at­ed as an ARFF Index B air­port. Sub­stan­tial growth and change in air­craft fleet mix have ele­vat­ed the Air­port to an ARFF Index C, thus requir­ing addi­tion­al require­ments and equip­ment to meet FAA Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion stan­dards. The Grant will be used for the acqui­si­tion of a sec­ond required 1,500-gallon ARFF vehi­cle in sup­port of Index C air­port oper­a­tions. This will allow for con­tin­ued growth and allow the Air­port to accom­mo­date a greater vari­ety of com­mer­cial aircraft.

Suf­fi­cient funds will be pro­vid­ed in the Airport’s pro­posed FY21 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get. Total pur­chase cost is $716,400. Cost is reim­bursable under this FAA Grant at 100 per­cent for eli­gi­ble items. It should be not­ed this FAA Grant would nor­mal­ly be a ⁹⁰⁄₁₀ per­cent grant with FAA par­tic­i­pa­tion at 90%, but as a result of the pan­dem­ic and the CARES Act, this FAA Grant is for 100%.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed accep­tance of the FAA Grant Offer for the Air­craft Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing (ARFF) vehicle.

1. Accept FAA Grant Offer – 3−12−0159−016−2020 – Mit­i­ga­tion Site Development 

This item pro­vid­ed for Board accep­tance of an FAA Grant for use of Enti­tle­ment Funds that pro­vides fund­ing for Envi­ron­men­tal Mit­i­ga­tion con­struc­tion efforts on the approx­i­mate­ly 9,600 acres south of the Air­port. This is an ongo­ing part­ner­ship between the FAA and the Air­port to con­tin­ue mit­i­ga­tion efforts.

This FAA Grant Offer rep­re­sents one of the Airport’s FY20 requests for enti­tle­ment funds under the FAA Air­port Improve­ment Program. 

Mit­i­ga­tion Site Devel­op­ment (Phase 4 of 8)

• • Ongo­ing project to improve the mit­i­ga­tion property
  • Includes tasks iden­ti­fied as con­struc­tion projects includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to con­struct low water cross­ing, replant­i­ng, and burning.

Suf­fi­cient funds are pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s pro­posed FY21 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get. The total cost of con­struc­tion phase of the project is $143,675 and is reim­bursable under this FAA Grant at a 100 per­cent for eli­gi­ble items. It should be not­ed this FAA Grant would nor­mal­ly be a ⁹⁰⁄₁₀ per­cent grant with FAA par­tic­i­pa­tion at 90%, but as a result of the pan­dem­ic and the CARES Act, this FAA Grant is for 100%.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed accep­tance of the FAA Grant Offer for Envi­ron­men­tal Mit­i­ga­tion Site Devel­op­ment as out­lined above.

1. Approve Run­way Rub­ber Removal 

This item pro­vid­ed for Board approval for the pur­chase of air­field run­way rub­ber removal ser­vices for the Air­port from Hi-Lite Air­field Ser­vices, LLC.

Work must be per­formed peri­od­i­cal­ly to remove accu­mu­lat­ed rub­ber deposits that have built up on run­way ser­vices over time. Accu­mu­lat­ed rub­ber on run­way sur­faces reduces the fric­tion coef­fi­cient of the run­way caus­ing the run­way sur­face to become slick and slip­pery when wet thus reduc­ing the effec­tive­ness of air­craft brak­ing. The rub­ber deposits also fill the grooves in the run­way sur­face reduc­ing the run­way drain­ing effec­tive­ness dur­ing rainy inclement weath­er conditions.

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Approval of this item will pro­vide for the pur­chase of State of Flori­da Con­tract Ser­vices to remove rub­ber buildup on run­way sur­faces to com­ply with Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion pave­ment main­te­nance requirements.

This is a bud­get­ed main­te­nance item in the Airport’s oper­at­ing bud­get. This ser­vice is offered under a State of Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (FDOT) con­tract for air­field rub­ber removal and paint­ing services. 

