Commissioner Frank Freels was the only one of the county commissioners designated by Chair Merrol Hyde to be part of an ad hoc committee to participate in a review of the Airport Authority board’s procedures and meetings that attended the Monday, November 23, monthly meeting of the board since the appointment.

In addition to Freels, Hyde had appointed Chris Hughes, Paul Goode, Trish LeMarbre, and Jim Vaughn.

The Airport Authority board made the decision during Monday’s meeting to follow the advice of their own attorney, Art McClellan–whose opinion is in disagreement with that of County Law Director Leah Dennen–and adopt the by-laws that define the composition of the members of the board to include only two County Commissioners.

The revised by-laws state: “The total number of members of the Sumner County Regional Airport Authority shall be … a minimum of seven (7) and up to nine (9) members.”

The first part of section one states, “Two (2) members shall be sitting members of the Sumner County Legislative body (the County Commission) to be nominated by the Sumner County Regional Airport Authority and confirmed by the Sumner County Commission.”

The section further lists three restrictions placed upon the participation by these two members. McClellan noted these restrictions as important in defining the scope of the participation of the commissioners.

“These two (2) members shall not have the authority and/or the legal ability to make motions, to second motions, and/or to vote on any matter. …”

These restrictions have been the center of discussion among members of the County Commission who have argued that the county needs more participation in the matters governed by the Airport Authority.

Airport board member Dan Downs, a regional developer who recently resigned from the county’s planning commission, directed much of his comments to County Executive Anthony Holt, who has been attending the airport board meetings.

“Are those commissioners going to attend all the meetings; was that the intent?” asked Downs.

Holt stated,  “Yes, that was my understanding. It is my understanding, from my conversation with the county attorney, …   they’re going to attend these meetings for a nine-month period, and, at the end of that time, they’re going to make a report back to the full County Commission with recommendations of possible action or actions. That’s all I know.”

Downs had more questions for Holt: “Two more questions, if I may.  The first one, it’s not an unknown fact that there is a member of the commission who has a personality conflict with a member of the board. Since this evaluation process has been pushed out nine months, which kind of coincides with an election, is there anything that can be done in the interim to simply take that personality conflict out of this situation so we can go forward as a board in a positive manner and continue to do the county’s work in operating this airport and seeing that this airport expands for the betterment of this county? Is there anything that you think we might do to eliminate the personality conflicts?”

Holt replied: “I hope the commissioners come out here with a positive attitude and they are open to the  fact-finding mission and actually find out what has been going on at the airport t and answer some questions they might have.”

Holt alluded to the effort he has made to establish a rapport between the airport board and the commission.

“For the last 12 months, I’ve tried to attend all the meetings I possibly could, and I’ve tried to go back and disseminate that information to the County Commission. I’ve been a in a kind of situation where I been treated very graciously here, and sometimes I get in the crosshairs here, and I go back, and I get in the crosshairs of the County Commission. I think it’s always better, if you want to get the information, to go to the source. So I think it will be good to have commissioners, and I’ve tried to get them involved, coming out here and participating.”

Holt complimented Freels for his interest in serving.

“I think Mr. Freels has stepped up to the plate. He’s been out here several times, and I appreciate his being out here tonight. I think it was productive to have Mr. (Jerry) Stone come out last time. There is nothing like getting the information direct. When you’re trying to relate information secondhand, you can lose some of the interpretation and some of the content,”

Holt continued to argue that cooperation and consent to work together with both bodies were the priorities of his efforts. He also gave respect to Steve Sudbury, the manager of the Sumner County Regional Airport.

 “I’m hopeful we will be of one mindset eventually and come together and move the process forward. You look at the map right here, and there are a lot of things going on out here. We’re being very successful–and Mr. Sudbury, with the leadership out here–and getting some of the grants. Like all of you, I want to see a positive outcome and a good product. You just have to get people involved. Our legislative body is a key component of that.”

Downs, having pointed out that the request by the County Commission had been termed illegal, stated, “We had discussions trying to fulfill the requests about having the two members on that. It’s a follow up on that request. We felt, and I’ll take blame, responsibility, we think it would be good to have some people who have expressed an interest.”

He added, “I don’t think that anybody in this room currently is here to play any games, to have one-upmanship on anybody, and we’re here for one reason, and one reason only, and that’s to better this airport for the betterment of the community, meaning to see this airport continue to operate in a positive manner and to expand and flourish so that we might get other businesses to this community who might bring the tax revenues to this come and solve problems we might have.”

Holt commented that his role was as a mediator between two factions that have ultimately the same goal.

“I’m doing what I can, trying to make the situation work. If Mr. McClellan says this is legal and you pass it, I have no problem with that. I would be glad to have a couple of commissioners serve on here. The ad hoc committee is a short duration committee. At the end of that period, I would think this committee is going to go away. That was a recommendation by one of our commissioners. And it passed. … I’m trying to make this work because ... I understand how important this airport is.  We need to overcome whatever obstacles there are.  … I think we’re going to have to ultimately try to overlook inadequacies on both sides and have a meeting of the minds and work together, and I don’t think that’s happened yet.”

Downs asked,  “What thin s would you like to see and in what regard are we not cooperating, in your mind?”

Holt replied, “You have some skeptics.  I think there are some skeptics with the County Commission. Until you work that out, that’s fingerpointng.    … I don’t provide your funding. What I can do is try to be liaison negotiator, ambassador. If you come for funding, I can’t vote. You are going to need that some point in time. You need County Commissioners’ support. … All I’m saying is I want to make it work.”

Downs responded,  “That’s what we want to do.”

Freels asked for permission to speak to the board.

“May I say a word before you vote. Whenever this came up on the County Commission. I thought it was little bit overkill about the five members, since you all had went to two.  Personally, it doesn’t make any difference to me, one way or the other, I don’t have an ax to grind with a single person here. You all got a hard job to do; we’ve got a hard job to do. I’m out to help you. … It doesn’t make any difference to me if it’s five or two. … You tell me what my role is going to be, and I’ll play it.

“I want to be here to help. You’ve got some good talent. … I can see where Dan (Downs) is concerned. I think you guys need to make your own selves comfortable, and we’ll get comfortable with you. If we can vote, okay, and if not, we’ll sit here and listen.”

After the lengthy discussion, the board voted to adopt the by-laws as recommended by McClellan and to nominate Jim Vaughn and Frank Freels as the two commissioners to serve.

The board meets the fourth Monday of every month.