Jan 14, 2021 Airport Advisory Board on 2021-01-14 11:00 AM (SPECIAL CALLED MEETING)

Good morning. This is a special call meeting of the City of Denton Airport Advisory Board on Thursday morning, January the 14th of 2021. And the first item on the agenda is for us to have a pledge of allegiance to the flag. So if you will repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible. All right. Next item on the agenda is any presentations to members of the public and to our knowledge at this time, we don't have any. We haven't received any phone calls or emails. So hearing none or if we don't get any word from anyone that we'll move forward then. So we'll move down to item three, items for consideration. And the first item is airport board 21, item 002, consider approval of minutes for the December 10th, 2020 meeting. And so everyone hopefully has had a chance to review those. And so I'll, if there is there any corrections or additions or adjustments that need to be made? I would like to move for approval of the minutes of December 10th, 2020. Okay. I'll second that. All right. Lauren Hubshaw moved and head Aaron seconded. And so all those in favor show by sign of a hand. All in favor. So the minutes have been approved. Moving on to item B, this is to receive a report from staff on proposed amendment to section 4.1, regular meetings of the airport board rules of procedure. So I'm going to turn this over to staff. Leanne, would you take care of this? Yes. I am going to share my screen so you can see the proposed amendment. Can you guys see that? It's coming up now. Yes, there it is. Okay. The airport board rules of procedure. They currently state that the board shall meet at 5.30 PM on the second Wednesday of each month at the airport terminal building. Due to the COVID-19 declared disaster, the airport has been unable to meet those regularly scheduled meetings. The airport business permits that we've been trying to bring forward for ratification they're unable to go to special called meetings. So we are proposing or introducing a proposed amendment to section four of the airport advisory board rules of procedure. We intend to bring forth the proposed amendment at the next meeting for approval. Okay. So if I'm understanding, man, we, whether it's a regular meeting or whether it's a special called meeting, we can consider those kinds of items. Yeah. So the new proposed amendment that we're doing, what we're doing is removing the second Wednesday of every month in the set time. So going forward, we have, I believe in the proposed amendment, it says the second Thursday, and that's purely because there was more conflict with Wednesday afternoons with the room, it was Thursdays. So our time Thursdays could be more flexible. And that goes along with the handbook as well. That's what the city council does. They have it scheduled on like the second, third Tuesday of every month, but the time is flexible for them. So we will be abiding by the handbook and we can have regularly scheduled meetings so we can bring forth items like the airport business permits for ratification. Okay. So Mr. Chairman, in order to bring ratifications forward, it has to be a regular meeting. So it doesn't prevent us from calling special meetings on other days and times as necessary. We just can't bring the ABP ratifications forward unless it's specifically a regular meeting. And this gives us that flexibility to make that happen under the COVID changes. Because we get some of these other items that we have on cover, we may have to revisit that in a later date when hopefully we're done with COVID. Okay. All right. So once we're able to go back to in-person meetings, will we go back to our Wednesday time or what are we? That's certainly up to the board. I don't have an understanding if we're going to continue to do online after COVID. I think right now that's been a provision allowed by the governor to still meet the open meeting law that we're allowed to do this. Once that goes away, we'll have to go back to public meetings. And at that point in time, before we get to that point, we will probably need to revisit the same section and reestablish that meeting date, be it Wednesdays. Again, that's certainly the call to board. Okay. All right. Any other comments or questions from the board members? No questions. Did you say no questions, Lauren? Yes, I said no questions. Okay. And just for the board purpose and Leanne, after she shares the screen, before we start asking and answering questions, we have to unshare the screen so everybody can be seen. Okay. Okay. So whenever I show like the next one, as soon as we're done presenting, I take it down? Yes. Okay. Okay. So, Ed or Ann, you have any comments? Okay. So we're not making any decision today. We're just moving this to the next meeting then? Yeah. That's correct. Current bylaws require us to bring bylaws changes twice, once for information, once for action. Okay. So there's no need for a vote to move this forward? No. Okay. Seeing no objections, we'll bring it forward as of today. All right. Okay. All right. So now we're moving on to item C, receive a report, hold a discussion, give staff direction regarding proposed amendment to section nine, officer election of the airport board rules and procedures of procedures. So Leanne, you've taken care of this one as well. You can give me just a moment, while Leanne is doing that, Mr. Chair, members of the board, I'll fill in a couple of blanks here. As you know, the election season this year, past year