June 2023 Meeting Minutes

MEET­ING MINUTES

PANA­MA CITY – BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

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Open­ing:

The Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., June 21, 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. Matt Algar­in, Mr. Les McFat­ter, Mr. Glen McDon­ald, Mr. Will Cramer, 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 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 Agenda.

Mr. Matt Algar­in asked that Agen­da Item 7.b. Dis­cus­sion – Air­port Mar­ket­ing and Pub­lic Rela­tions be moved to the end of the meet­ing. Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams made a motion to move the Item and accept the Agen­da with this change, and Mr. Will Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Pre­sen­ta­tion – Employ­ee Recognition:

Police Chief John Van Etten

Mr. McClel­lan thanked Air­port Police Chief Van Etten for his 10 years of ser­vice with the Air­port and announced his retire­ment. He has been in law enforce­ment since 1984. He plans to move to Geor­gia to spend time with fam­i­ly. Chief Van Etten thanked every­one and said that Deputy Chief Jim Wheat­ley will be tak­ing his place when he leaves.

Fire Chief Jer­ry Swearingen

Mr. McClel­lan also thanked Air­port Fire Chief Jer­ry Swearin­gen for his 20 years of ser­vice at ECP, and at the Pana­ma City Bay Coun­ty Air­port. He has accept­ed a posi­tion as Deputy Chief at the City of Spring­field Fire Department. 

Reports:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. The oper­a­tion num­bers are down approx­i­mate­ly 6%, but Mr. McClel­lan explained that the planes are big­ger than last year and equipped with more seats to hold more pas­sen­gers. Con­se­quent­ly, total pas­sen­ger num­bers were up in May, at 3.4%. The Air­port con­tin­ues to main­tain its mar­ket share across the Region at 23%. The Region con­tin­ues to grow steadi­ly, and num­bers should increase as the busy sum­mer sea­son is under­way and peo­ple vis­it our beau­ti­ful beaches. 

Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don pre­sent­ed the Finan­cial Reports for the first 8 months of the Fis­cal Year end­ing May 31, 2023. In the month of May, total cash increased $217,000 over April. Com­pared to last year, cash increased $6.2 mil­lion for a total bal­ance of $40.4 mil­lion. Of that num­ber, unre­strict­ed cash is $28.4 mil­lion and restrict­ed cash is $12 mil­lion. In May of 2023, total lia­bil­i­ties increased $639,00. Excess rev­enues over expen­di­tures to date are $11.6 mil­lion. Oper­at­ing Rev­enues account for $6.2 mil­lion with Non-Oper­at­ing Rev­enues mak­ing up the remain­ing $5.4 mil­lion. Oper­at­ing Rev­enues to date are 112% of bud­get. Ground Trans­porta­tion Fees are exceed­ing bud­get by $228,000, which is 588% over bud­get, with no expec­ta­tions of slow­ing down. Year to date, $147,000 has been col­lect­ed from Turo, Inc. Per­son­nel is at 90% of bud­get. There are cur­rent­ly 8 posi­tions open that we are try­ing to fill. While most accounts are with­in bud­get Elec­tric­i­ty is over bud­get, and we are under bud­get in Com­put­er Ser­vices and Park­ing Lot Man­age­ment. Depart­men­tal Bud­get Meet­ings will begin this after­noon in prepa­ra­tion for the Sep­tem­ber Bud­get Meeting. 

Ms. Gor­don attend­ed the Pub­lic Risk Man­age­ment (PRM) Board Meet­ing last week. She explained how the insur­ance pool works. Health insur­ance rates will increase by 8.75% begin­ning in Octo­ber, as well as an esti­mat­ed 30% increase in Prop­er­ty & Casu­al­ty Insur­ance. Ms. Gor­don will be work­ing with Legal Coun­sel on an Invest­ment Pol­i­cy that will be brought before the Board at a lat­er meeting. 

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Board Meet­ing Min­utes – May 24, 2023

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of the May 24, 2023 Board Meet­ing Minutes.

b. Adopt Res­o­lu­tion for Use of Bay Coun­ty Web­site for Offi­cial Posting

This Res­o­lu­tion is to allow the use of the Bay Coun­ty Pub­lic Notice Web­site for pub­lish­ing of legal notices and advertisements.

