June 2014 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., June 18, 2014 in the Air­port Board Room by Chair­man Pilcher.

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Ms. Pat­ty Mitchell.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Chair­man Pilcher.

The Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary called the roll and indi­cat­ed that all Board Mem­bers were present except Mr. Till Bruett, Mr. Russ Math­is, and Mr. Chris Forehand.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:

Ms. Dawn Moliter­no was rec­og­nized and pre­sent­ed with a pro­peller in appre­ci­a­tion of her five years of ser­vice to the Air­port Authority.

Approval of Minutes:

The May 28, 2014 Board Meet­ing Min­utes were approved as distributed.

Reports:

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed and reviewed the activ­i­ty report. Ms. Hen­der­son pre­sent­ed and reviewed the finan­cial report.

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Approval to Dis­pose of Sur­plus Property

This item pro­vid­ed for Board autho­riza­tion for the sale of sur­plus inven­to­ry items.

Fol­low­ing Board dis­cus­sion, Mr. Scott made a motion to approve plac­ing the sur­plus items on the Gov­Deals web­site, to be sold to the high­est bid­der. Ms. Moliter­no sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

a. Mas­ter Plan – Final Draft Review

Mr. McClel­lan updat­ed the Board regard­ing the sta­tus of the Mas­ter Plan process and advised that the final draft was being pre­pared to be sub­mit­ted to FAA for review. He fur­ther stat­ed that the Board Mem­bers would also be pro­vid­ed with a copy of the final draft for their review and comment.

This item was for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only and required no Board action.

b. ZHA Task Order – Design for Emer­gency Repairs

This item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of a Task Order with ZHA for the devel­op­ment of project work­sheets, design, and bid doc­u­ment prepa­ra­tion for the repairs asso­ci­at­ed with the April 30, 2014 weath­er event.

As dis­cussed at last month’s meet­ing, the Pan­han­dle of Flori­da was sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact­ed by a weath­er event in April with the air­port receiv­ing between 10 and 16 inch­es of tor­ren­tial rain in a rel­a­tive­ly short peri­od of time.

Staff, along with air­port engi­neers, began an assess­ment of the prop­er­ty to include the facil­i­ty and grounds to deter­mine the exact impact of the storm dam­age. The assess­ment iden­ti­fied approx­i­mate­ly 25 loca­tions where the water caused extreme dam­age or dam­age that was exac­er­bat­ed by the sheer quan­ti­ty of water that was on the airport.

As part of this effort, Bay Coun­ty Emer­gency Man­age­ment coor­di­nat­ed with the State of Flori­da Emer­gency Man­age­ment Divi­sion (FDEM) and the Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (FEMA). Both FDEM and FEMA respond­ed and per­formed an assessment/​inspection of the air­port prop­er­ty and devel­oped a report of the damage.

The State of Flori­da sub­mit­ted a request to FEMA mak­ing dis­as­ter relief funds avail­able to sev­er­al of the coun­ties affect­ed by the storm sys­tem, to include Bay Coun­ty. This would allow the air­port to request grant assis­tance from FEMA for the dam­ages relat­ed to the storm event of April 30, 2014.

As part of the FEMA grant process, project work­sheets must be devel­oped for each project. The project work­sheets must include a project descrip­tion, loca­tion, dam­ages, work to be accom­plished, and any spe­cial issues or con­sid­er­a­tions. The project work­sheets must also include cost esti­mates, sched­ules of rates, improve­ment and alter­na­tive development.

In an effort to ensure the air­port is pre­pared to begin this process in a time­ly mat­ter, staff is request­ing autho­riza­tion to estab­lish a Task Order to ZHA to assist in the devel­op­ment and design of the project work­sheets, as well as devel­op any mit­i­ga­tion efforts nec­es­sary as part of the repair process. Addi­tion­al­ly, ZHA would also assist in the devel­op­ment of sup­port­ing bid doc­u­men­ta­tion as projects will need to be com­pet­i­tive­ly bid to ensure com­pli­ance with fed­er­al regulations.

The Task Order would be for an amount not to exceed $75,000, con­tin­gent upon the receipt of a dec­la­ra­tion and fund­ing from either the State of Flori­da or FEMA. Funds are avail­able in the FY13 bud­get. In addi­tion, the cost for this effort will be par­tial­ly reim­bursed through FEMA.

