October 2023 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., Octo­ber 25, 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. Will Cramer, Mr. Les McFat­ter, Mr. Glen McDon­ald, 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 Amend­ed 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 Amend­ed Agenda.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to Accept the Amend­ed Agen­da, and Mr. McFat­ter sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Pre­sen­ta­tion – Recog­ni­tion of Car­ol Roberts – 46 Years of Ser­vice at the Bay Coun­ty Cham­ber of Commerce

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan and Chair Hol­ly Melz­er com­mend­ed Ms. Car­ol Roberts for her ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to Bay Coun­ty Cham­ber of Com­merce and the com­mu­ni­ty, and pre­sent­ed her with a Procla­ma­tion mak­ing Octo­ber 25, 2023 Car­ol Roberts Day at North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. Ms. Roberts began work­ing as a recep­tion­ist in 1977 for the Bay Coun­ty Cham­ber of Com­merce and is now the CEO and Pres­i­dent. She will be retir­ing in Jan­u­ary 2024.

Reports:

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. There was 15% growth in the month of Sep­tem­ber over the same month last year. Annu­al growth is at 9% and con­tin­ues to be strong. The load fac­tors con­tin­ue to be good. The Air­port con­tin­ues to main­tain its mar­ket share across the Region at 25%. Based on the present pas­sen­ger num­bers, the Air­port will like­ly exceed the 2021 peak year, with 1.63 mil­lion passengers.

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Approve Board Meet­ing Min­utes – Sep­tem­ber 27, 2023

This Item pro­vides for Board approval of the Sep­tem­ber 27, 2023 Board Meet­ing Minutes. 

b. Approve Audit Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Min­utes – Octo­ber 16, 2023

This Item pro­vides for Board approval of the Octo­ber 16, 2023 Audit Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Minutes.

c. Approve Men­zies 2024 Budget

This item pro­vides for Board approval of the 2024 O&M bud­get for Men­zies Aviation.

The avi­a­tion fuel farm con­sists of four 50,000 gal­lon Jet‑A tanks, four 15,000 avgas tanks, one 1,000 gal­lon diesel tank and one 1,000 gal­lon unlead­ed tank. The rental car facil­i­ty con­sists of one 15,000 gal­lon tank and one 5,000 gal­lon tank for unlead­ed gas.

The con­tract for man­age­ment, main­te­nance and oper­a­tion of the fuel farm facil­i­ties was award­ed to Men­zies Avi­a­tion in 2019. The ini­tial con­tract term is for five years. There is a sep­a­rate agree­ment between the air­lines and Men­zies for ​“into plane” fueling. 

Rev­enue paid to the Dis­trict by the oper­a­tors of the fuel farm includes debt ser­vice for the cost of the fuel facil­i­ty and O&M costs for oper­a­tion of the fuel farm. Cur­rent­ly, the five com­pa­nies that use the fuel farm are Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air­lines, South­west Air­lines, Unit­ed Air­lines and Sheltair Avi­a­tion, the fixed base oper­a­tor on the Airport. 

The bud­get pro­posed for 2024 is $1,226,525. The 2024 bud­get includes $139,714 paid to the Dis­trict for debt ser­vice for ini­tial con­struc­tion of the fuel farm man­aged by Menzies. 

O&M expens­es are paid by the users of the fuel farm with the Air­port Dis­trict receiv­ing debt ser­vice pay­ments in the amount of $139,714 annually.

Staff rec­om­mends approval of the Men­zies Avi­a­tion — 2024 O&M

d. Rat­i­fi­ca­tion of Under­ground Pow­er Line Ease­ment with Flori­da Pow­er and Light Com­pa­ny for South­ern Sky Aviation

This request is for Board rat­i­fi­ca­tion of an under­ground ease­ment grant­ed to Flori­da Pow­er and Light Com­pa­ny (FPL) for an under­ground pow­er ser­vice to South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion (FBO)

The addi­tion of new FBO South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion requires elec­tri­cal ser­vice for their lease­hold. The under­ground ease­ment will pro­vide loca­tion and access for FPL to pro­vide elec­tri­cal ser­vice to their facilities.

As the prop­er­ty own­er, we are the sig­na­to­ry of the easement.

This under­ground ease­ment rat­i­fi­ca­tion will have no impact on the Air­port Oper­a­tions and Main­te­nance Budget.

Staff rec­om­mends rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the Board Chair’s exe­cu­tion and record­ing of an under­ground ease­ment with Flori­da Pow­er and Light Com­pa­ny for Soth­ern Sky Aviation.

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

Busi­ness Items:

a. Accept Audit Com­mit­tee Audit Firm Rec­om­men­da­tion and Con­tract Award to Tip­ton, Mar­ler, Gar­ner and Chastain

Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don, Direc­tor of Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion, and Mr. Cramer, Audit Com­mit­tee Chair reviewed the steps the Com­mit­tee went through to score and select the Audit Firm.