was extended a little longer than our norm. And normally our, our council annual appointments would already be done. They're actually doing that now, which is still considered the 2021 appointments. So that we will be doing when we bring this back for the next election, as soon as we do that, we will have to do another chair, vice chair election. But with that understood, with the election coming up in May and so forth, they will go back to the, I guess it's the October timeframe where they'll make those normal annual appointments. We will then have to do another election in the same calendar year because of this anomaly. So just, just wanted to get that out. Normally we will be doing this election, subsequent to the appointment done on an annual basis by the council, which should be in. Okay. All right. Okay. I got it pulled up. Can y'all see that? Yes. I clicked on it and it deleted itself out and I wasn't on my VPN. So I had to log into my VPN also. So this one, the airport advisory board rules of procedure, section nine states that members interested in being an officer at the board shall declare their interest at one meeting. And then we elect officers for the next year at the next board meeting. The language is not consistent with the city of Denton handbook and half is introducing a proposed amendment to section nine of the airport advisory board rules of procedure that follow the requirements of the city of Denton handbook. We will be, we will be, we will bring the proposed amendments to section nine at the next scheduled meeting in February. Okay. And I believe Mr. Chair, the handbook was attached to exhibit three, um, for your 80 or 90 pages pleasure. It goes into more stuff. Um, but this was just to be consistent with the way the rest of the boards. I think we were the only one that had the special provision for elections. Yeah. If I recall, it was every time we got a new appointee to the board, we basically had all the elections. Yeah. And yeah, there's been a couple of interpretations, one that says yes, one that says no. So rather than have any confusion, we're just going to follow what everybody else does and do it immediately after, whenever the council does it. So I mentioned it should be in October. If for any reason it's delayed, whenever it happens, we'll come back to that subsequent meeting, um, after they make their appointments. So for example, they had that discussion already this month, they are making appointments next Tuesday, but I don't believe the airport board currently is listed to make those appointments. It may actually get added by Friday. If it does, they make those appointments. We will come back at the next meeting to the elections. If for some reason they don't, then we'll keep waiting until that appointment process is done for the airport board. Okay. All right. And does that just as a point of clarification, now if one of the officers resigns or, uh, leaves the board, is there an election immediately to fill that position at that time? That's correct. That is in the handbook. So if, if for some reason the chair or vice chair can't fulfill their role for whatever reason, um, you can then just do an appointment right after that. Right. Okay. All right. And then certainly, for example, if, uh, chair or I guess in this case, if vice chair were to be out on medical or something like that, we can appoint an intro, um, that you can do. Okay. All right. All right. And again, this one doesn't require a motion or vote. So we'll move that to the next meeting. So the next item D is, uh, receive a report, hold discussion, give staff direction regarding airport advisory rules of procedure update and replacement. So Leanne, do you have something for us on that? Yes. Uh, chair, members of the board, I'm going to pull up the section two dash two nine. Yeah. Uh, the airport advisory board rules of procedure were adopted in 2008 and they have not been amended or updated since the language provided in the airport advisory board rules of procedure. They, they hold outdated information, uh, and they conflict with the code and handbook. So we are proposing an update and replacement of those rules and procedures, uh, to conform with the requirements of the code and the handbook. Uh, we intend to present a draft of those changes at the next meeting so we can begin the process of amending and replacing those. Uh, I've been working with legal and she let me know that it could take more than one meeting to get that draft fully complete. So we may have to bring the draft forward in sections, uh, for comments. Uh, the hope is that we have the entire draft next meeting, but, um, she has other departments as well. So she's going to do her absolute best. Um, and if y'all have any questions in regards to that as well. Okay. And Mr. Chairman, if I may, um, also when we adopted chapter three, um, airport code, it also had provisions in that section that spelled out specifically functions of the board that we want to make sure are now included in the bylaws and how they'll be handled. So right now, some of that may not be covered. Okay. Any other comments from board members? Yes, please take forward. Okay. All right. We'll move forward to item E, which is our monthly operations report and construction report. And, uh, so, uh, chase Patterson is going to handle this. So chase, uh, what kind of information have you got for us? Oh, yes, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, we have our, uh, monthly operations report for, for this January. We'll