MEET­ING MINUTES

PANA­MA CITY – BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

Open­ing:

The Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., Jan­u­ary 24, 2018 by Chair­man Mathis.

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Mrs. Rhon­da March­man. The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Chair­man Mathis.

The Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary called the roll and indi­cat­ed that all Board Mem­bers were present except Mr. James Johnson.

Chair­man Math­is announced that Mr. James John­son was appoint­ed by the City of Pana­ma City as the newest mem­ber of the Board.

Reports:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed and reviewed the Activ­i­ty Report. Ms. Dar­lene Nel­son pre­sent­ed and reviewed the Finan­cial Report. 

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Board Meet­ing Min­utes – Decem­ber 20, 2017

This item pro­vides for Board approval of the Decem­ber 20, 2017 Board Meet­ing Minutes.

b. Approve Pur­chase – Com­put­er Stress Voice Ana­lyz­er from NITV Fed­er­al Ser­vices L.L.C.

This item pro­vides for Board approval for the pur­chase of the described CVSA and train­ing for examiners.

c. Approve Pur­chase – Tasers from Axon Enter­prise, Inc.

This item pro­vides for Board approval for the pur­chase of Taser X2 and war­ran­ty uti­liz­ing Trea­sury and Jus­tice Fed­er­al For­fei­ture Funds.

d. Rat­i­fy Ban­ner Tow Agree­ment – Aer­i­al Ban­ners, Inc.

This item pro­vides for Board rat­i­fi­ca­tion of a Ban­ner Tow Agree­ment between Aer­i­al Ban­ners, Inc. and the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict for the oper­a­tion of air­craft ban­ner tow activ­i­ties at the North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport.

e. Res­o­lu­tion for FDOT JPA 42563119401

This item pro­vides for approval of a Res­o­lu­tion to request FDOT to rede­fine the use of Joint Par­tic­i­pa­tion Agree­ment 42563119401.

f. Accept Ceram­ic Coat­ing Bid – Ter­mi­nal Building

This item pro­vides for the accep­tance of a bid from Rhi­no Shield Gulf South for the appli­ca­tion of an Adhe­sive Primer and Durable Fin­ish Coat to the stuc­co areas of the Air­port Ter­mi­nal Build­ing, includ­ing clean­ing and prep work.

Mr. Nel­son made a motion to approve the Con­sent Agen­da. Ms. Sims sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

a. Pre­sen­ta­tion – 2017 in Review

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board and pro­vid­ed a pre­sen­ta­tion high­light­ing some of the Airport’s accom­plish­ments over the past year. Some of the high­lights included:

  • Ongo­ing increas­es in pas­sen­ger activ­i­ty and the Pan­han­dle mar­ket share
  • Stan­dard­iza­tion of finan­cial report­ing and a refined bud­get process
  • Con­tin­ued growth in gen­er­al avi­a­tion and new cor­po­rate hangars
  • Addi­tion of Trans­porta­tion Net­work Com­pa­nies – Uber and Lyft
  • Projects with FDOT and FEMA as well as upcom­ing com­mer­cial projects
  • Improved employ­ee health care cov­er­age plans
  • Upgrad­ed secu­ri­ty sys­tem, con­struc­tion of the auto­mat­ed Exit Lane, and part­ner­ing with DeTect

This item was for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only and required no for­mal Board action.

b. FY 2017 Finan­cial Audit Report

This item is sub­mit­ted for Board adop­tion of the Audit Report for the Fis­cal Year end­ing Sep­tem­ber 30, 2017.

Mr. David Tip­ton from Tip­ton, Mar­ler, Gar­ner and Chas­tain CPA Group pre­sent­ed the Board with an unmod­i­fied and unqual­i­fied report, indi­cat­ing that the audit presents fair­ly. Mr. Tip­ton not­ed that the oper­at­ing rev­enue of the Air­port has expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant growth, going from $3.6 mil­lion in 2008 to $11.5 mil­lion in 2017.

