September 2025 (Workshop) Minutes

The Bud­get Work­shop Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., Sep­tem­ber 4, 2025 by Chair Mark Sheldon. 

Roll was called. In atten­dance were: Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams, Mr. Matt Algar­in, Mr. Les McFat­ter Ms. Hol­ly Melz­er, Vice Chair Will Cramer, and Chair Mark Sheldon.

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Mr. Mark Sheldon.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Mr. Mark Sheldon. 

Pub­lic Comments: 

There were no pub­lic comments.

Pro­posed Bud­get Pre­sen­ta­tion and Review:

Reports:

Air­port Activ­i­ty:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed August pas­sen­ger activ­i­ty reports high­light­ing growth at just under 2%. Year-over-year indi­cates steady growth with mar­ket share main­tained at 24% for the month of July. 

Finan­cial:

Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don pre­sent­ed the finan­cials stat­ing the total assets from July of last year has increased $8 mil­lion, our total cash is up $6.3 mil­lion from July, with a total cash bal­ance of $55.8 mil­lion. Total Unre­strict­ed cash is $1,075 mil­lion com­pared to June 30, 2010 of $65 million. 

Our total lia­bil­i­ties and total debt ser­vice are $27.1 mil­lion. Excess rev­enues over expens­es reflects a year-to-date total amount of $23.7 mil­lion. Oper­at­ing rev­enues over expens­es make up $8.5 mil­lion of that, and the non-oper­at­ing rev­enues over expens­es con­tribute $15.2 million.

As of July 31^st, rev­enues were 101% of the bud­get. The excess rev­enues over expens­es increased in the month of July $23.7 mil­lion, total oper­at­ing rev­enues are at 101% of the bud­get with oper­at­ing expens­es are 93% of bud­get. In July of last year, our excess rev­enues over expens­es, com­pared to last year, were show­ing 112% of bud­get, exceed­ing our bud­get by $893,000.

Air­line Agreements:

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the rate method­olo­gies used for the cur­rent air­line agree­ments, stat­ing the sec­ond option to extend expires in Octo­ber of 2026.

There was con­sen­sus by the Board to con­tin­ue with the cur­rent air­line rate method­ol­o­gy and renew as is cur­rent­ly agreed.

2026 Bud­get Details:

Ms. Dar­lene Gor­don pre­sent­ed bud­getary changes through the years con­sid­er­ing rev­enues and expens­es for all cost cen­ters, includ­ing ter­mi­nal rate charges, land­ing fees, CPE, oper­at­ing, per­son­nel, and set­tle­ment pay­ments to the airlines.

High­lights for the pro­posed bud­get include enplaned pas­sen­gers up 1.1%, land­ing weight up 6.1%, oper­at­ing expens­es increas­ing 6.2% over last years bud­get, insur­ance increased by 18.6% includ­ing prop­er­ty, lia­bil­i­ty, workman’s comp with prop­er­ty and lia­bil­i­ty insur­ance up 22% due to increased val­ues that have been added. Bud­get­ed non­air­line rev­enues increased $829,000 or 5%.

A recap of rev­enues by type are up by 13.3% from the bud­get of 2025 and the main rea­son for that is the air­line rates have increased due to the increased size of the aircraft.

Rental car rev­enue is down 3.6% based on the bud­get and are pro­ject­ed flat for the future. Rental car rate method­ol­o­gy was dis­cussed, staff will review the agree­ments for cur­rent rate struc­ture and CFC col­lec­tion and use. Dis­cus­sion ensued over rental car and park­ing rates con­sid­er­ing the future costs of facil­i­ty improvements.

Ms. Gor­don dis­cussed past air­line rev­enue share at 19% in 2024 ver­sus 36.7% in 2026 after the rev­enue share and set­tle­ment. Addi­tion­al rev­enue sources are park­ing and rental cars.

FY 2026 oper­at­ing expens­es increase by 6.2% or $890,000, per­son­nel costs are up 6.2% at $476,000, which includes two, new staff at a cost of $157,000 includ­ing all ben­e­fits. Health insur­ance went up 11.5% or $229,000, and a base increase of 3% or $89,000 which is the biggest increase on our oper­at­ing expens­es due in large part because of some large claims. 

Dis­cus­sion ensued over insur­ance costs and providers.

Oper­a­tions insur­ance is up $72,000 which includes prop­er­ty, casu­al­ty, lia­bil­i­ty, etc. The main­te­nance bud­get is up 3.6% due to a con­trac­tu­al increase with our jan­i­to­r­i­al ser­vices which includes the addi­tion­al space. Police and Fire are down. Exec­u­tive and admin­is­tra­tive park­ing lot man­age­ment fees are going up by $90,000 this year as are pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices and work­ers com­pen­sa­tion due to salaries and admin­is­tra­tion for addi­tion­al people.

Mr. McClel­lan dis­cussed bud­get increas­es for per­son­nel, includ­ing addi­tion­al law enforce­ment offi­cers due to increased calls for ser­vice, con­struc­tion secu­ri­ty, and mutu­al aid responses. 

All CARES Act grant mon­ey is gone, the rates are minus the CARES Act money.

Cap­i­tal equip­ment larg­er items to pur­chase: Coa­lesc­ing Tubes Bun­dles are clean­ing of the tubes and chillers, the ADIS and ATC shade replace­ment have a NOFO fund­ing grant oppor­tu­ni­ty, ele­va­tor call but­tons, and an air­port rekey.

Ter­mi­nal expan­sion projects and pur­chas­es: main­te­nance, out­bound bag­gage carousel replace­ment, fuel farm, ter­mi­nal loop road design, ter­mi­nal expan­sion con­struc­tion Phas­es 1 and 2, bag­gage sys­tem upgrade of elec­tron­ics, TSA upgrade two L3’s, tree removal from north prop­er­ty, envi­ron­men­tal mit­i­ga­tion, envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment, and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment projects.

There is ongo­ing mit­i­ga­tion of ten-thou­sand acres to the south, we’re going to be com­ing back with a Task Order for the QNS.

Park­er shared images of the ter­mi­nal mas­ter plan, planned expan­sion to the north, and the ter­mi­nal expan­sion project in addi­tion to updates on projects Maple, InSPIRE, IAG, and Gen­er­al Aviation.

Dar­lene explained the ter­mi­nal rental rate method­ol­o­gy and the rea­son for a 27% increase, land­ing fees increased by 26%, CPE is up 25.0%, but still low­er than 2024. 

Dis­cus­sion ensued about addi­tion­al park­ing and increased park­ing rates. 

Mr. McFat­ter made a motion that the Air­port increase park­ing rates by $2.00, and the motion sec­ond­ed by Ms. Melz­er. A vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

There were no addi­tion­al comments. 

Next meet­ing sched­uled: Sep­tem­ber 24, 2025 – Reg­u­lar Board Meeting

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:37 a.m.