This item pro­vides for the accep­tance of the Audit Committee’s rec­om­men­da­tion and autho­riza­tion to exe­cute the con­tract for audit firm to per­form the annu­al audit for five fis­cal years begin­ning with the fis­cal year end­ing Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023 and con­clud­ing with the fis­cal year end­ing Sep­tem­ber 30, 2027, also to include two addi­tion­al two-year exten­sion options. 

The Audit Request for Pro­pos­al was released on August 22, 2023 and closed on Sep­tem­ber 27, 2023. Three respons­es with pro­pos­als were received by the due date. The Audit Com­mit­tee met on Octo­ber 16 to review and rank the pro­pos­als with the rank­ing based on total score, as shown in the fol­low­ing table:

Based on the rank­ing, the Com­mit­tee rec­om­mends to the Board award of the con­tract for audit ser­vices to Tip­ton, Mar­ler, Gar­ner & Chastain.

Includ­ed in the RFP was the pro­posed con­tract for the Audit Ser­vices Tip­ton, Mar­ler, Gar­ner and Chas­tain sub­mit­ted no excep­tions to the contract.

The cost of the Audit is $29,126, and is pro­vid­ed for in the FY24 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get. Future Bud­gets will allo­cate funds each year for the cost of the audit services.

The Audit Com­mit­tee rec­om­mends the award of the Finan­cial Ser­vices Audit Con­tract to Tip­ton, Mar­ler, Gar­ner & Chas­tain and staff requests the autho­riza­tion to exe­cute the con­tract for Audit Services.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to accept the Audit Com­mit­tee Audit Firm Rec­om­men­da­tion and Con­tract Award to Tip­ton, Mar­ler, Gar­ner and Chas­tain, and Mr. McFat­ter sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

c. Autho­riza­tion to Extend Air­line Lease and Use Agree­ment – 2‑year Option

This item pro­vides for the Board’s approval to noti­fy the Sig­na­to­ry Air­lines of the Airport’s intent to exer­cise the first of two (2) Term Exten­sions of two (2) years.

The cur­rent Air­line-Air­port Use and Lease Agree­ment (AAULA) became effec­tive Octo­ber 1, 2021 for a three (3) year term and allows for two (2) Term Exten­sions of two (2) years each. The cur­rent Agree­ment expires on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2024. The Agree­ment requires the Air­port to noti­fy the Sig­na­to­ry Air­lines no lat­er than Decem­ber 1, 2023 of the Airport’s intent to ter­mi­nate or extend the Agreement.

The AAULA is the con­tract between the Sig­na­to­ry air­lines oper­at­ing at the Air­port and the Air­port. It estab­lish­es the rights and oblig­a­tions for both the Air­port and the Air­lines. The Agree­ment estab­lish­es, at a min­i­mum, the busi­ness arrange­ments, rate set­ting method­ol­o­gy, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of leased spaces ver­sus com­mon and shared use spaces, respon­si­bil­i­ties of the Air­port and the Air­lines, and the account­ing for bud­get­ed cap­i­tal equip­ment and project expenditures.

The exist­ing AAULA between the Air­port and our Sig­na­to­ry Air­lines (Amer­i­can, Delta, South­west and Unit­ed) has worked well pro­vid­ing for shared inter­ests includ­ing growth and expan­sion of air ser­vice for the Region. The Air­port and Air­lines both ben­e­fit finan­cial­ly with the exist­ing Agree­ment. Pre­lim­i­nary dis­cus­sions with the Air­lines dur­ing our Bud­get Meet­ing are that they too would like to move for­ward with exer­cis­ing the first Term Exten­sion, which would begin on Octo­ber 1, 2024 and extend through Sep­tem­ber 30, 2026.

The next steps after noti­fy­ing the Sig­na­to­ry Air­lines of the District’s desire to extend the Agree­ment is for the Air­lines to meet to deter­mine whether they too would like to move for­ward with the exten­sion. The Agree­ment out­lines the process­es of their vot­ing and noti­fi­ca­tion of their deci­sion to the Air­port. If their response is to move for­ward, Staff will pre­pare an Adden­dum to the Agree­ment exer­cis­ing the first of two (2) Term Exten­sions. There is no cost asso­ci­at­ed with the effort.

Autho­riza­tion for Staff to noti­fy the Sig­na­to­ry Air­lines of its intent to move for­ward with the first of two (2) Term Exten­sion with the Sig­na­to­ry Air­lines cur­rent­ly oper­at­ing at ECP.

Ms. Williams made a motion to approve the Autho­riza­tion to Extend the Air­line Lease and Use Agree­ment – 2‑year Option, and Mr. Algar­in sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Con­struc­tion Update (infor­ma­tion only):

a. Park­ing Lot Expansion

Mr. Richard McConnell report­ed on the con­struc­tion updates. Long Term Lot 2 has been opened up and is com­plete­ly oper­a­tional and is work­ing well. The Air­port is pur­chas­ing addi­tion­al shut­tles to improve the pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence. The expan­sion of the Long-Term Lot and Employ­ee Lot is now under­way. Soil and sod have been stripped, stormwa­ter fix­tures have been installed and soil is being re-com­pact­ed to pre­pare for paving. This project is mov­ing along very well. Over­flow Park­ing con­struc­tion is antic­i­pat­ed to be com­plet­ed by ear­ly January.

