November 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., Novem­ber 15, 2023 by Chair Hol­ly Melzer. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Mr. Les McFatter.

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, 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. There was 13% growth in the month of Octo­ber over the same month last year. Annu­al growth is at 9% and the Air­port had a record fis­cal year with 1.63 mil­lion total pas­sen­gers. There has been an increase in mil­i­tary jets and gen­er­al avi­a­tion activ­i­ty. Load fac­tors have gone down slight­ly due to the change in sea­sons. Due to the Novem­ber meet­ing being held so ear­ly in the month, mar­ket share num­bers are not available. 

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Approve Board Meet­ing Min­utes – Octo­ber 25, 2023

This Item pro­vides for Board approval of the Octo­ber 25, 2023 Board Meet­ing Minutes.

b. Approve 2024 Board Meet­ing Schedule

This item pro­vides for Board approval of the 2024 Board Schedule.

Accord­ing to the Flori­da Spe­cial Dis­trict Hand­book, all Spe­cial Dis­tricts must pub­lish their meet­ing sched­ule. After approval from the Board, this sched­ule will be pub­lished on the Bay Coun­ty Col­umn web­site and on the Air­port web­site. Any changes to the meet­ing dates must be pub­lished at least sev­en (7) days pri­or to the resched­uled meet­ing. Staff is request­ing that the Board Meet­ings begin at 9:00 a.m.

The PANA­MA CITY-BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DIS­TRICT has set the sched­ule for Board Meetings/​Workshops for the year 2024. The meet­ing dates are as follows:

Jan­u­ary 24 Wednesday 

Feb­ru­ary 28 Wednesday

March 27 Wednesday

April 24 Wednesday 

May 29 Wednesday 

June 26 Wednesday 

July 24 Wednesday 

August 28 Wednesday 

Sep­tem­ber 6 Fri­day (Bud­get Workshop) 

Sep­tem­ber 25 Wednesday 

Octo­ber 30 Wednesday 

Novem­ber 20 Wednesday 

Decem­ber 18 Wednesday 

Ethics Train­ing (Req. FS 915) 

July 24 (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.)

Staff rec­om­mends the Board approve the Board Sched­ule for 2024.

c. Approve Pur­chase of Util­i­ty Trac­tor – Deere & Company

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

Ongo­ing and expand­ing main­te­nance oper­a­tions at the Air­port require the acqui­si­tion and main­te­nance of addi­tion­al equip­ment. This pur­chase is for a John Deere Mod­el 5120M Util­i­ty Trac­tor to be uti­lized by Air­port main­te­nance per­son­nel in sup­port of over­all air­port main­te­nance operations.

This pur­chase is pro­vid­ed for in the Airport’s FY24 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal 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 trac­tor is being pro­cured by pig­gy­back­ing on the State of Flori­da Ag & Lawn Equip­ment con­tract #25101900 – 21-STC (Flori­da Depart­ment of Man­age­ment Services)

Staff rec­om­mends Board approval for pur­chase of a Mod­el 5120M Util­i­ty Trac­tor from Deere and Com­pa­ny in amount of $90,917.86. Board approval is rec­om­mend­ed, and autho­riza­tion for Exec­u­tive Direc­tor or his designee to exe­cute the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments, fol­low­ing sat­is­fac­to­ry legal review.

Ms. Williams 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. Approve Con­tract Ter­mi­na­tion – Hensel Phelps

This agen­da item pro­vides for the ter­mi­na­tion of the Con­struc­tion Man­ag­er at Risk Con­tract with Hensel Phelps, Inc. for the North Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion at the North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport.

Mr. McClel­lan explained that this Item is not a reflec­tion on the work that Hensel Phelps per­formed, but strict­ly to allow fund­ing to be secured, fol­lowed by a new Con­struc­tion Man­ag­er at Risk (CMAR) for the final design drawings.

At the May 2023 Board Meet­ing, a Con­tract for Con­struc­tion Man­ag­er at Risk (CMAR) for the Pre-Con­struc­tion Ser­vices was award­ed to Hensel Phelps, Inc. Hensel Phelps then began work­ing with the Design Team on dif­fer­ent ele­ments of the North Ter­mi­nal Design effort.

Over the last sev­er­al months, as Staff was work­ing with the FAA, it was deter­mined that the method­ol­o­gy used for the pro­cure­ment of the CMAR Con­tract was not in accor­dance to FAA Pol­i­cy. The FAA Pol­i­cy requires the inclu­sion of price as a cri­te­ri­on in the eval­u­a­tion process and pre-approval of the CMAR contract. 

Staff and Legal Coun­sel have reviewed the options and the best means of mov­ing for­ward and lim­it­ing the Airport’s finan­cial expo­sure. The rec­om­men­da­tion is to ter­mi­nate the con­tract with Hensel Phelps and pay them through Octo­ber 31, 2023 for their ser­vices. On Octo­ber 30, 2023, the Air­port issued a ​“Stop Work Order” to Hensel Phelps.

The CMAR work effort com­plet­ed to date was to approx­i­mate­ly the 90 – 95% of the design draw­ings. The next steps were a final review and a price esti­mate for the 95% design draw­ings. The work of Hensel Phelps to date has pro­vid­ed great insight and assis­tance to our design Team.

