December 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., Decem­ber 20, 2023 by Chair Hol­ly Melzer. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Vice Chair Sheldon.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Chair Hol­ly Melzer.

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 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 Agenda.

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

Reports:

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. The Air­port is up 9% for total pas­sen­gers year to date and had 8% growth for the month of Novem­ber with 1.56 mil­lion pas­sen­gers. Mr. McClel­lan pre­dicts the biggest year in the his­to­ry of the Air­port. There was dis­cus­sion about the air­lines using larg­er planes which brought oper­a­tions num­bers down. Load fac­tors tend to down slight­ly this time of year, except for Novem­ber due to the change in sea­sons. Mar­ket share is between 20 – 25%. There has been sig­nif­i­cant growth region­al­ly over the last 3 years, espe­cial­ly for the areas with beach­es nearby. 

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Approve Board Meet­ing Min­utes – Novem­ber 15, 2023

This Item pro­vides for Board approval of the Novem­ber 15, 2023 Board Meet­ing Minutes. 

b. Approve Pol­i­cy Change – Admin­is­tra­tive Pol­i­cy 7.1 – Wage and Salary

This item requests for Board approval of a pol­i­cy change regard­ing the Wage and Salary Admin­is­tra­tive Policy. 

The cur­rent Admin­is­tra­tive Pol­i­cy 7.1 – Wage and Salary was last approved by the Board effec­tive March 1, 2020. In admin­is­trat­ing Pol­i­cy 7.1, it was deter­mined the Pol­i­cy as cur­rent­ly writ­ten has an inequity relat­ed to over­time pay dur­ing spe­cial events were addi­tion­al staff may be need­ed to accom­plish the Airport’s mission. 

There are some events, main­ly major trav­el hol­i­days, were the Air­port will need addi­tion­al staff time to prop­er­ly and safe­ly man­age the pas­sen­ger and vehi­cle traf­fic uti­liz­ing our facil­i­ties. On occa­sion, these events cross dif­fer­ent pay-weeks caus­ing some employ­ees’ time to be cal­cu­lat­ed dif­fer­ent­ly vers­es anoth­er employ­ee who worked the same event, but just in a dif­fer­ent pay-week. 

The cur­rent Pol­i­cy is being prop­er­ly uti­lized, but does have the neg­a­tive per­cep­tion in the cal­cu­la­tion of paid time worked. This abnor­mal­i­ty in the cal­cu­la­tion of time only impacts a small, but impor­tant seg­ment of the work­force and occurs when a hol­i­day falls with­in the work week of the event. 

By adding the addi­tion­al lan­guage to the Pol­i­cy, allow­ing the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor to declare a Surge Event will allow the Air­port to address any per­ceived pay inequity. This change, when imple­ment­ed, would only be uti­lized dur­ing our busiest times and treat ​“not nor­mal­ly sched­uled time” to be cal­cu­lat­ed as over­time pay. This change only impacts non-exempt staff. 

Surge Event Pay: The Exec­u­tive Direc­tor is autho­rized to declare a Surge Event which shall require addi­tion­al per­son­nel to ensure that the Air­port is able to main­tain lev­els of service.

Surge Event means any occur­rence which results or may result in a sub­stan­tial increase in aver­age pas­sen­ger flows, vehi­cle traf­fic to the Air­port or activ­i­ty, such that the Airport’s nor­mal staffing plan is inad­e­quate to ful­ly serve its guests as declared by the Exec­u­tive Director.

Non-exempt employ­ees who are eli­gi­ble for over­time and choose to per­form Surge Event-relat­ed work out­side of their nor­mal­ly sched­uled shift will receive time and one-half for actu­al hours worked dur­ing the Surge Event irre­spec­tive of whether or not the employee’s over­time thresh­old has been met.

The changes above and oth­er mis­cel­la­neous admin­is­tra­tive changes have been incor­po­rat­ed into the pro­posed Pol­i­cy 7.1 and have been reviewed and approved by legal counsel.

There would be a nom­i­nal impact to the Airport’s Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Budget.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval of the updates to Pol­i­cy 7.1 – Wage and Salary retroac­tive­ly to Novem­ber 1, 2023.

c. Approve Pur­chase – Mini Exca­va­tor – Beard Equip­ment Company

This item pro­vides for Board approval for the pur­chase of a Com­pact Exca­va­tor to be used in sup­port of the Airport’s air­field main­te­nance program. 