Recent changes in Sec­tion 50.0311 of the Flori­da Stat­ues allow for pub­lic agen­cies to uti­lize a pub­licly acces­si­ble web­site host­ed by coun­ties as an alter­na­tive means of pub­lish­ing notices and adver­tise­ments oth­er­wise required to be pub­lished in news­pa­pers of gen­er­al circulation.

Fol­low­ing a review by Staff and Legal Coun­sel, it was deter­mined and rec­om­mend­ed that the Air­port uti­lize the Bay Coun­ty Pub­lic Notice Web­site. The Air­port will uti­lize both the Air­port web­site as well as the Bay Coun­ty Pub­lic Notice Web­site for the posting/​publishing of legal notices and advertisements.

There are some addi­tion­al admin­is­tra­tive require­ments as a result of uti­liz­ing Bay County’s Pub­lic Notice Web­site. There are also nom­i­nal finan­cial sav­ings as a result of uti­liz­ing the Bay Coun­ty Site for adver­tise­ment and legal notices.

Staff rec­om­mends the adop­tion of a Res­o­lu­tion to uti­lize the Bay Coun­ty Pub­lic Notice Web­site as a means of pub­lish­ing legal notices and advertisements.

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. Approval of Pur­chas­ing Policy

Mr. McClel­lan explained that, work­ing with Legal Coun­sel, a new more robust and clear Pur­chas­ing Pol­i­cy was cre­at­ed. Mr. McClel­lan said that the new pol­i­cy will be imple­ment­ed as quick­ly as possible.

This item pro­vides for Board approval of the rewrite of the Air­port Pur­chas­ing Policy 

The Air­port Pur­chas­ing Pol­i­cy rewrite/​refresh was under­tak­en by Legal Coun­sel and the Staff to ensure the Pur­chas­ing Pol­i­cy uti­lized the most cur­rent pro­cure­ment means and meth­ods. Staff and Legal Coun­sel spent numer­ous hours defin­ing what worked the best and what items need to be addressed for more clar­i­ty. There was exten­sive dis­cus­sion about the pros and cons of dif­fer­ent types of pro­cure­ments and the ben­e­fits to the Airport.

The Pur­chas­ing Pol­i­cy incor­po­rates the pur­chas­ing require­ments of local, state and fed­er­al pur­chas­ing pro­ce­dures as well as address­ing ven­dor poli­cies, defin­ing meth­ods of pro­cure­ment, bid protest procedures 

Staff rec­om­mends the Board approval of the rewrit­ten Pur­chas­ing Pol­i­cy fol­low­ing sat­is­fac­to­ry legal review. Mr. McClel­lan added that there was a new posi­tion of Pur­chas­ing Man­ag­er, and inter­views were going well

Mr. Will Cramer made a motion to Approve the Pur­chas­ing Pol­i­cy, and Mr. Glen McDon­ald sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Con­struc­tion Update (infor­ma­tion only):

a. Air­port Entrance Round­about and State Road (SR) 388 Realignment

Mr. Richard McConnell gave the con­struc­tion update. The Round­about Project is in the final stages. The cur­rent work being done does not nec­es­sar­i­ly impact the Air­port. The State is cur­rent­ly com­plet­ing the south­ern­most lane, touch­ing up the land­scap­ing, and will be open­ing up the remain­ing lanes of traf­fic very soon.

b. Park­ing Lot Expansion

The weath­er has delayed the Over­flow Park­ing Project some­what; how­ev­er, they are com­plet­ing the con­crete, curb & gut­ter, and side­walks. Asphalt is expect­ed to begin with­in the next 2 weeks. The light poles are being man­u­fac­tured. The light fix­tures and Point of Sale (POS) Equip­ment has arrived and is being con­fig­ured. Work on the Employ­ee Lot and Long-Term Expan­sion will fol­low. The over­all com­ple­tion date is around August 23, 2023. The Over­flow Lot will be opened before work begins on the Long-Term and Employ­ee Lots. 

c. Ter­mi­nal Buildout

The Ter­mi­nal Build­out is on sched­ule at this time.

d. Bag Make­up Expansion

This project is in the begin­ning phase. Sew­er, stormwa­ter and fix­tures are all onsite. The site has been dug out, sta­bi­lized and is being grad­ed. Elec­tri­cal work has begun inside the build­ing in prepa­ra­tion to tie to the new addi­tion when the time comes. The final lay­out of the equip­ment has been final­ized and will be man­u­fac­tured soon. It is antic­i­pat­ed that the Project will be com­plet­ed dur­ing the sea­son down-time. 

e. South­ern Sky Aviation

The steel struc­ture for the front of the hangar is onsite and is being raised today. There has been one slab poured and one framed out for the oth­er hangars. The Exec­u­tive Ter­mi­nal is com­ing along well, and there are cur­rent­ly no delays. Com­ple­tion is expect­ed by April 2024.

f. Sheltair

The slab is com­plete for the new hangar. The next step will be to tie the slab into the exist­ing ramp. The steel is onsite and avail­able for the build. 

