12/08/2009

Meeting Minutes for:
Monthly Board Meeting
Yuma International Airport, Conference Room
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 at 04:00 PM

Call to Order:
The Yuma County Airport Authority, Inc. (YCAA) Regular Board of the Board of Directors was called to order at 4:00 PM on Dec 8, 2009 in the Yuma International Airport Conference Room, 2191 E. 32nd Street, Suite 218, Yuma, Arizona 85365. The Presiding officer was Karl Moedl, President.

YCAA MEMBERS PRESENT WERE:
Karl Moedl President
Ron Rice1st Vice President
Rob Ingold 2nd Vice President
William Gresser Treasurer
Albert Gardner Secretary
Harry Hengl, Director
Gary Magrino, Director
Robert McLendon, Director
James Carruthers, Director
Dr. Brian Cullen, Director
Jeanine Rhea, Director, (attended electronically)
Mike Taylor, Director
Ed Whitehead, Director

ALSO PRESENT WERE:
Mr. Williams, Airport Director
Gerald Hinkle, Jr., Chief Financial Officer
Gladys Wiggins, Airport Operations Director
Gen Grosse, Corporate Account Manager
Lynn Hall, Director of Maintenance
Andrea Lopez, Executive Assistant
Lt. Col. Workman, Military Liaison
Wayne Benesch, Airport Counsel
Joe Gamez, CareFlight
Gill Garza, Garza Aviation
Larry Gould, Director Elect
Mikel Smith, Director Elect
Antonio Alvarez, NEI Geotechnical
Danny Wren, Pilkington
Renee Mann, YCAA Operations
Maria Gonzales, YCAA Bookkeeper
Major James Combs, MCAS
Jerry Lococo, LPC
Drew Pilkington, LPC

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The President called for a motion to approve the minutes of the Previous Board Meeting. Mr. Hengl so moved. Mr. Gardner seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
The President called for a motion to approve the minutes of the Special Board Meeting of November 16, 2009. Mr. Hengl so moved. Dr. Cullen seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

1) Awards: The YCAA President will present awards to the Airport's Runner Up Employee of the Year", Mrs. Andrea Lopez and the "Airport Employee of the Year", Mrs. Renee Mann

Mr. Williams briefed that AIRPORT Employee of the Quarter/Year

At the beginning of 2008 the Employee of the Quarter and Employee of the Year programs were introduced to all YCAA Employees. Our employees were taught that the only way to win was to provide exceptional "Customer Service."

The plan includes four quarterly winners, each selected by the Airport's management team, plus a "Wildcard Employee of the Quarter" selected by the employees themselves. The prize for winning one of the five awards is a $100 gift certificate at Wal-Mart. But the real prize is the opportunity to compete for Employee of the Year. These five individuals would then each be considered for the "Employee of the Year Runner Up" with a prize annual award of $500 and "Employee of the Year" and the grand prize annual award of $1,000 to be presented at the December Board meeting in time for Christmas.

This year our four quarterly employees are: Andrea Lopez, Renee Mann, Juan Trasvina and Geraldo Sanchez. The wildcard winner is Juan Zavala.

Trying to select an Employee of the Year is difficult when the choices include five superbly qualified individuals who spend each day putting forth their best efforts for our customers.

The "Runner Up" Employee of the year is Andrea Lopez. Andrea Lopez has been with the airport for almost six years. In the last twelve months Andrea has really brought an organizing flair to the Airport Director's office, becoming our Kindle guru, keeping a killer schedule from destroying us all, and most important, a smile on everyone's face.

The Winner of the 2009 Employee of the Year is Renee Mann. Renee has been with the airport for eight months. In the eight months Renee has been here she has proven to be one of our most effective representatives to the public. It is not uncommon to see Renee working with individual passengers to make sure they are comfortable and sound. It is also not uncommon to see her sorting out a squabble among taxi drivers or any other high intensity moment. She is truly worth of our recognition as "Employee of the Year."