b. Ter­mi­nal Buildout

The plumb­ing ris­ers, HVAC, and elec­tri­cal infra­struc­ture is in. Walls are going up for the restrooms and con­ces­sion areas. The exit lane on the ground floor has been closed and rerout­ed. The piers and columns behind the exist­ing bag­gage claim office are being accessed so that the sec­ond floor can be extend­ed above the exist­ing exit lane.

c. Bag Make­up Expansion

The foun­da­tion­al piers have been poured and the forms will be removed today. Addi­tion­al foun­da­tion piers along the Ter­mi­nal Build­ing will be formed today as well. The fence has been relo­cat­ed to the south side of the build­ing. The next phase will involve the floor foun­da­tion. Once the con­crete has been poured, ver­ti­cal con­struc­tion will begin.

d. Sheltair

Sheltair has com­plet­ed all of the roof fix­tures and are work­ing on inte­ri­or flooring.

e. South­ern Sky Aviation

South­ern Sky is work­ing on inte­ri­or sheetrock. The project is mov­ing along quick­ly. The hangars are near­ing com­ple­tion and they are now prepar­ing the pave­ment sec­tions. Mr. Don­ald How­ell said that he attend­ed NCAA in Las Vegas last week and there was a lot of talk about the new FBO and they are already get­ting calls from peo­ple request­ing hangar space.

In oth­er updates, Mr. McConnell said that there is a part on order to repair the down esca­la­tor. Also, now that the sea­son has begun to slow down, annu­al paint­ing and fresh­en­ing up of the Air­port is about to begin.

Plan­ning Update (infor­ma­tion only):

a. North Ter­mi­nal Expansion:

North Ter­mi­nal Design – Mr. Rick Mellin pro­vid­ed a writ­ten update of the North Ter­mi­nal Project. Mr. McClel­lan said that they took the plans for the North Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion and met with the air­lines to include them in the design. The draw­ings for the TSA Check­point are at 95%, and are very close to com­ple­tion of the Ter­mi­nal design as well. The Air­port has applied for the Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law (BIL) – Air­port Ter­mi­nal Pro­gram (ATP) for fund­ing and will con­tin­ue to make fol­low up trips to Wash­ing­ton to help. The staff and con­sul­tants have been work­ing on a Doc­u­ment­ed Cat­e­gor­i­cal Exemp­tion (CATEX) with the FAA for the Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion Project, approval is expect­ed soon.

Bay EDA Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Bec­ca Hardin gave the Bay EDA update. She and Mr. Moor­man attend­ed Main­te­nance Repair and Over­haul shows in Europe last week and met with 12 com­pa­nies. She said that dis­cus­sions are under­way with Tri­umph Gulf Coast and Space Flori­da prepar­ing for devel­op­ment for Pre­mier Aviation.

The Moore Agency Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Katie Spill­man report­ed on the mar­ket­ing. She shared an overview on the efforts for Project Maple in regards to social media, local media and the Good News Bay pod­cast. Mr. McClel­lan did an inter­view with Angela Reese of Haney Tech­ni­cal Col­lege on Good News Bay that will appear in an upcom­ing air­ing. Ms. Spill­man updat­ed on the progress of the enhanced pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence ideas and ECP Perks. Mr. McClel­lan said that there has been an area cho­sen near Gates 6 & 7 to locate the Junior Fly­er Zone. Staff is look­ing for child-size tables and chairs, and Moore is prepar­ing activ­i­ty and col­or­ing pages for the area. He has begun orga­niz­ing items for the upcom­ing appre­ci­a­tion days and the sup­plies required to hand out cook­ies have arrived. He shared a sto­ry about rec­og­niz­ing a South­west pilot for dis­pos­ing of trash from the plane. Because of this, South­west also rec­og­nized the pilot for going above and beyond. Mr. McClel­lan explained that the pilots and flight atten­dants do not get rec­og­nized enough and hope­ful­ly through the new appre­ci­a­tion days ini­tia­tive this will help to do that. Mr. McClel­lan has also reached out to the Ani­mal Ther­a­py Pro­gram to see if they will vol­un­teer to bring pets out to greet passengers.

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan gave the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report. The Air­port Entrance Sign at the round­about was hit ear­ly Sat­ur­day morn­ing. There was exten­sive dam­age to the stain­less steel, glass pan­els on both sides of the sign and the inte­ri­or of the sign. Both the insur­ance com­pa­ny and sign com­pa­ny have been con­tact­ed about the acci­dent. There will be plans to add con­crete bol­lards, and pos­si­bly rum­ble strips to the road­way to pre­vent acci­dents, pro­vide safe­ty, and to pro­tect the sign from future dam­age. He also invit­ed the Board to the Hol­i­day Lun­cheon on Decem­ber 21, 2024.

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 9:44 a.m.

Next meet­ings scheduled:

Novem­ber 15, 2023 – Board Meet­ing 9:00 a.m.

_________________________________

Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assistant

________________________________

Hol­ly Melz­er, Chair