Fol­low­ing the con­tract ter­mi­na­tion, the next step will be to devel­op a new scope for a CMAR for the con­struc­tion phase of the Expan­sion project, uti­liz­ing the infor­ma­tion received from the CMAR Pre-Con­struc­tion efforts and the final design draw­ings for the North Ter­mi­nal Expan­sion. The CMAR ser­vices will be pro­cured accord­ing the Airport’s pur­chas­ing pol­i­cy and will com­ply with FAA pol­i­cy and regulations.

The orig­i­nal con­tract amount for the CMAR ser­vices was $610,225.39 and we have expend­ed $325,238.18. The funds for the con­tract were includ­ed in the FY23 Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Bud­get. This ter­mi­na­tion will have no impact on the FY24 Bud­get. Future costs for CMAR ser­vices will be addressed when the pro­cure­ment is complete.

Staff rec­om­mends ter­mi­na­tion of the CMAR Con­tract with Hensel Phelps, Inc. 

Approval of staff’s rec­om­men­da­tions and autho­riza­tion for the Board Chair or designee to exe­cute the appro­pri­ate doc­u­men­ta­tion, fol­low­ing sat­is­fac­to­ry legal review.

Ms. Williams made a motion to approve the Con­tract Ter­mi­na­tion for Hensel Phelps Mr. Algar­in sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

b. Review Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant Selec­tion Process and Des­ig­na­tion of Board Mem­ber to Serve on GC Review Committee

Mr. McClel­lan and Legal Coun­sel out­lined the new pro­ce­dure that would be used to select the new Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant and explained that a Board Mem­ber would need to be des­ig­nat­ed to serve on the Review Committee. 

This item pro­vides for the Board to estab­lish a Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant Review Com­mit­tee. The pur­pose of the Com­mit­tee is to per­form the ini­tial review of the sub­mis­sions for the Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant and short­list the respons­es based on the cri­te­ria estab­lished in the Request for State­ment of Qual­i­fi­ca­tions. The top ranked firms (3−5 firms based on scor­ing and the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Review Com­mit­tee) will be asked to make a brief pre­sen­ta­tion at the Decem­ber 20, 2023 Board Meet­ing, at which time the Board will accept the rank­ing or deter­mine the appro­pri­ate rank­ing based on the inter­views for final selec­tion of the Gen­er­al Consultant.

The make-up of the Review Com­mit­tee will include 4 staff mem­bers and one Board Member. 

Estab­lish­ment of a Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant Review Com­mit­tee will have no impact on the budget. 

Staff rec­om­mends that the Board estab­lish a Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant Review Com­mit­tee, to include the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Deputy Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Direc­tor of Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion, Man­ag­er of Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion and one Board Mem­ber. Addi­tion­al­ly, the Pur­chas­ing Man­ag­er and Legal Coun­sel will pro­vide sup­port and guid­ance to the Committee.

Board estab­lish­ment of a Gen­er­al Con­sul­tant Review Com­mit­tee as recommended.

Mr. McFat­ter made a motion to nom­i­nate Ms. Williams to serve on GC Review Com­mit­tee. Ms. Williams accept­ed the nom­i­na­tion and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

c. Accept Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (“FDOT”) Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment (“PTGA”) and Adopt Res­o­lu­tion for Tax­i­lane Tie-Ins and Paving

Mr. McClel­lan explained the Res­o­lu­tion require­ment from the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion pri­or to accep­tance of the Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agreement. 

This item requests pre-approval for the accep­tance of a Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment that will pro­vide par­tic­i­pa­tion fund­ing for the con­struc­tion of oper­a­tional pave­ment sur­faces on the Airport.

In sup­port of the new fixed base oper­a­tor, South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion, as well as air­port land­side oper­a­tions, Air­port staff has request­ed state fund­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion for the con­struc­tion of tax­i­lane tie-in con­nec­tions to the South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion air­craft ramp, improve­ment of a West Bay Park­way crossover access­ing South­ern Sky Avi­a­tion, and replace­ment of the Airport’s man­age­ment park­ing lot which was demol­ished in sup­port of the Ter­mi­nal Out­bound Bag­gage expan­sion project.

The Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion has ten­ta­tive­ly agreed to pro­vide a Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment (PTGA) grant with a state-fund­ed por­tion of $200,000 to assist in the ref­er­enced pave­ment projects. 

The total project amount for the pave­ment projects is cur­rent­ly esti­mat­ed at $600,000. Fund­ing is antic­i­pat­ed to include par­tic­i­pa­tion in the amount of $400,000 by the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict, and the par­tic­i­pa­tion amount of $200,000 by the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion through the PTGA.

FDOT requires Board Res­o­lu­tion to accept a PTGA. As such, and in the essence of time, Staff requests pre-approval to accept the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion – Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment and autho­rize the Board Chair or designee to exe­cute the required documents.

Staff rec­om­mends Board pre-approval of Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion – Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment and adop­tion of a Res­o­lu­tion that allows for the Board Chair or designee to exe­cute the required doc­u­ments, fol­low­ing sat­is­fac­to­ry legal review.