Ongo­ing and expand­ing main­te­nance oper­a­tions at the Air­port require the acqui­si­tion and main­tain­ing of addi­tion­al equip­ment. This pur­chase is for a John Deere Mod­el 50P Com­pact Exca­va­tor to be uti­lized by Air­port main­te­nance per­son­nel in sup­port of over­all air­port main­te­nance operations.

This pur­chase is pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s FY-24 Air­port Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Bud­get. The pur­chase is part of Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment #428363 – 9‑94 – 01 in which fifty (50) per­cent of the pur­chase amount will be reim­bursed to the Air­port. The Exca­va­tor is being pro­cured by pig­gy­back­ing on the State of Flori­da Con­struc­tion Equip­ment con­tract #22100000 – 21-STC Flori­da Depart­ment of Man­age­ment Services.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval for pur­chase of a Mod­el 50P Com­pact Exca­va­tor from Beard Equip­ment Com­pa­ny in amount of $84,059.95.

d. Approve Pur­chase – Flex Wing Cut­ters (Mow­ers) – Deere and Company

This item pro­vides for Board approval for the pur­chase of Two (2), high capac­i­ty, flex wing cut­ters (mow­ers) to be used in sup­port of the Airport’s air­field main­te­nance program. 

Ongo­ing and expand­ing main­te­nance oper­a­tions at the Air­port require the acqui­si­tion and main­tain­ing of addi­tion­al equip­ment. This pur­chase is for two (2), high capac­i­ty, flex wing cut­ters (mow­ers) to be uti­lized by Air­port main­te­nance per­son­nel in sup­port of over­all air­port main­te­nance operations.

This pur­chase is pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s FY-24 Air­port Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Bud­get. The pur­chase is part of Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment #428363 – 9‑94 – 01 in which fifty (50) per­cent of the pur­chase amount will be reim­bursed to the Air­port. The cut­ters (mow­ers) are being pro­cured by pig­gy­back­ing on the State of Flori­da Ag & Lawn Equip­ment con­tract #25101900 – 21-STC.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval for pur­chase of two (2) John Deere mod­el FC15M Flex Wing Rotary Cut­ters (Mow­ers) from Deere & Com­pa­ny in amount of $53,099.20.

Mr. Will Cramer made a motion to accept the Con­sent Agen­da, and Mr. Algar­in sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

a. Inter­local Agree­ment – Bay Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers and the Pana­ma City – Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict for the Shared Use of Air­port Pub­lic Safe­ty Building

Mr. McClel­lan explained that he and Mr. Cramer col­lab­o­rat­ed with the Bay Coun­ty Com­mis­sion to cre­ate a plan to share Air­port facil­i­ties with the Coun­ty Fire Ser­vice in exchange for con­nec­tion to the County’s fiber com­mu­ni­ca­tions net­work. The Agree­ment will ben­e­fit both par­ties, as well as pas­sen­gers and the community.

This item pro­vides for Board approval of the Inter­local Agree­ment with Bay Coun­ty for the shared use of the Pub­lic Safe­ty Building.

Over the last sev­er­al years, there have been dis­cus­sions with Bay Coun­ty with regard to the increased need for addi­tion­al EMS and fire ser­vices in north­west Bay Coun­ty. Recent­ly, the Coun­ty approached Staff to dis­cuss the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pro­vid­ing a tem­po­rary facil­i­ty until a new 388 Coun­ty Fire Sta­tion could be constructed. 

It was deter­mined the addi­tion of an Advanced Life Sup­port (ALS) Fire Engine would pro­vide the need­ed ser­vice to the res­i­dents of north­west Bay Coun­ty, but would also pro­vide ben­e­fit to the Air­port and its pas­sen­gers by hav­ing an ALS unit based at the Airport.

Con­cur­rent­ly, the Air­port has a Fiber Optic Project to tie into Bay County’s fiber com­mu­ni­ca­tions net­work to pro­vide enhanced pub­lic safe­ty radio ser­vice and to sat­is­fy new report­ing require­ments for law enforce­ment. The project to tie into the net­work has an esti­mat­ed cost of $80,000, which is includ­ed in the FY24 Budget.