start with, um, the, the tower operations. Um, we finished our calendar year, um, uh, just under what we did last year, 0.3% under, uh, last year's numbers went from 138,529 operations in 2019, 138,161 in 2020. With the bulk of that or the main portion of that being an IFR itinerant. So we did expect to see a drop, um, which we did in, in April, uh, the, in May timeframe in the spring, uh, in those IFR operations, uh, for business travelers and stuff like that. So that was the bulk of our, our drop, but we were, we're really close to what we did last year. So we're really pleased, um, and hope to pick those numbers back up this year. And if I can interrupt, um, Chase and chair, member of the board, um, that's pretty significant, um, fact that our operational level is, is for the most part the same as it was, um, pre COVID in last year. Um, there are a large number of general aviation airports that their operations plummeted, um, as much as 50, 60%. Um, you know, I think we're lucky in the fact that number one, we do have a, a corporate environment that didn't come back. Um, and we also have the significant training operations that I think is, is helped us. Um, so some of our, some of our sister airports in the Metroplex may not have been as lucky. Some of them are, you know, cause they have a similar, uh, diverse group of users as we do. Um, so I didn't, I just didn't want that to get lost. That that's, that's pretty significant. Although we were really hoping to be, you know, closer to 150, um, plus, um, I think we, we should all be pleased that we, we ended up where we did. And I want to add to that, that we didn't see a significant drop in any category. You know, it, it wasn't our, just our training aircraft that carried us this year. Um, like I said, the most significant drop was 300 total operations and that was an IFR, uh, itinerary ops. So it was good to see that, uh, for the most part, our, all, all three of our categories, uh, in operations, uh, stayed pretty, pretty much the same as what they were pre-COVID. So we weren't being carried by any specific, uh, group, um, necessarily. So that was good to see. Okay. Go ahead. I said very good. Very good. I'll move down to fueling. Um, just, just two months worth of fueling, uh, as you know, we start, uh, physical years. So we have, uh, October and November, uh, we did see a significant increase in November of, uh, almost 40, 40,000 gallons, um, compared to November of last year, uh, with, again, both of, both of our categories, uh, jumping up significantly, Avgas and, and JetA. Um, I do believe we have some increased activity, uh, being that we do have two FBOs and both of them are starting to, to, uh, get everything turning and things moving out there. So that's a really good sign to see, um, this large amount of fuel in, uh, in November. Um, so we hope to see those increase, uh, continued throughout the year. Have we had any, uh, reports or word from, from U.S. Trinity that, uh, that they're starting to hang around some additional airplanes that we haven't had on the airport before? We are getting, they are, uh, we are getting increased hangar tie-down revenue from, from that side. Um, uh, I don't have an update on, on new aircraft as of yet. There's still some, uh, we have some new aircraft, but then there's still some that have moved from, from places on the field. But, uh, I can, I can definitely reach out and, and have something for you at the next meeting to see if there's... Yeah, I was just kind of interested to whether that was, uh, being reflected in the additional fuel use. There, there, it very well could be. Now they do only have the, the one hangar designated for, um, for tenants, if you will. Um, and, uh, so there is, there is some new aircraft in there, but we can have a report on, on any increases they might have. Okay, very good. Very good. And then any other comments, board members on that? Okay. And we will have updated based aircraft at the next meeting, um, for February 2020. All right. Then I'll move on to wildlife. Um, pretty straightforward with the wildlife. We do have some bird activity, um, a couple of strikes, no reported damage, um, anything out of the ordinary. We are starting to see, we had a coyote sighting, uh, on Christmas Day. We are starting to see those start to pick up and that's, that's normal for this time of year. Um, we get coyotes that are wandering around trying to find food and stuff like that. So we, we do see that activity start to pick up, but, uh, we are remaining diligent in, in, uh, covering any holes in the fence or any gaps that we find during our inspections. And then a task for you, uh, for your viewing is, uh, operations, historical operations and historical fuel as well. That's all I have any idea how we, how we stand at one time. You know, we were kind of getting prepared to the other airports in the state, uh, on total operations and are we still up there with, with them or are we, I don't have those reports yet. Um, Scott, those reports usually come out early spring, correct? They have to get their, they got to get their final numbers in. That takes a couple of months, but we'll see if we can't have that. Um, even if we have to run just the ranking sheets from the FAA database, if we can pull that, we'll, we'll present that next month to show what calendar year, uh, 20 look like if the numbers are all in. Okay. Very good. So any more questions on operations report? Mr. Chairman, if it pleases, I'll move down to the, uh, monthly construction