2) Recognition of Achievement. Mr. Moedl acknowledged the significant contribution of two exceptional Directors of the Yuma County Airport Authority, Mr. Gary Magrino and Mr. Ron Rice, who will be retiring from the Board at the end of December. Being a Director of the Airport Authority is a volunteer job and requires countless hours of business and regulatory research, an ability to navigate through innumerable bureaucratic and financial minefields, and a personal investment of time, emotion and caring about the well-being of the Citizens of Yuma County and the surrounding region. Several Board members voiced gratitude for their contributions and wished them all the best as they move ahead to the future.

Committee Report

1) Discussion on the topic of hiring a lobbyist for the Airport

Mr. McLendon briefed that the Government and Public Relations committee had met with Mr. Pat Mitchell, a Washington Lobbyist, originally from Yuma, to discuss the possibilities that were available with regard to having our own lobbyist in DC. The Committee felt that it would be a good idea to revisit this question early next year. No further action is planned at this time.

Regular Agenda

1) Monthly report by Chief Financial Officer on current financial status and recent activities

Mr. Williams briefed that overall, revenues and expenses are within acceptable parameters as compared to our budget. There were no questions.

2) Discussion and Possible Action to authorize the YCAA President to sign a construction contract award for the GA Terminal and for the YCAA President or Airport Director to sign all other necessary documents to move forward contingent upon final contract negotiation and review by airport Staff and legal counsel.

Mr. Williams briefed that the airport received the contractor bids for the Design Build renovation project for the Bet-Ko hangar building. The results were less than satisfactory. Only 3 bids were received. The bid prices on two of the proposals were $972,939 and $973,127. The third bid was exactly for our stated budget of $500,000 but included an alternative proposal, developed by the architect, to demolish the existing Bet-Ko facility and replace it with a new facility in a different location, that would be about 3,000 sq ft.

Mr. Williams presented two slides from the Alternative proposal illustrating the new layout of the area and a proposed floor plan. He asked the Board if they wanted to move in the direction indicated by the alternative proposal. After some discussion the consensus of the Board was to stick with the original design goals of renovating the Bet-Ko Hangar and if that proved untenable to then readdress the alternative concept.

With the decision made on which direction to move forward with, Mr. Williams pointed out that although the proposal by LPC was the lower of the two bids, at this point it was difficult to make a comparison of the proposals based on "Value" since both proposals were so far over the proposed budget. Based on our experience we feel that both proposers possess the necessary expertise to complete the project. At this point we could continue the discussion with both proposers or select the low bid and see if we can reach a solution.

The Board instructed Mr. Williams to work with the low bid proposer and try to value engineer an approach that will meet both our needs and our budget. If that attempt is not successful then he should move to the next lowest bidder and try again. If he is still not able to reach a solution then he should consider that as a failed effort and present a new proposal at the next board meeting.

At that time Mr. Williams introduced the results of the "Name that Terminal" survey. The public seemed to like the name of "Bet-Ko Terminal" with "Yuma Pilot Center" coming in second. The consensus of the Board was to see if the airport could lock down the naming rights of "Bet-Ko" on the condition that no costs are involved. If we were unable to get the "Bet-Ko" name then they approved the name "Yuma Pilot Center."

3) Discussion and Update concerning the Solar Powered Parking Lot and the Solar Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Agreement with Arizona Public Service Company ("APS") and the proposed agreement with PPA Partners, Inc. of Scottsdale, AZ. for their installation, operation and maintenance of an auto parking shade structure supporting a solar system.

Mr. Williams reviewed our consultations with PPA Partners, Inc. in April of this year concerning the possibility of installing Covered Parking for the Airport Terminal's parking lot by combining that effort with the development of a Solar Power system that would be mounted on top of the parking shades. Our objective was that there would be no risk to the airport, no cost to the airport, and a guaranteed electricity rate lower than the normal APS rate over the next 20 years.

The motivation for PPA to investigate and enter in to such an agreement is the substantial financial subsidy that is currently available from Federal and State governments. For the past several months PPA Partners, Inc. has worked on such a proposal to APS (on our behalf) which has now been accepted by APS. The result will be two contracts for the Airport.

The first contract will be between the Airport Authority and APS. This is an agreement by APS to purchase the power that is produced from the airport's covered parking solar power facilities (CPSPF) and to purchase the associated Renewable Energy Credits. It is important to note that the APS contract is between the Airport and the electrical Utility. The solar plant is on our property and we are the responsible party. This fact makes the second contract very important.