Staff rec­om­mend­ed Board approval of the pur­chase of air­field rub­ber removal ser­vices from Hi-Lite Air­field Ser­vices, LLC in amount not to exceed $26,676.00.

1. Can­cel Fer­til­iz­er Bid – Altha Agronomy

This item pro­vid­ed for Board approval to can­cel pur­chase and appli­ca­tion of fer­til­iz­er and lime for approx­i­mate­ly 500 acres of Air­port property.

Dur­ing the Feb­ru­ary 26, 2020 meet­ing, the Board approved a bid to pro­vide and apply bulk fer­til­iz­er and dolomite lime to air­port grounds in sup­port of the Airport’s Turf Man­age­ment Plan. Since that time the Air­port, as is the case world­wide, has been neg­a­tive­ly impact­ed by effects of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. In an effort to reduce costs as a result of the loss of rev­enues, the Air­port informed Altha Agron­o­my that it may be nec­es­sary to post­pone or can­cel the Spring Fer­til­iza­tion bid for 2020 as an eco­nom­ic result of COVID-19.

Based on soil test­ing, it was deter­mined we could not apply the Spring Appli­ca­tion and focus on Spring of 2021. The fer­til­iz­er and lime pro­vide the nec­es­sary nutri­ents and sup­ple­men­tal fer­til­iz­er to the turf sur­faces on the Airport.

The Spring Fer­til­iza­tion appli­ca­tion is pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s FY20 Air­port Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Bud­get. As a result of can­celling the 2020 appli­ca­tion, an expense reduc­tion to the Air­port Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get will be real­ized in an amount of $27,720.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed Board approval to can­cel the pur­chase from Altha Agron­o­my for the Spring Fer­til­iza­tion appli­ca­tion in amount of $27,720.

1. Can­cel Bid-Part Door Bid – Gulf States Door

This item pro­vid­ed for Board approval to can­cel pur­chase of the removal and replace­ment of two (2) doors and the fur­nish­ing and instal­la­tion of two (2) new, bi-part slid­ing auto­mat­ic doors. 

Dur­ing the March 25, 2020 meet­ing, the Board approved a bid to remove and install two bi-part 

slid­ing auto­mat­ic doors for the ter­mi­nal build­ing. Since that time the Air­port, as is the case world­wide, has been neg­a­tive­ly impact­ed by effects of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. As a result, the Air­port informed Gulf States Door that it may be nec­es­sary to post­pone or can­cel the door replace­ment bid as an eco­nom­ic result of COVID-19. 

In sup­port of the Airport’s efforts to be finan­cial­ly respon­si­ble dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic it has been deter­mined pru­dent to can­cel this project at this time. 

The door replace­ment project is pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s FY-20 Air­port Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Bud­get. As a result of can­celling the project, an expense reduc­tion to the Air­port Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get will be real­ized in an amount of $56,600.

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Staff rec­om­mend­ed Board approval to can­cel the pur­chase from Gulf States Door for the acqui­si­tion and instal­la­tion of two (2) bi-part slid­ing auto­mat­ic doors per spec­i­fi­ca­tion, in amount of $56,600 to include the 

base amount of $46,000 plus the Hur­ri­cane-Rat­ed add option of $10,600.

Vice Chair­man Melz­er made a motion to accept the Con­sent Agen­da, and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

• COVID-19 Update

• COVID-19 Finan­cial Update 

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board and illus­trat­ed with a bar graph the pas­sen­ger counts of last year vs. this year. Mr. McClel­lan invit­ed Ms. Dar­lene Nel­son to assist him in pre­sent­ing to the Board a finan­cial fore­cast update show­ing graph­ic illus­tra­tions com­par­ing the Approved FY20 Bud­get, pro­ject­ed growth rate, cur­rent pro­jec­tions, and actu­al rev­enues and expenses. 

Ms. Nel­son report­ed begin­ning in March rev­enues were down, but since then have been trend­ing upward, and rev­enues are doing bet­ter than expect­ed. She report­ed that we revise the month­ly pro­jec­tions for rev­enues and expens­es after each month is completed. 

