The Habersham County Board of Commissioners met in special called session Monday night to discuss creating a county airport manager position after the resignation of the county airport’s Fixed Base Operator, Blue Sky Aviation.
Blue Sky, a contracted vendor operated by Brenda and Ray Reed, has served in the capacity of FBO since 2014, taking care of daily operations as facility manager at the airport for those eight years. Now, the Reeds are retiring, and the county has to find someone to take over management of the airport by the end of the month.
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While the meeting’s agenda consisted of only one item, giving the county manager the ability to create the position of airport manager, the meeting wasn’t short. The majority of the called meeting consisted of back-and-forth between motions and interruptions by Cornelia Attorney Doug McDonald.
Commissioner Bruce Palmer chose to not recognize McDonald’s comments because public comment was not on the agenda for the meeting, during which Commissioner Bruce Harkness made a motion to amend the agenda to allow for public comments. Commissioner Jimmy Tench seconded, but the motion was at a stalemate due to a lack of majority approval. Commissioner Dustin Mealor was not at the meeting.
The agenda could not move past approval for some time due to Palmer and Commissioner Ty Akins standing with the agenda as written, while Harkness and Tech stood for an amendment to allow public comment. There was an attempt to adjourn the meeting by Tench that died.
Chairman Palmer eventually gave in to allowing public comment for the meeting to move forward. “We’re going to allow for public comment, against my better judgment,” Palmer said.
McDonald asserted that the meeting was illegal because the public had not been notified of it. The county sent out an announcement of the called meeting to local media outlets on Friday. He also said the airport commission has not been involved in the discussion of creating an airport manager position.
Another member of the public approached the commissioners to ask that the county look into other options besides hiring an airport manager. County Manager Alicia Vaughn told the commission that she had been researching options ever since the resignation came from Blue Sky Aviation and that from her research, this seemed to be the best option.
“It’s probably in the best interest of the county and the future for there to be an airport manager,” said Chairman Palmer.
According to the commission, the proposed salary range for the position would be a minimum of $56,925, with a maximum of $85,388, dependent on the applicant’s qualifications. They would not have an exact salary to amend the budget until after posting the position and receiving applications.
The commission voted to create the airport manager position 3-0, with Tench abstaining from the vote.
“At our next regularly scheduled meeting, we can have time for any public discussion for anything they [the public] want us to consider, [and] make changes to this position going forward at some point,” Commissioner Akins said. “But I think, at this time, it’s more of a critical aspect of our county’s functions to keep the airport running. What we’re trying to do here is just make sure that our airport is not disrupted.”
Watch the full recording of the meeting here.
