GREEN RIVER – A resolution the Sweetwater County commissioners considered approving regarding the continuation of a $4.50 passenger facility charge at the Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport resulted in discussion highlighting disagreement with how the airport board operates Tuesday morning.
The resolution, which was ultimately postponed, would have allowed Airport Director Devon Brubaker to execute a passenger facility charge application and amend any open applications with the FAA. Brubaker said the charge is something the airport has done since 1995. Brubaker said the airport has a deadline of December to submit its fee application with the FAA, saying projects listed on the fee application will be all of the completed projects that have occurred since 2016. He said the list won’t contain future projects in the application. The fee would allow the airport to reimburse matches made to federal and state grants, allowing the fees to be put back into the operating budget to keep fiscal requests made to the county and City of Rock Springs lower. Brubaker said the airport generates roughly $70,000 a year from the fee, which is then placed in a separate passenger facility charge account. This is then transferred to a non-operating revenue account, where it helps offset operating shortfalls at the airport.
During discussion about the resolution, Commissioner Mary Thoman, who serves as the commissioners’ liaison to the airport board, questioned if the resolution was approved by the airport board. Airport Director Devon Brubaker said it would be considered during the board’s Wednesday meeting. The City of Rock Springs and the county are parties in a joint powers agreement that creates the airport’s board of directors, with both entities appointing members to that board.
“I have a little bit of issue with approving this before the airport board has done it and also I have concern in the first paragraph, it should say airport board, not director,” Thoman said. “I know you’re authorized by that, but our MOU (memorandum of understanding) is with the airport board.”
Brubaker said he’s the one who executes the application, not the airport board. He said during his time employed at the airport, it has never followed a specific order where the airport board approves something before the county or the city.
“If that’s a new requirement, then we need to know that going forward so we can schedule that appropriately,” Brubaker replied.
He said the meeting schedule works out that the Tuesday county and city meetings happen before the Wednesday airport board meeting. If the airport board has to wait for county and city authorization before it can authorize something, it would postpone the airport’s ability to act by a few weeks.
Thoman further questioned why Brubaker didn’t include a list of capital projects that would be supported through the charge with the resolution because the commissioners are unaware of what those projects would be and claims the resolution goes outside of the joint powers MOU because the county and Rock Springs determine capital, “not the director.”
“I know you’re getting excited,” Thoman said to Brubaker during the meeting, “but I think we need to get in a line with the proper procedures as far as our MOU regarding the airport and getting things approved by your board before they come to this board. I don’t know how the other commissioners feel, but I feel like we need to have things in proper alignment.”
I know it’s hard when you’re the director and you want to be in charge and you want to run ahead, but you’ve got a board. You’ve got to keep that board fully engaged and sometimes I think you run out ahead of them a little bit.
~Sweetwater County Commissioner Mary Thoman
Brubaker said there have been confrontational statements made over the past few months about what the airport board’s responsibility is. He said the airport board has managed the capital investment at the airport for more than five decades, using airport revenue as much as it could to fund capital improvements. Those improvements have sometimes required the help of the City of Rock Springs and the county.
Speaking about the airport’s capital plan following a question from Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Keaton West, he said the capital plan is something that the airport board has created and approved. He said the plan doesn’t mean the expenditures will be made because the airport either needs to get grants, come up with funds itself, or ask Rock Springs and the county to fund projects listed in the plan.
“In the end, the city and county get to review all of the projects we do on an annual basis, but we’re required by the FAA to provide a 20-year capital plan,” Brubaker said.
An update to that master plan is ongoing, with a public meeting scheduled Wednesday at the Sweetwater County Events Complex Bison Room from 5-6:30 p.m.
Brubaker said a deeper conversation should be planned if a change in how the joint powers agreement is being interpreted, but warned of the potential lost revenue the airport faces if it misses its FAA application deadline.
“If there’s going to be a change in interpretation in the joint powers agreement, I think we need to have that conversation, but stopping the ability of us to collect money that helps offset the costs to local taxpayers over an interpretation of a joint powers agreement that, I don’t think, has fully been completed at this point, I think is something I would be hesitant and concerned that we would do,” Brubaker said. “Because if we miss this deadline, we start losing revenue.”
Brubaker said if the airport needs to change how it does business with the county, they can have that conversation and create a new process if needed. West said he doesn’t want the relationship between the commissioners and airport board to sour, but said the current situation with the ongoing terminal construction project and added expenses have caused the commissioners to look at things differently. He said the MOU states the airport operations are the responsibility of the airport board while the joint powers partners have a say on any improvements, saying some of that responsibility may have been missed on the interpretation. West also said the idea isn’t for the county to tell Brubaker or the airport board what to do, but the commissioners want to make sure there’s more accountability for the amounts being spent on the airport terminal project.
“I don’t think we want to get sideways on the agreement or the relationship between the county and the airport board,” West said.
West also cautioned Brubaker with being defensive while responding to questions because the commissioners’ questions are part of the county’s due diligence. Brubaker said he has no interest in “going sideways” with the commissioners and the airport board has no desire to hide anything, saying it intends to comply with any request the commissioners have.
“We have every intention of working well with you,” Brubaker said.
Thoman said she didn’t want to get into any discussions about accusations, but said the airport should provide the FAA application to the commissioners and said the commissioners should not approve the resolution until the airport board approves it Wednesday. She also said she wants to address concerns from the commissioners to the airport board during its Wednesday meeting. Thoman told Brubaker she also didn’t want her relationship with the board to sour.
I don’t think we want to get sideways on the agreement or the relationship between the county and the airport board.
~Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Keaton West
“I do not want my liaison relationship with the airport board to be going south because you (Brubaker) think that I am making accusations,” she said. “I am doing my due diligence as your liaison to point out to our appointed board members what it says in the MOU. That is all I have done.”
She said the resolution’s inclusion on the commissioners’ meeting agenda was the first time she had seen it, saying Brubaker nor the board approached her prior to its placement on the agenda and she did not have an opportunity to look at it prior to its placement. She doesn’t believe a two-week delay will impact the airport meeting its FAA deadline. She also accused Brubaker of letting his passion for improving the airport overstep his responsibilities to the airport board, alleging he has “outrun his headlights” on capital and what his responsibilities are.
“I know it’s hard when you’re the director and you want to be charge and you want to run ahead, but you’ve got a board. You’ve got to keep that board fully engaged and sometimes I think you run out ahead of them a little bit,” she said.
“I’m not accusing you, but stay in the lines of what’s legal,” she told Brubaker.
Brubaker apologized for not being as prepared as he should have been for the questions the commissioners had about the resolution and said he would provide additional materials about the FAA application after the meeting.