Fol­low­ing Board dis­cus­sion, Mr. Scott made a motion to approve the Task Order with ZHA for the devel­op­ment of project work­sheets, design, and bid doc­u­ment prepa­ra­tion for the repairs asso­ci­at­ed with the storm dam­age from the April 30, 2014 weath­er event. Ms. Moliter­no sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Reports:

Mr. McClel­lan advised the Board that the air­port had received notice from the Bay Coun­ty Prop­er­ty Appraiser’s office that the airport’s Request for Waiv­er for the pay­ment of ad val­orem tax­es had been approved and ad val­orem tax­es would not be assessed next year against the airport.

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no pub­lic comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The reg­u­lar meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 9:15 a.m. (CST).

Closed Exec­u­tive Session:

Board Mem­bers entered into Closed Exec­u­tive Ses­sion at 9:15 p.m. (CST) to dis­cuss lit­i­ga­tion mat­ters regard­ing KBR, et al, to the extent autho­rized under Flori­da Statute 286.011(8).

Those in atten­dance for the Closed Exec­u­tive Ses­sion were as follows:

• John Pilch­er, Chairman 
• Carey Scott, Board Member
• Dawn Moliter­no, Board Member
• Del Lee, Board Member
• Park­er McClel­lan, Exec­u­tive Director 
• Franklin Har­ri­son, Air­port Attorney
• Nick Ben­i­nate, Air­port Attorney 
• Ross McCloy, Air­port Attorney 
• Court Reporter

The Closed Exec­u­tive Ses­sion end­ed at approx­i­mate­ly 9:35 a.m. (CST), and the reg­u­lar meet­ing was recon­vened at approx­i­mate­ly the same time.

Dis­cus­sion Regard­ing KBR Litigation:

Mr. Franklin Har­ri­son, air­port attor­ney, addressed the Board regard­ing the KBR lit­i­ga­tion mat­ter. He advised that due to the fact that the air­port is enti­tled to a new tri­al in its lit­i­ga­tion against KBR, it is expect­ed that his firm will have a greater respon­si­bil­i­ty in the lit­i­ga­tion process. As a result of this and due to the nature of this work, Mr. Har­ri­son pre­sent­ed a let­ter to the Board request­ing Board approval for mod­i­fied billing rates asso­ci­at­ed with work relat­ed to the KBR lit­i­ga­tion. In the let­ter, it was pro­posed that the hourly billing rates would be as follows:

Part­ners: $350.00 per hour Asso­ciates: $200.00 per hour Para­le­gals: $ 90.00 per hour

As also stat­ed in the let­ter, no oth­er terms of the airport’s engage­ment with Har­ri­son Sale McCloy would change.

Fol­low­ing Board dis­cus­sion, Ms. Moliter­no made a motion to approve the mod­i­fied billing rates for Har­ri­son, Sale McCloy for work relat­ed to the KBR lit­i­ga­tion. Mr. Scott sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Har­ri­son fur­ther advised the Board that as a part of the KBR lit­i­ga­tion, a pro­posed Set­tle­ment, Liq­ui­dat­ing and Release Agree­ment Sec­ond Amend­ment, (Sec­ond Amend­ment) between Phoenix, the Author­i­ty, and James D. Finch as guar­an­tor, would require Board approval. A copy of the Sec­ond Amend­ment was pro­vid­ed to the Board for review and discussion.

As out­lined in the Sec­ond Amend­ment, the pur­pose and intent of the pro­posed amend­ment is as follows:

1. To amend the par­ties’ arrange­ment for pay­ment of attorney’s fees, expens­es, and costs incurred by the Author­i­ty; and
2. To amend the par­ties’ arrange­ment regard­ing the liq­ui­da­tion of the Authority’s lia­bil­i­ty to Phoenix as set forth in para­graph 2(b) of the Agreement.

Fol­low­ing Board dis­cus­sion, Mr. Scott made a motion to approve the Set­tle­ment, Liq­ui­dat­ing and Release Agree­ment Sec­ond Amend­ment between Phoenix, the Author­i­ty, and James D. Finch. Ms. Moliter­no sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 9:40 a.m. (CST).

Pat­ty Mitchell, Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary John Pilch­er, Chairman