The man­age­ment let­ter of this audit, as pre­sent­ed on page 43 of the audit report, notes the fol­low­ing comments:

  • There were no cor­rec­tive actions tak­en to address find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions made in the pre­ced­ing audit report, as there were no rec­om­men­da­tions made in the pre­ced­ing annu­al finan­cial audit report.
  • The Dis­trict oper­ates as an inde­pen­dent spe­cial dis­trict cre­at­ed by an act of the Leg­is­la­ture of the state of Flori­da and is not con­sid­ered a com­po­nent unit of any oth­er local gov­ern­men­tal unit.
  • The Dis­trict did not meet any of the con­di­tions described in the Flori­da Statute 218.503(1) regard­ing finan­cial emergency.
  • The annu­al report filed with the Flori­da Depart­ment of Finan­cial Ser­vices is in agree­ment with the annu­al finan­cial audit report.
  • There were no rec­om­men­da­tions made to improve finan­cial management.
  • There were no find­ings regard­ing non­com­pli­ance with pro­vi­sions of con­tracts or grant agree­ments or abuse that have occurred, or that are like­ly to have occurred, that have an effect on the finan­cial statements.

In sum­ma­ry, the auditor’s report express­es an unqual­i­fied opin­ion on the finan­cial state­ments of the Dis­trict and no reportable con­di­tions were dis­closed dur­ing the audit.

Mr. McDon­ald made a motion to adopt the FY 2017 Audit Report. Vice Chair­man Lee sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

c. Moore Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Group Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Plan — Presentation

Ms. Katie Spill­man gave a pre­sen­ta­tion to the Board, show­ing a high­light reel of media cov­er­age over the past year. Total web­site ses­sions in 2017 were over 400,000, a 19% increase year over year. The web­page con­tin­ues to dri­ve peo­ple to pur­chase their air­line tick­ets through links to the air­line web­sites, with over 53,000 peo­ple click­ing those links in the last year. There were about 120 media clips and 149 mil­lion impres­sions asso­ci­at­ed with them. Over­all, the Escape mar­ket­ing cam­paign was very successful.

Escape 2.0 is rec­om­mend­ed for the 2018 paid adver­tis­ing strat­e­gy. Key adver­tis­ing objec­tives have not changed from year to year, just increas­ing the num­ber of peo­ple who vis­it the web­site, sub­scribe to the newslet­ter and click the links to pur­chase air­line tick­ets. The objec­tive of Escape 2.0 is an ​‘always on’ media approach, upping the dig­i­tal foot­print and focus­ing on the 100-mile radius of ECP.

Mr. Jay Tusa informed the Board that Wal­ton Coun­ty is mov­ing for­ward with the process of con­tribut­ing funds to go towards adver­tis­ing efforts to help high­light the intro­duc­tion of Amer­i­can Air­lines to ECP. About 50% of the peo­ple who fly into Wal­ton Coun­ty are using ECP for their trav­el needs.

Bay EDA:

Ms. Bec­ca Hardin was excit­ed to tell the Board about a French avi­a­tion com­pa­ny that was recent­ly in town and look­ing into prospects in Bay Coun­ty. She also dis­cussed the busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties sur­round­ing the impend­ing arrival of Amer­i­can Air­lines to ECP, the mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing pro­gram start­ing at FSU in Pana­ma City, and the much antic­i­pat­ed Reaper pro­gram at Tyn­dall Air Force Base. Inter­na­tion­al press releas­es helped to spark even more inter­est in the com­mu­ni­ty and have received fan­tas­tic feed­back. Ms. Hardin has host­ed three prospect vis­its, two inter­na­tion­al and one domes­tic com­pa­ny, over the last few weeks. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion con­tin­ues dai­ly and rep­re­sen­ta­tives for Project Soho are expect­ed in Feb­ru­ary to dis­cuss and begin construction.

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan explained that with the addi­tion of Amer­i­can Air­lines, Staff and ZHA are work­ing to refine ter­mi­nal con­cepts for a pos­i­tive effect on the air­port. There was dis­cus­sion on the announce­ment of Amer­i­can Air­lines begin­ning ser­vice in June. The addi­tion of Amer­i­can Air­lines to the air­lines serv­ing ECP is sig­nif­i­cant because all four lega­cy car­ri­ers will be serv­ing ECP.

This could have an impact on the fares as a result of more competition.

Ms. Sims dis­cussed the need to work with the Bay Coun­ty, St. Joe Com­pa­ny, and the air­port to ensure that sup­port areas for restau­rants, food trucks and oth­er com­mer­cial needs are met.

Mr. McClel­lan dis­cussed the lengthy and repet­i­tive process of acquir­ing a new air­line. Because of staffing changes and a merg­er, it took four years to bring Amer­i­can Air­lines to ECP. Staff con­tin­ues to try to bring new ser­vice to the Air­port, both with new air­lines and with new destinations.

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no pub­lic comments.

Adjourn­ment:

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


Tal­isa Price, Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary Russ Math­is, Chairman