Ms. Nel­son report­ed that we con­tin­ue to hold our expens­es down and under what we orig­i­nal­ly projected. 

Ms. Nel­son report­ed that in April we lost $221,000, in May we had a prof­it of $128,000, and in June rev­enues exceed­ed expens­es by $536,000.

(ii) COVID-19 Airline Car­ri­er Pro­gram

Mr. McClel­lan report­ed that the Air­line Relief Pro­gram con­tin­ues to move for­ward as planned; we have begun receiv­ing pay­ments as of July 1, all the air­lines are mak­ing their pay­ments, and every­thing should be paid up from them by the end of the fis­cal year. 

(iii) COVID-19 Rental Car Relief Pro­gram

Mr. McClel­lan informed the Board that the Rental Car Relief Pro­gram is sta­tus quo. He report­ed that the Rental Car com­pa­ny rev­enue to the Air­port is down 38%, and that close­ly cor­re­lates with the pas­sen­ger counts. 

Items (i), (ii), and (iii) were for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only and required no for­mal Board action. 

(iv) COVID-19 Con­ces­sion Relief Pro­gram

This item pro­vid­ed an update on the impacts of the COVID-19 Pan­dem­ic on the Con­ces­sion Pro­gram includ­ing the restau­rant, news/​gift shop, park­ing, adver­tis­ing and ground transportation.

The sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tion in pas­sen­ger traf­fic has had a sub­stan­tial adverse impact on our con­ces­sions. The busi­ness mod­el uti­lized by the con­ces­sions is pas­sen­ger based.

In mid-March the Airport’s pas­sen­ger traf­fic began drop­ping, result­ing in a sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tion in the num­ber of pas­sen­gers uti­liz­ing the Air­port. In April the pas­sen­ger traf­fic was down 95%, in May 72%, in June 43% and ear­ly esti­mates indi­cate a decrease of 25 – 30% for July and 35 – 50% in August and Sep­tem­ber. These reduc­tions have led to a sig­nif­i­cant loss in rev­enue for the con­ces­sions and as a result, they have approached the Air­port for finan­cial relief.

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As a result of the sub­stan­tial adverse effect of the COVID-19 Pan­dem­ic, Staff has imple­ment­ed or pro­pose the imple­men­ta­tion of the fol­low­ing actions;

Ground Trans­porta­tion: The reduc­tion of the fees for the Queue Con­tracts from $135 per month to $20 per month for the months of April, May, June, July, August and Sep­tem­ber. The esti­mat­ed finan­cial impact is $33,000.

Pas­sen­ger Park­ing: Mr. McClel­lan informed the Board that the num­ber of cars park­ing in the lots is down over 70% each month because our locals are not feel­ing con­fi­dent to fly yet. This week­end the Air­port is film­ing a com­mer­cial to air in August show­ing what the Air­port is doing to make it safe for pas­sen­gers to fly (spray­ing all pub­lic areas with dis­in­fec­tant each day).

Restau­rant (Food and Bev­er­age) Con­ces­sion: Waive the Min­i­mum Annu­al Guar­an­tee (MAG) for the months of April, May, June, July, August and Sep­tem­ber. The con­ces­sion­aire would con­tin­ue to pay 12% of gross rev­enues. The max­i­mum esti­mat­ed finan­cial impact is $29,100.

Gift Shop (News and Sun­dries) Con­ces­sion: Waive the Min­i­mum Annu­al Guar­an­tee (MAG) for the months of April, May, June, July, August and Sep­tem­ber. The con­ces­sion­aire would con­tin­ue to pay 12% of gross rev­enues. The max­i­mum esti­mat­ed finan­cial impact is $16,500.

Adver­tis­ing Con­ces­sion: Waive the Min­i­mum Annu­al Guar­an­tee (MAG) for the months of April, May, June, July, August and Sep­tem­ber. The con­ces­sion­aire would con­tin­ue to pay 30% of gross sales. The max­i­mum esti­mat­ed finan­cial impact is $18,750.