The Inter­local Agree­ment pro­vides a park­ing spot out­side the fence for the ALS Engine, a bunk room for the use of the two (2) assigned crew, and use of com­mon facil­i­ties for a peri­od of up to three (3) years. In con­sid­er­a­tion for the use of the facil­i­ty, Bay Coun­ty will pro­vide the fiber con­nec­tion as described in the Inter­local Agreement.

Addi­tion­al­ly, the Air­port will incur a min­i­mal cost to install a ​“Shore Pow­er” Line at the assigned park­ing posi­tion and it will be nec­es­sary for the Air­port to build a wall with­in the office area as a result of the loss of a bunk room.

There will be a sav­ings of the bud­get­ed $85,000 for the instal­la­tion of the fiber con­nec­tion and min­i­mal expens­es relat­ed to the pow­er line instal­la­tion and build­out costs, which will be paid with funds avail­able with­in the FY23 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Budget.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval of the Inter­local Agree­ment for shared use of the Pub­lic Safe­ty Building.

Vice Chair Shel­don made a motion to approve the Inter­local Agree­ment between Bay Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers and the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict for the Shared Use of the Air­port Pub­lic Safe­ty Build­ing. Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

b. Approve ZHA Task Order #68 – New Mechan­i­cal Mez­za­nine and Exist­ing Equip­ment Relocation

Mr. McClel­lan explained the need for the relo­ca­tion of the mechan­i­cal build­ing to be able to move for­ward with the North expansion. 

This item pro­vides for the Board’s approval of Task Order #68 to ZHA as the Airport’s con­tin­u­ing engi­neer­ing con­sul­tant to per­form design, engi­neer­ing and con­struc­tion admin­is­tra­tive ser­vices for the New Mechan­i­cal Mez­za­nine and Exist­ing Equip­ment Relocation. 

As part of the Ter­mi­nal Devel­op­ment Pro­gram, it has been deter­mined the exist­ing Mechan­i­cal Room 2102 needs to be relo­cat­ed to allow unre­strict­ed pas­sen­ger move­ment between the exist­ing Build­out Space (Con­course) and the pro­posed North Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion. This includes the relo­ca­tion and reassem­bling of Air Hand­ing Units (AHU) and the infra­struc­ture required to sup­port the relocation.

This task order pro­vides for the fol­low­ing services:

• Pro­gram­ming and ini­tial schemat­ic designs coor­di­nat­ed with Air­port Mas­ter plan­ning efforts.
• Devel­op­ment of approved build­ing design schemat­ic for ini­tial coor­di­na­tion with struc­tur­al and MEP consultants.
• Pro­vide exist­ing facil­i­ties analy­sis as it per­tains to the require­ments of this expan­sion project.
• Prepa­ra­tion of con­struc­tion doc­u­ments includ­ing floor plans, equip­ment plans, ceil­ing plans, ele­va­tions, build­ing sec­tions, and details required for new and exist­ing spaces as well as door and fin­ish schedules.
• Coor­di­na­tion with spe­cial­ty con­sul­tants for Voice/​Data Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Secu­ri­ty, and Access Control.
• Basic con­struc­tion cost opin­ion at set project deliv­er­able milestones.
• Con­cen­trat­ed Con­struc­tion Admin­is­tra­tion ser­vices for tie-in to exist­ing air­port struc­tures and secu­ri­ty sys­tems, includ­ing week­ly site inspec­tions and field reports.
• Review and approve/​reject build­ing sub­mit­tals and shop drawings.
• Address contractor’s requests for infor­ma­tion relat­ed to con­struc­tion efforts.
• Address any change requests sub­mit­ted dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase.
• Review par­tial pay­ment appli­ca­tions dur­ing construction.
• Pro­vide all build­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and project close­out to the City and Per­mit­ting agencies.

The not-to-exceed costs of Task Order #68 are $63,919. Fund­ing for this Task Order will be through the use of Unre­strict­ed Air­port Funds and grants will be sought to reim­burse for fees asso­ci­at­ed with this task order. 

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval of Task Order #68 for Engi­neer­ing, Design, and Con­struc­tion Ser­vices for the New Mechan­i­cal Mez­za­nine and Exist­ing Equip­ment Relocation.