report. Yes, go ahead. All right. So really, uh, the main update we have here is for, um, our approaches on the new runway. Um, the designations have been put in, um, all we had notums out for, for, um, our runway designations. All of those have been removed as of, uh, December 31st, 2020. Um, our AFD is now updated with our current, um, airport layout. Uh, we have one eight right, three six left, and then one eight left and three six right. Um, so all of those have been updated with the updated approaches to the FAA. So no, no needed confusion or anything with notums or designators. Everything, uh, should be set and ready to go with the new runway. And to your knowledge, has the tower been using it at night for touch and goes and that kind of training? I don't have a, um, a nightly log or anything right now, but I can definitely get with them and, and, and ask about activity on the runway. I think I've heard them, uh, direct people that way. So, um, absolutely. It's definitely open for, for that. Um, they're still touch and goes at night. Um, so I would assume that they're moving those touch and goes, those night touch and goes over to the new runway as well. And Mr. Chairman, that's, that's a controller's preference, if you will. Yes. So, um, there are some controllers that we have, they really like utilizing that runway to, is that escape valve and get some training folks out of the way for the other runway. Others rather just kind of focus on the primary when, when they're able. So if it's light traffic, they certainly have a choice, but now that it's fully lighted, everything's done. Um, it certainly gives them a great deal of flexibility to handle, um, increased traffic. I'm curious how it functions after hours after the tower closes. Um, do the lights stay on all night or are they, uh, pilot activated or how are those set up? The lights are on, on online. They are. Okay. I know that, uh, or is that just the strobe lights that are pilot activated, uh, for making an instrument landing or yes. The only, the only lights that are pilot activated are those, those on the, uh, approach end in the strobes. We have our, our airfield lights, uh, can't have the possibility to be pilot activated, but, um, we keep them in, in the on position, um, at night. Right. Okay. And then, uh, airport payment management program, not, not, uh, really a status update. I did, uh, get something scheduled after this, this was sent out. We do have our, our final visual inspection of the main runway, uh, scheduled for next week. Um, and then we are still waiting on, on one of the consultants to, uh, gather all of the data, if you will, and, uh, send that out to the, the engineering firm and then they'll get their final plans and the program set up. But that, uh, that final inspection is, uh, is due or is, is coming, uh, January 20th. Okay. That's a status update. When that's completed, we'll bring that study forward to the board so they can, they can understand where our, where our, the pavement needs some additional work. I mean, if you recall, we have the funding already set aside to do, um, nearly a million dollars for the pavement maintenance. So, um, this study really is going to focus on the prioritization of, of those, uh, pieces of pavement, uh, runway, taxiway, and apron areas that we can then start that work this summer. Okay. Very good. Um, I don't think you, I, yeah, you, well, I, that's related to the airside. Now, did you have a report for the, for the non-airside this time, uh, for us? I do not. We closed that out, I believe, um, a couple of meetings ago, um, that the, the airside, the landside project was finished other than, than any, any, some drainage upgrades to the city. And those have not happened yet. Um, I will, I will present an update on that, uh, that portion of the project once we get those scheduled and those drainage improvements complete. Well, I don't remember the street name, but it's the one that goes to US Trinity and Hertz rental car. Um, you know, that's got some significant potholes and base failures in it. Uh, so is, are we not going to get anything done on that? I will tell you, I will tell you this week, those, those potholes and, and things were filled by the streets department this week as a part of just their, their routine, uh, um, just small patchwork, uh, uh, program that they have going. So those pieces at the entrance were completed. Um, any seal coats or anything like that have been pushed towards a, uh, a city contract that that'll go out, uh, later this year. So those pieces have been addressed. Um, actually, like I said, the early this week as a part of, uh, that small patchwork program. Good, good. Well, I know the last time I was out there, it was, there was some pretty rough spots on the north side. Yes. Like I said, those were completed and I, I honestly, you know, they did it, uh, they did it on their own because I came out and saw it this week, um, that it was completed. So I was very pleased to see that. Super. Very good. Okay. All right. And, uh, moving on now to the city council airport committee, uh, items and the matrix. Uh, is there anything we need to know about there, Leanne? Chair, members of the board, we don't currently have any pending items for CAC or council, but we did, um, if, if y'all looked at it, uh, the fuel ordinance repealed, we actually took that to CAC and city account, city council, and they were approved at both. They've been moved down to completed items, but I just wanted to let y'all know