It should be not­ed that the rec­om­men­da­tions above were pre­vi­ous­ly approved for April, May, June and July and this item adds August and Sep­tem­ber. The con­sol­i­da­tion allows for bet­ter track­ing of the con­tin­ued impacts of COVID-19.

The max­i­mum con­sol­i­dat­ed bud­get impact for the months of April, May, June, July, August and Sep­tem­ber is esti­mat­ed to be $80,475.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed approval of the con­tin­ued relief efforts to the con­ces­sions as presented.

May­or Shel­don made a motion to approve the con­tin­ued relief efforts to the con­ces­sions, and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

• Tri­umph Appli­ca­tion – Project Gator (infor­ma­tion only)

Mr. McClel­lan report­ed that the Air­port applied for a Tri­umph appli­ca­tion for Project Gator, a total amount of fund­ing being $6,144,000. He said the Project will have a two-bay nar­row body hangar, and invit­ed Gar­rett Wright from Bay EDA to give a sta­tus on the finan­cial ​“teas­er.” Mr. Wright informed the Board that Space Flori­da ​“has the finan­cial ​“teas­er out on the streets.” He said it has been sent out to Space Flori­da part­ners, as well as local finan­cial insti­tu­tions, to find out who would be inter­est­ed in financ­ing the Project. Mr. Wright said the non-bind­ing terms are expect­ed to be sub­mit­ted by the end of this month, and then sent to the com­pa­ny to review. 

Mr. McClel­lan added that Bay EDA Pres­i­dent Bec­ca Hard­en, Mr. Wright, and he will be in a Zoom Meet­ing with the Tri­umph Board on August 13 with Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ing the Project to the Tri­umph Board, answer­ing any of their ques­tions, and the Tri­umph Board could then agree to move for­ward with the devel­op­ment of a term-sheet (the offi­cial approval of the Project) in the next six weeks fol­low­ing the Meet­ing. Chair­man McDon­ald asked how much fund­ing the ECP Air­port Author­i­ty would be respon­si­ble for, and Mr. McClel­lan answered $2.6M.

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• Review Air­port Board Guidelines 

• Annu­al Review of Guidelines

Mr. McClel­lan informed the Board that the Board Oper­at­ing Pro­ce­dures (referred to inter­nal­ly as ​“Guide­lines”) are reviewed each year, and were for­mer­ly called ​“By Laws.” 

Fol­low­ing Board dis­cus­sion, there were no changes to the Board Oper­at­ing Pro­ce­dures, there­fore this item was for infor­ma­tion­al pur­posed only and required no for­mal action by the Board. 

• Sunshine/​Ethics Update (infor­ma­tion only)

Mr. McClel­lan asked Air­port Attor­ney Nick Ben­i­nate to address the Board. Attor­ney Ben­i­nate report­ed no changes in the Flori­da Sun­shine Law (pub­lic meet­ings law) since last year, and so pro­vid­ed a brief overview of the rules which includ­ed the fol­low­ing: notice must be giv­en to the pub­lic regard­ing Board Meet­ings, it must be open to the pub­lic, min­utes must be tak­en, and only at the Meet­ing can Board mem­bers dis­cuss Air­port issues with each other. 

He added that pub­lic records (almost all the doc­u­ments received by Board mem­bers, includ­ing text mes­sages, emails, Face­book posts, etc.) need to be saved and acces­si­ble in case some­one requests them. He sug­gest­ed the Board mem­bers not use texts, but instead use emails, let­ters, oth­er ways to keep orga­nized and keep them in one file or leave at the Air­port with Air­port Staff. 

He explained ​“con­flicts of inter­est,” and made it clear that Board mem­bers or their pri­vate com­pa­ny can­not do any busi­ness with the Air­port; or, do busi­ness with a com­pa­ny doing busi­ness with the Airport. 