Mr. Algar­in made a motion to approve ZHA Task Order #68 – New Mechan­i­cal Mez­za­nine and Exist­ing Equip­ment Relo­ca­tion and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. All Board mem­bers vot­ed ​“yes”, except for Mr. McDon­ald and Vice Chair Shel­don who both vot­ed ​“no”. The motion passed.

c. Accept Change Order #3 – White­sell Green – Bag Make­up Expan­sion Project

Mr. McClel­lan said that White­sell Green has com­plet­ed all of the park­ing projects and the Employ­ee Lot has opened. He explained the details about the Bag Make-Up design. There was Board dis­cus­sion sur­round­ing the extra days and costs relat­ed to the change order. Mr. Rick Mellin answered ques­tions from the Board. He stat­ed that a design mis­take was made by JSM, the sub­con­trac­tor. The Board is con­cerned with the addi­tion­al days and fees being charged to the Air­port, as it was an over­sight by ZHA.

This item pro­vides a Change Order to the White­sell Green con­tract for the Bag Make-Up Expan­sion Project in order to accom­mo­date sin­gle side load­ing bag­gage carts and to max­i­mize the capac­i­ty of the Bag Han­dling Sys­tem (BHS).

Dur­ing the review of the Bag Make-Up Expan­sion Project with the air­lines, it was iden­ti­fied that the South­west bag­gage carts can only be loaded from one side. This fact neces­si­tat­ed a redesign of the inte­ri­or of the Bag Room to accom­mo­date the equip­ment. Addi­tion­al­ly, the ​“mis­read or no read bag­gage tag” drop point also need­ed mod­i­fi­ca­tion for the sin­gle side load­ing bag­gage carts. 

The changes made in the redesign also allowed for addi­tion­al slope plate capac­i­ty and an addi­tion­al tug lane, thus increas­ing the capac­i­ty of the Bag­gage Han­dling System. 

The change order includes the fol­low­ing items: 

1. Accom­mo­da­tion for one side bag­gage cart load­ing, which allows for an addi­tion­al 36 lin­ear feet of slope plate (an 18.5% increase) and an addi­tion­al 38 lin­ear feet of tug lane (a 23% increase.)
2. Addi­tion of 105 days to the con­tract schedule.
   1. 41 days as a result of the impacts on equip­ment addressed in Change Order #3, which will include Gen­er­al Con­di­tions; and
   2. 64 days inad­ver­tent­ly omit­ted in Change Order #2 for the under­ground util­i­ty issues and waiv­er of any cost for addi­tion­al Gen­er­al Conditions.

The total of these items is $236,382.

The bud­get impact of this action will increase the cost of the Bag Make-Up Expan­sion Project by $236,382. The cost will be fund­ed with unre­strict­ed Air­port funds and any grant funds avail­able in FAA Grant 3−12−0159−041−2023.

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval of Change Order #3 to the White­sell Green, Bag Make-Up Expan­sion Project Contract.

The Board asked Legal Coun­sel about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of approv­ing this Agen­da Item with a con­di­tion that ZHA cov­er some of the fees. The Board also request­ed finan­cials for the fees paid for ZHA’s ser­vices. A break was tak­en and Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don, Direc­tor of Finance pro­vid­ed those finan­cials to the Board. The Board was con­cerned with the addi­tion­al cost to the Airport.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to Accept Change Order #3 – White­sell Green – Bag Make­up Expan­sion Project and Mr. Algar­in sec­ond­ed the motion. Dis­cus­sion ensued about the addi­tion­al fees.

After some dis­cus­sion, the Board asked to amend the Agen­da Item to reflect that ZHA pay part of the costs due to their respon­si­bil­i­ty in over­see­ing the project, and Mr. Mellin agreed to cov­er part of the addi­tion­al fees.

After the amend­ment, Mr. Cramer made a motion to Accept Change Order #3 – White­sell Green – Bag Make­up Expan­sion Project with the under­stand­ing that ZHA will pay the dif­fer­ence to White­sell Green instead of the Air­port, 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 that the Park­ing Lot Expan­sion project is com­plet­ed. The project added 440 spaces and increased pub­lic park­ing by 32%. There is still some sig­nage that is being com­plet­ed and some upcom­ing land­scap­ing and perime­ter bar­ri­ers that will be added. 