Plan­ning Update (infor­ma­tion only):

a. North Ter­mi­nal Expansion:

North Ter­mi­nal Design – Mr. Rick Mellin was unable to attend, but a writ­ten update of the North Ter­mi­nal Project was pro­vid­ed to the Board.

Bay EDA Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Mr. McClel­lan gave the Bay EDA update. Ms. Bec­ca Hardin and Mr. Ben Moor­man are attend­ing the Air Show in Paris. Mr. McClel­lan and Chair Melz­er will be attend­ing the Tri­umph meet­ing in Pen­saco­la tomor­row in con­nec­tion with Project Maple, which is a very active project. Project Stam­per con­tin­ues to move for­ward as well. 

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan gave the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report. He had a meet­ing at the White House to dis­cuss find­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for the Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion Project. He was giv­en help­ful insight dur­ing the dis­cus­sion. Mr. McClel­lan dis­cussed the issues with the over­flow park­ing and the addi­tion of grav­el to the road­ways which should alle­vi­ate the mud dur­ing inclement weath­er. A direct light­ning strike on Sat­ur­day took out most of the park­ing gates. The Air­port is active­ly work­ing to get the gates oper­a­tional. Mr. McClel­lan said that when Police Chief John Van Etten retires, Deputy Chief Jim Wheat­ley has been appoint­ed to take his place, and the posi­tion for the new Deputy Chief has been post­ed inter­nal­ly. When Fire Chief Jer­ry Swearin­gen leaves, Deputy Fire Chief Scott Birge will become the act­ing Fire Chief. There are inter­views for a Project Man­ag­er posi­tion that are ongoing. 

There was a 5‑minute break taken.

The Moore Agency Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Katie Spill­man of The Moore Agency report­ed on mar­ket­ing. The ECP Wheels-Up Sum­mer Series is back. Every Sat­ur­day dur­ing the month of July, from 12pm-3pm, there will be live music fea­tured in the Air­port Ter­mi­nal. The press release for this will go out this week, along with an email blast and social media teasers through­out the month. 

7.b. Dis­cus­sion – Air­port Mar­ket­ing and Pub­lic Relations

Ms. Jor­dan Jacobs with the Moore Agency joined Ms. Spill­man in giv­ing an overview of the Inte­grat­ed Mar­ket­ing and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Plan. They had break­out ses­sions to engage the Board in mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing ideas for the upcom­ing projects in the new year.

One of the ses­sions was ​“A Pic­ture Is Worth A Thou­sand Words”. Ran­dom pho­tos were hand­ed out to the Board Mem­bers and they were asked to cap­tion the pic­tures in a cre­ative way that rep­re­sent­ed what they meant to them in an adver­tis­ing head­line for ECP. Board Mem­bers were asked what the upcom­ing ​“Super Bowl” moments will be at ECP over the next year. In anoth­er ses­sion called ​“ECP Inno­va­tion Incu­ba­tion”, Board Mem­bers were asked to give big ideas to pro­mote the Air­port with ​“no holds barred” to gen­er­ate pos­si­ble new mar­ket­ing ideas to pro­mote the Expan­sion, unique ways to adver­tise, fun things to do for the reveal of the com­plet­ed expan­sion. Then a ​“Give Me 10” prompt was done ask­ing for ten things that would be the rea­son that pas­sen­gers would choose ECP to trav­el over anoth­er air­port. There were many great ideas that came up between the Board and the mar­ket­ing team.

Moore will present the results of the Inno­va­tion Incu­ba­tion in the com­ing months.

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:40 a.m.

Next meet­ing is sched­uled: July 19, 2023 – Board Meet­ing 9:00 a.m.

Reminder: Annu­al Ethics Train­ing will take place imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing next month’s Board Meeting.

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Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assistant 

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Hol­ly Melz­er, Chair