He con­clud­ed by explain­ing ​“gifts,” and explained that Board mem­bers can nev­er ask for any­thing, even if it is a drink at a restau­rant, but that it is accept­able if some­one walks up to them telling them they want to buy them a cheese­burg­er, for exam­ple, but they can­not accept any­thing over $100 from Air­port con­trac­tors, ven­dors, lob­by­ists, etc. If a non-con­trac­tor, or non-lob­by­ist, friend, neigh­bor, etc. wants to give a Board mem­ber a gift over $100, it must be dis­closed to the State unless the gift is from a relative. 

• Approve ZHA Task Order – Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment and 

NEPA Sec­tion 404 Per­mit for Pro­posed Flori­da Army Nation­al Guard Parcel

This item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of a Task Order to ZHA as the airport’s con­tin­u­ing engi­neer­ing con­sul­tant to com­plete the Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment (EA) and the Nation­al Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­cy Act (NEPA) and Clean Water Act — Sec­tion 404 Per­mit Mod­i­fi­ca­tions for the Flori­da Army Nation­al Guard. 

The ini­tial Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment (EA) and 404 Per­mit for the Air­port (Phase 1) includ­ed approx­i­mate­ly 1,200 acres and is the area that includes the run­way sys­tem, ter­mi­nal and sup­port facil­i­ties, hangar facil­i­ties and the future cross­wind runway. 

The Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) and the Unit­ed States Corp of Engi­neers (USACE) are the two par­tic­i­pat­ing agen­cies involved with the EA and 404 Per­mit Mod­i­fi­ca­tions when poten­tial projects and uses are defined. The pro­posed Armory is locat­ed out­side Phase 1 and there­fore requires an EA and 404 Per­mit Modification. 

Based on new leg­is­la­tion passed in 2018, the FAA may deter­mine, based on loca­tion and the pro­posed use of the land, that the EA and 404 Per­mit Mod­i­fi­ca­tion could be han­dled by the USACE. The Air­port has made the ini­tial request for con­cur­rence that the Armory par­cel meets the cri­te­ria for exemp­tion under the 

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leg­is­la­tion. The FAA has ver­bal­ly con­curred with this request and writ­ten con­cur­rence is expect­ed in the near future. 

The Staff, Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant, Envi­ron­men­tal Con­sul­tant and the USACE have met to devel­op the scope for the EA and have devel­oped an expe­di­tious method to com­plete the EA in a time­ly man­ner. The Task Order fur­ther defines the scope and impacts of the EA.

The over­all bud­get impact of this Task Order is $128,500 and Reserve Funds will be uti­lized to com­plete this Task Order. The funds will be reim­bursed to the Air­port with the sale of the Lisen­by (old Armory) parcel.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed Board approval of the Task Order to ZHA for the Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment and 404 Per­mit for Flori­da Army Nation­al Guard Par­cel (an approx­i­mate­ly $25 – 35M project with ten build­ings near the Air­port Entrance) at ECP with fund­ing from Reserves and reim­burse­ment upon the sale of the old Armory.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to approve the ZHA Task Order, and May­or Shel­don sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Con­struc­tion Update (infor­ma­tion only):

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board begin­ning with an update on the Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion Project. He informed the Board that there would be a rib­bon-cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny after the Board Meet­ing. He report­ed the build­ing is rough­ly 99.9% com­plete with only a few wires miss­ing to com­plete the Project, and it is antic­i­pat­ed to open next week. 

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board with an update on the Tran­sient Apron and Taxi­way E1 Project. He report­ed a com­ple­tion date on the Taxi­way E1 Project to be in two to three weeks and that a notum would go out to all pilots with taxi­way re-des­ig­na­tions as they occur. He report­ed that 14 inch­es of con­crete will be added to the top of the 300’ x 600’ Tran­sient Apron pavement.