Mr. Cramer made a motion to accept the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (“FDOT”) Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment (“PTGA”) and to adopt the Res­o­lu­tion for tax­i­lane tie-ins and paving 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, this Project is for the Employ­ee Lot and the Long-term Lot expan­sion is mov­ing along. Soil is being com­pact­ed and next week curb and gut­ter will begin, fol­lowed by the final asphalt lay­er. This will com­plete the park­ing upgrades for the Airport. 

b. Ter­mi­nal Buildout

Mr. McConnell report­ed the peak of the ceil­ing is being installed. The exit lane has been closed and pas­sen­gers have been rerout­ed for con­struc­tion over the exit lane. Pier upgrades have begun in prepa­ra­tion for adding the sec­ond floor. The steel is onsite and ren­o­va­tions to that area have begun. 

c. Bag Make­up Expansion

Mr. McConnell report­ed the foun­da­tion­al piers have been poured and com­plet­ed. Ver­ti­cal steel has begun to be erected. 

d. Sheltair

Mr. McConnell report­ed Sheltair has begun the com­ple­tion phase of their hangar. They are now mov­ing into Stage 

4 of the Project which will include addi­tion­al park­ing and ramp space.

e. South­ern Sky Aviation

Mr. McConnell report­ed, South­ern Sky is pour­ing the ramp con­crete and the Exec­u­tive Ter­mi­nal Build­ing is near­ing completion. 

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 at this time they are in the process of fin­ish­ing the design drawings. 

Mr. McClel­lan gave an update on fund­ing. An appli­ca­tion has been sub­mit­ted for the Bipar­ti­san Infra­struc­ture Law for $25 mil­lion and a SIB Loan for $26 mil­lion. He met with Sen­a­tor Trum­bull and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Grif­fitts last week regard­ing a $20 mil­lion grant from the state that will be sub­mit­ted this week. There is also anoth­er infra­struc­ture grant that he will be look­ing into that is clas­si­fied for ​“oth­er than road­ways” and could ben­e­fit the Airport. 

Bay EDA Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Bec­ca Hardin gave the Bay EDA update. She met with Richard McCul­lough, Pres­i­dent of Flori­da State Uni­ver­si­ty and Randy Han­na, Dean of the FSU Pana­ma City cam­pus to present the Inspire Ini­tia­tive to the Tri­umph Gulf Coast Board. Project Inspire will bring the engi­neer­ing school from Tal­la­has­see to Pana­ma City to build an Avi­a­tion Cen­ter of Excel­lence at the Air­port. They received ini­tial approval for a $98 mil­lion grant, which is the largest in Triumph’s his­to­ry and hope to have the Cen­ter open by 2025. Air­bus in Mobile, Alaba­ma has shown inter­est in part­ner­ing with the Cen­ter. Bay EDA has been work­ing with Space Flori­da Air­port Author­i­ty and Tri­umph Gulf Coast to secure the $11.25 mil­lion grant to build the nar­row-body hangar for Pre­mier Avi­a­tion. Ms. Hardin and Mr. Ben Moor­man attend­ed MRO Europe in Ams­ter­dam and met with 10 com­pa­nies and has a sub­stan­tial lead from that trip. She will be trav­el­ling with Florida’s Great North­west in Decem­ber to Ham­burg, Ger­many to meet with Air­bus officials.

The Moore Agency Update (Infor­ma­tion Only):

Ms. Katie Spill­man report­ed on the mar­ket­ing. She gave a pre­sen­ta­tion on the pas­sen­ger trav­el trends, and the process and plan­ning for 2024 mar­ket­ing strate­gies. She said that indus­try lead­ers with the Air­ports Coun­cil Inter­na­tion­al say that 2024 is believed to be the mile­stone for glob­al pas­sen­ger traf­fic recov­ery. She said that 2024 trav­el pre­dic­tions reflect the idea that trav­el can help us live our best lives. To embrace this mind­set, she said that they will explore evolv­ing the escape mes­sage and lean into devel­op­ing con­tent that speaks to becom­ing the best ver­sion of our­selves through trav­el. Mr. McClel­lan announced that the Air­port will be hand­ing out cook­ies next Wednes­day to the hol­i­day trav­el­ers as part of the ECP Perks initiative. 

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan gave the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report. For the Thanks­giv­ing week of trav­el, there will be increased shut­tle ser­vice with updat­ed shut­tles to make sure that there will not be delays from the Over­flow Lot. There will also be dig­i­tal signs direct­ing trav­el­ers direct­ly into Over­flow Park­ing as they are com­ing in from West Bay Park­way to make park­ing quick­er and more con­ve­nient. The air­lines are pre­pared for the high­er num­bers of pas­sen­gers. The esca­la­tor is sched­uled to be repaired next week. He also invit­ed the Board to the Trop­i­cal Hol­i­day Lun­cheon on Decem­ber 21, 2024. 

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:05 a.m.

Next meet­ings scheduled: 

Decem­ber 20, 2023 – Board Meet­ing 9:00 a.m.

_________________________________ ________________________________

Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Hol­ly Melz­er, Chair