At its Oct. 23 meeting, the airport authority board voted to recommend Rosa Beckett to be the new SAA director.

Ms. Beckett has withdrawn her name, citing another job offer. How the Board will proceed at its next meeting is unknown at this time.

The Oct. meeting was the first for new appointee Oliver Jenkins, the former Shreveport city council. As expected this retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel was quick to have meaningful input as several issues. Attached is the New Business portion of the minutes of that meeting.

It makes for good reading:

“NEW BUSINESS:

Mr. Jenkins had some suggestions on procedure. He said in his former position they usually considered consent agenda items in globo instead of voting for the items separately. In terms of the discussion agenda said he thought all of the items were on the public notice which was published prior to the meeting. Mrs. Farr-Ewing said that the Airport Authority Board agenda is not linked like the City Council agenda where the public can read it. The discussion agenda items are posted by title only on the public notice and that is why the items have traditionally been read. Mr. Jenkins asked was there reason we couldn’t publish the entire agenda in the same fashion. Mrs. Farr-Ewing said she didn’t think there was any reason that couldn’t be done if that is how the Board wanted to proceed. Mr. Jenkins said it would be a time-saver.

Mr. Jenkins further suggested that the Board might want to add a line on to the agenda related to “Adding Items” to the agenda before public comments so that the public who is in attendance can see what those items are and if they want to comment can do it during that time.

Mr. Jenkins requested to know if the Airport had a marketing budget policy. He assumed the answer was no. He felt that it was something that the Board should consider adopting in the public domain. Mr. Jenkins recommendation was that airport staff, in accordance with policies that were at the city level or available from other airports about how marketing dollars are set up, bring forth a marketing budget policy as an agenda item so that there was never another discussion about who was approving what.

Mr. Crawford said that the airport follows the guidelines that the FAA puts forward, but if the Board wanted to have more specific rules, that would be something that could be pursued. Mrs. Kuba said the staff could detail out the FAA policy. Mr. Jenkins said there had been some public debate about what the airport was doing with its marketing dollars and where the influence is coming from. In terms of good government, he felt that there was an opportunity to make clear when there are policies and procedures in place to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

Mr. Jenkins said he was on an e-mail chain with Laurel Brightwell about reviewing the contentious aspects of the lease. He said he was personally in favor of doing that. He said his intent was not to revisit all of this but he wanted to be knowledgeable so he was interested in attending whatever could be set up to give him some background.

Mr. Reynolds responded that as he had mentioned, previously the Board members had done this for the past 2-1/2 years so while he appreciated the description of a good faith effort by Ms.Brightwell she was involved in the first 2-1/2 years of discussions. Mr. Reynolds said that he was involved with the committee that Mayor Tyler had appointed to try to come up with a solution to the lease. He further stated that he was against extending the lease conditions for another six months. Mr. Reynolds said it should not take 2-1/2 to 3 years to negotiate a lease that needs to be in compliance with the FAA. Mr. Reynolds pointed out that the Board had just voted on almost $10 million of funds that come from the FAA and we are in jeopardy of losing that as a result of leases or tenants that may not be in compliance. He said in his opinion, their first obligation was to the FAA because if the Airport loses those funds we do not have tenants or an airport.

Mr. Jenkins said that it was absolutely not his intent to change the whole lease, but it was an opportunity for him and maybe the new director to give the tenants a chance to voice their concerns to people who have not been involved in the process.

Ms. Ballengee said this conversation needed to take place between the Mayor, the legal department, the airport representatives and all of the voices that were instrumental in putting together the lease agreement that many people thought was a great document a few months before but suddenly was no longer a great document. She said she would certainly like those people to be at the table with the FAA because conversations change weekly with the tenant group and many times all have heard the same thing but walk out of a meeting with a different interpretation. Ms. Ballengee said the first thing that needed to happen was to get the meeting set with the FAA and ensure that the meeting happens. The FAA seems to be intent on making sure that Mayor Perkins is available in person so they can hear all the same thing. After that meeting takes place, she felt that it was important to schedule some kind of meeting, which at this time she wasn’t sure who would need to be involved. She said that she appreciated Mr. Jenkins’ interest in stepping into that role.

Ms. Ballengee said that since June, they had in good faith, had people sign on to the new lease and now to be told that we needed to stop what we were doing is shocking and alarming to all of the board members and staff. So before anything moves forward the meeting with the FAA has to take place. Ms. Ballengee explained that the way the Board typically operates is once she knows the issue; she calls the board members individually or goes to lunch with one person at a time. She said that she appreciated Mr. Jenkins’ suggestions on how to make the Board run more efficiently. Typically the Board did not have as many discussion items as this date.

The next meeting was scheduled for November 21, 2019.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.”

Members of the Airport Authority are Waynette Ballengee, Jonathan Reynolds, Margaret Shehee, Mary Jackson and Oliver Jenkins.