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board show­ing a pho­to of the four lanes being con­struct­ed going west on the new S.R. 388 and report­ed that when the con­struc­tion of the Entrance Round­about does hap­pen, for approx­i­mate­ly a year to 1 ½ years, vehi­cles plan­ning on turn­ing east from the Air­port will need to turn west instead, and cross over to come back east – a great incon­ve­nience. He added that approx­i­mate­ly four feet of the cur­rent sub­strate will be removed on either side of the Entrance to con­struct the Round­about, and that will increase the cur­rent ele­va­tion of the Entrance. He said the fin­ished Round­about will be at the ele­va­tion lev­el of West Bay Pkwy (before the cur­rent dip in the road where the Entrance ter­mi­nates at the cur­rent S.R. 388) – and that change in ele­va­tion should pre­vent the flood­ing at the Entrance seen in past years dur­ing heavy rains.

The Bay EDA Update:

Bay EDA Pres­i­dent Bec­ca Hardin addressed the Board via phone and report­ed Project Gator is mov­ing along in a pos­i­tive way, and thanks to the Air­port Author­i­ty shar­ing Bay EDA’s vision of the Tran­sient Apron and Taxi­way E1 as a vital project with strate­gic direc­tion for the Air­port, Project Gator will be in a posi­tion to pro­vide 96 jobs with a cap­i­tal invest­ment of approx­i­mate­ly $26.5 M and will real­ly pave the way for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment efforts by cre­at­ing an infra­struc­ture for long-term devel­op­ment. She report­ed that after the Tri­umph Board approves Project Gator, a for­mal announce­ment can be made in the Fall as to the name of the company. 

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Ms. Hardin report­ed that Project Pur­ple is also mov­ing for­ward, an avi­a­tion-relat­ed com­pa­ny with a large mil­i­tary con­tract look­ing at Ven­ture Cross­ings, and that it, and Project Gator, were able to get cer­ti­fied for the Qual­i­fied Tar­get Indus­try Tax Refund Pro­gram (QTI) tax cred­it with the State of Florida.

Ms. Hardin report­ed on Project Venus, the Euro­pean MRO (Main­te­nance, Repair, and Over­haul) com­pa­ny that she and Mr. McClel­lan vis­it­ed late last year. She said they are mov­ing for­ward with this project, but because they can­not trav­el here, and we can­not trav­el there, they want to pause the project until the end of September. 

Ms. Hardin con­clud­ed by report­ing they sub­mit­ted a pro­pos­al to anoth­er avi­a­tion-relat­ed MRO company, 

Project Domi­no, that would pro­vide 400 jobs with a $500M cap­i­tal invest­ment, and that it is on a fast track so they should have more infor­ma­tion on the pro­pos­al in the next week or two. 

The Moore Agency Update:

Ms. Katie Spill­man of The Moore Agency addressed the Board in per­son and report­ed on their June mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing activ­i­ty. Ms. Spill­man report­ed that they are see­ing promis­ing signs that inter­est in trav­el is start­ing to increase as seen in our web­site traf­fic results and our paid and non-paid online traf­fic. Ms. Spill­man report­ed that dig­i­tal traf­fic has almost returned to the num­bers we saw in ear­ly March, and Paid Search traf­fic is see­ing improve­ments in cost efficiency.

Ms. Spill­man report­ed that just as pas­sen­ger counts are increas­ing, in June there was increased inter­est in trav­el as seen with 631 air­line web­site click con­ver­sions and 200 assist­ed con­ver­sions as a result of our cam­paign; 2,946 Escape page views; 18,362 new web­site vis­i­tors; 32,769 total web­site ses­sions; 876,822 earned media impres­sions; and 27.7% or 2,233 of our sub­scribers opened the newslet­ter (the high­est num­ber to date), with 3,591 total opens sug­gest­ing repeat opens and shares. She said web­site traf­fic was up 33.9%, organ­ic search up 31% month over month (MoM), and paid search was up 33% MoM.