that they did go and they did, they were approved. Okay. All right. Well, Mr. Chair, if you recall, that's, that's the whole issue about self-fueling. Yes. Um, um, so now with that ordinance, um, repealed, um, we can now accept self-fueling permit applications, which we would assume we will be seeing one shortly from, uh, bed trans, this was spearheaded with their requests. So, um, as soon as we, we get that, they'll, they'll be able to do their own self-fueling when they meet all the requirements. There was a question, um, just for, uh, if you didn't see the council meeting, there was a question relevant to requiring those entities to have a, their own SWIP. There's, there was a caller that called in about other airports, don't do that. Um, and why are they not just co-permittees? Um, um, we have done some research. Chase has contacted our sister airports. We've contacted our watershed department, which is the stormwater folks, um, and have gotten concurrency. Yes. In fact, they are recommending that they get their own SWIP, um, and the other airports are doing similar. Um, so the caller may have misspoke there, but we're, we're addressing that, um, getting some additional information to the council, uh, to answer that phone question that they had. Um, but it would appear based on, uh, industry standards and the recommendation of the watershed folks that we'll continue to do that. And we may actually have to go back to the other two entities that are doing fueling and they may have to be, um, required to get their own as well. So we haven't crossed that bridge yet, but, um, for certainly for the self fueling permit, that's why it's stated and we'll probably end up seeing. So that's primarily just having something on file with somebody. Well, anybody that's doing fueling has got to get a permit from TCEQ. Um, and, um, they also have to get a permit from the fire department. Um, so those, those, uh, regulatory things still have to take place. The other piece is whether or not the activity is covered under the city's, um, permit or not. And, and what we're hearing other airports are now doing, it's, it's not been the way it's been all along. Um, there's been some changes over the last decade. Um, but we're also hearing from watershed, which is who we rely on as the subject matter experts on stormwater. They're, they're suggesting that yes, the hazardous activities like that outside, which is fueling, um, should have their own, uh, permit. We're, we're still confirming all of that and we're going to get some additional information, but that looks like the direction. So for the new people, it'll be that way for the existing two FBOs. We may be reaching out to them with this, with this new guidance and we'll work with them to get that. Okay. Well, I hope that doesn't become too cumbersome for anybody. I don't think so. I mean, it's, it's, it's a process, right? And it's, it's basically safety. It's to ensure that we don't have any pollutants in our stormwater, which I'm sure everybody wants to make sure it doesn't happen. I think, I think the idea and why the reason that most airports are switching to having their operators have their own is, um, the liability exposure of fuel hazards to the city versus the entity that's actually doing it. So, um, I was about to say, I'm sorry to interject, yeah, having looked at these sort of things, they're not that onerous. It's just a matter of doing basic things and it's all pretty standard. I mean, you know, it's just doing a little legwork saying here's how we're gonna clean up our mess. Minitrans already did their own, even before we got to this point, they were already putting their own together. So, um, like I said, I would expect to see theirs coming here shortly. It's not very onerous. It's obviously going to have some expenditure on their behalf to do it, but at the end of the day, I think, I think it's the direction that we will be moving. Okay. All right. Okay. So, um, so I guess that moves us to item four, concluding items, and this is our opportunity to request any items that we want to put on the agenda for discussion next time. Of course, I guess we've got a report coming. I was interested in a pavement report on the runways and load capabilities and what they're finding there. And so, anything else, any other board members have anything you'd like to see discussed or put on the agenda? Okay. All right. Well, I, I, um, I don't know if this is appropriate to mention, but I did, we did, I didn't, I don't know if, did you all get an email from Arun about his, what appeared to be that he was resigning from the board? I don't think I've seen it yet, but that's what I heard. Okay. So I guess we'll be having a new one there when the appointments are finally made. So, uh, he just sent me an email letting me know that, um, he didn't file for reappointment and he was under the impression that because he didn't file for reappointment that his duty was done at this point. Um, he wasn't aware that he needed to continue with his duties until a reappointment was made. Oh, okay. Okay. So, um, so I guess he's, he's officially still with us until he's replaced or if he doesn't want to continue. And that's what it sounds like. Is that what your interpretation is? Okay. All right. So hearing no other business or comments, uh, I guess we'll adjourn this meeting at 11 35 AM. So, uh, thank you all for your attendance and, look forward to seeing you next time when we get back to in-person meetings. Thanks everyone. All right. Thank you.