b. Ter­mi­nal Buildout

Mr. McConnell report­ed that all of the con­trac­tors and sub­con­trac­tors are onsite and work­ing. The delays that are com­ing up are from dis­crep­an­cies from the as-built plans. All sup­plies and mate­ri­als are arriv­ing in a time­ly man­ner and the project is still mov­ing for­ward. The restrooms are roughed in, all walls are in, HVAC is installed, a tem­po­rary wall is being con­struct­ed and the sec­ond floor work will continue.

c. Bag Make­up Expansion

Mr. McConnell said that the struc­ture for the Bag Make-Up will be tying into the exist­ing ter­mi­nal build­ing today. All of the ver­ti­cal steel has been weld­ed and work will start on the foun­da­tion next. The build­ing will be tuned over ear­ly next month to JSM for instal­la­tion of the bag­gage equip­ment along with a no-read belt.

d. Sheltair

Mr. McConnell report­ed that Sheltair has com­plet­ed the out­side fas­cia on their hangar. They have also com­plet­ed all of the exter­nal parking. 

e. South­ern Sky Aviation

Mr. McConnell said that South­ern Sky has poured 12,000 yards of con­crete. The Exec­u­tive Ter­mi­nal is look­ing very nice inside and will be a great fea­ture to the Air­port. This project con­tin­ues to be on schedule.

Mr. McConnell also gave an update that the down esca­la­tor has been repaired and is now up and running.

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 have received com­ments from South­west regard­ing the design and will be inte­grat­ing some of their ideas. 

Bay EDA Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Mr. Ben Moor­man gave the Bay EDA update. It has been a great year. Project Maple is in the works with 250 jobs and $30 mil­lion in cap­i­tal invest­ment. He has been work­ing with Mr. McClel­lan, Mr. Cole Davis, Space Flori­da and Tri­umph Gulf Coast on fund­ing. Ms. Bec­ca Hardin was in Ham­burg Ger­many at an air show and also met with an Air­bus com­pa­ny near­by. He wished a hap­py hol­i­day to every­one. Vice Chair Shel­don thanked Mr. Moor­man and Bay EDA for all of their hard work for the Air­port and the community. 

The Moore Agency Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Katie Spill­man report­ed on the mar­ket­ing. They devel­oped a press release sur­round­ing the trav­el prepa­ra­tions tak­ing place at the air­port, ​“Top 5 Trav­el Tips” for the hol­i­day trav­el sea­son, as well as the park­ing lot infor­ma­tion to include the free park­ing shut­tle ser­vice. They are cur­rent­ly work­ing with the Wal­ton Coun­ty Arts Alliance. ECP is the fly­ing part­ner for the 30A Songwriter’s Fes­ti­val again this year. This will pro­vide sev­er­al avenues of adver­tis­ing for ECP. She said that the air­port won a Tel­ly Award for the ​“Let’s Go” commercial. 

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan gave the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report. He intro­duced Tony Howard, the new Main­te­nance Man­ag­er. The new Direc­tor of Air­port Devel­op­ment, Nick Har­well will be start­ing on Jan­u­ary 2, 2024. The Air­port will host all of the civil­ian events for the Gulf Coast Salute Air Show. Mr. McClel­lan and Chair Melz­er hand­ed out 300 cook­ies to pas­sen­gers on the day before Thanks­giv­ing as part of the ECP Perks Pro­gram. TSA has pre­dict­ed Decem­ber 2^nd, 29^th and 3^st as peak trav­el days. A Spe­cial Board Meet­ing will be held for the selec­tion of the Gen­er­al Con­sult­ing Ser­vices firm from the sev­en appli­cants will be on Jan­u­ary 4, 2024. Mr. McClel­lan hopes to be able to present the con­tract to the Board on Jan­u­ary 24, 2024 at the reg­u­lar Board Meet­ing. He and Chair Melz­er met with Project Inspire and they are look­ing into fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for that project. He also invit­ed the Board to the Trop­i­cal Hol­i­day Lun­cheon on Decem­ber 21, 2024. He thanked the Board for all of their hard work over the last year.

Chair Melz­er gave appre­ci­a­tion to the Air­port Staff for a record break­ing year and wished every­one a Mer­ry Christmas.

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:00 a.m.

Next meet­ings scheduled: 

Spe­cial Board Meet­ing – Jan­u­ary 11, 2024 9:00 a.m.

Board Meet­ing — Jan­u­ary 24, 2024 9:00 a.m.

_________________________________ ________________________________

Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Hol­ly Melz­er, Chair