Ms. Spill­man report­ed Mr. McClel­lan was inter­viewed for an upcom­ing issue of 850 The Busi­ness Mag­a­zine of North­west Flori­da, and the Fall issue will fea­ture a sec­tion sur­round­ing ECP’s 10^th anniver­sary, recent facil­i­ty improve­ments, and uncov­er what is on the hori­zon for the air­port, includ­ing mov­ing through COVID-19 safely. 

Ms. Spill­man report­ed over 179K views since our launch in May of our ECP brand­ed ani­mat­ed GIFs and stick­ers, the fun and engag­ing way for our users to share more about their expe­ri­ence at the Airport.

Ms. Spill­man report­ed her team is prepar­ing to pro­duce the new ECP Ready cam­paign, to include a TV com­mer­cial and inte­grat­ed assets and graph­ics for print and social media that will pro­vide the cus­tomer with a cohe­sive cam­paign jour­ney through the end of the fis­cal year and beyond.

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board and report­ed that the Mas­ter Plan Update Work­ing Paper #3 was post­ed to our web­site and that CHA’s Paul Puck­li will prob­a­bly report next Board Meet­ing via Zoom on the progress and the results of the PAC (Pub­lic Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee) Zoom meet­ing sched­uled for mid-August. 

Mr. McClel­lan report­ed that we would still like to do a ​“Thank You to Air­port Staff” at the end of the sum­mer, but we are review­ing how we could do that and still have social dis­tanc­ing and every­thing that goes along with that. 

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Pub­lic Comments:

Dr. David Art­man and Mr. Harold Park­er addressed the Board request­ing the Board approve a ten-year lease agree­ment based on con­tin­u­ing the terms of the exist­ing Hangar agree­ment, not the three-year phase in to the cur­rent mar­ket price approved by the Board in May 2020. Mr. Art­man stat­ed that when the orig­i­nal Pana­ma City Air­port (PFN) closed, 22 pri­vate T‑hangars were told they would not be per­mit­ted to move their hangars to ECP, and a ten-year agree­ment that afford­ed cred­it toward hangar rent at the new 

air­port (ECP) was exe­cut­ed, they turned over their titles, and their hangars at PFN were sold for scrap met­al. Mr. Art­man said that with­in months after open­ing the new air­port, six T‑hangars from PFN were per­mit­ted to be moved/​erected at ECP on land leas­es and retain the equi­ty in their hangars, in con­trast to what he saw as sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial loss­es to him­self and the indi­vid­u­als with the ten-year agree­ments, eight of which remain at ECP. 

Dr. Art­man con­ced­ed that he has heard such com­ments as ​“why did you sign the 10-year Agree­ment 10 

years ago”; ​“why didn’t you com­plain when the oth­er hangars were erect­ed”; ​“why didn’t you attend the Board Meet­ing when you knew the Agree­ment was end­ing”; ​“you bought a hangar know­ing the new Air­port was com­ing” (he said he bought a portable one that he thought he would be able to move); etc., and he said that he wished he knew about the Board Meet­ing, he wished he was able to move his hangar here, what hap­pened was wrong but not inten­tion­al, and he asked the Board to rec­ti­fy it by con­tin­u­ing the cur­rent 10-year terms for anoth­er 10 years. 

Chair­man McDon­ald informed the two gen­tle­men – and there was no dis­agree­ment by the oth­er Board Mem­bers present (Mr. Tusa had dropped from the Zoom meet­ing dur­ing Dr. Artman’s pre­sen­ta­tion) – that the deci­sions approved by the Board in Feb­ru­ary 2010, and in May 2020, would not be over­turned and no action would be tak­en. Mr. Art­man asked for clar­i­fi­ca­tion, and Chair­man McDon­ald reit­er­at­ed that the Board deci­sion from May 2020 – a three-year phase-in to bring the 2010 Hangar Ten­ants’ rental rate up to the cur­rent mar­ket rental rate would stand, and con­tin­u­ing the cur­rent terms for anoth­er ten years would not be considered.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:11 a.m.

________________________________ ________________________________

Kathy Gilmore, Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary Glen McDon­ald, Chairman