The second contract is between the Airport and PPA Partners, Inc. We are currently reviewing the contract and negotiating with PPA to ensure our original goals are still being met, specifically those requirements to ensure the "No Risk to the Airport" portion of the agreement.

The current draft contains most of the provisions we initially required such as a complete and all encompassing warranty, all new materials, standard industry construction practices and complete compliance with manufacturer's installation procedures. Many of these stipulations are normal construction specifications. Otherwise there are known technical discrepancies between the two contracts which will be resolved before presenting the contracts to the Board for approval.

There was some discussion by the Board on the topic and Mr. Williams clarified that he was not seeking approval at this time as too many questions were still unanswered. The consensus of the Board was that the proposal was attractive but several Board Members were very clear in their instructions that Mr. Williams must spend extra time on his due diligence prior to asking for final approval.

4) Discussion and update on the initiative with Deerns USA for the lease of up to 80 acres of airport land in the parcel west of the 4th avenue extension for the purpose of building a solar power facility.

Mr. Williams reviewed staff efforts on recruiting outside investors in two separate areas: First, we are seeking investment in a solar power facility in the 80 acres west of the 4th Avenue Extension. The second goal is to attract investment in new hangars in the DCC.

Mr. Williams said that we had moved one step closer in our work with Deerns USA and its financial partner, AmEuro Energy Innovations. Deerns is currently finalizing a loan guarantee request to the Department of Energy for the purpose of building a solar power installation on airport property in two separate phases. Each Deployment Phase is expected to generate four megawatts of power. A portion of the generated power would be available to the airport, and a portion could be sold to customers who move into the DCC. The final product would guarantee the airport a long-term source of electrical power that is below projected APS rates.

Mr. Williams briefly review the technology concerning the Concentrated Photo Voltaic (CPV) power systems. Concentrated Photo Voltaic systems turn reflectivity inward. This internal concentration, converts sunlight into electricity at a high efficiency level and kept reflectivity similar to that found in the more traditional "Black Panel" PV systems. There was a consensus that a demonstration with an approval from MCAS would be a good idea before any action by the Board.

Mr. Williams explained that Deerns had expressed an interest in hangar development and he briefly reviewed the current offer we are making towards all potential developers that are interested in the development of Airport hangars In essence we are offering to be full service property managers for hangar developers to include services such as marketing, security, building maintenance and handling routine billing and financial transactions. A key aspect, and important incentive is that when the Hangar is empty, we charge nothing to the developer. This benefits both the developer and airport.

The consensus of the Board was that this was a good proposal and that staff should continue to work with that model and to further investigate the Deerns proposal. Reference was again made to focus on the due diligence efforts of any proposal prior to presenting a contract to the Board.

5) Discussion and update regarding current construction projects, associated contracts, grant status, general aviation, marketing efforts, conferences and meetings and items with the city and county. (Presentation by Airport Director)

CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION:
Mr. Williams said the CBP project was moving forward, but very slowly. Although we have received the contract award we have not yet received the Notice to Proceed (NTP). He had exchanged emails with the new contracting officer, Jon Massey, and was hopeful we would receive the NTP in the near future.

Mr. Williams explained that he had grown very concerned about the CBP lease. The CBP Leasing Officer has stated there are legal obstacles on their side that will require an unknown timeline to resolve. The bottom line was that he was could no longer confirm we would have a lease by January 1. On a positive note, Mr. Narvaez had promised to bring a "draft lease' to the Dec 15 meeting. Mr. Williams stated that the terms remain as previously briefed, i.e. a rate of $9.00 PSFPY for the Turner Building and ground rent from the Airport's Table of Standard Rates and Charges, of $0.30 PSFPY. The lease would also include costs for the renovation, and for facility and grounds maintenance billed at cost plus 15%.

There was some discussion about the possibility that the CBP initiative would again be delayed for an unknown period of time; partly because the CBP environmental assesment was still not completed, partly due to questions surrounding the lease. Many of the Board felt this was troubling considering a large part of the Airport's multi-million dollar infrastructure investment in the DCC area was still tied up waiting for CBP to lease the property. The Board was not inclined to leave the property in limbo any longer. The Board reiterated their approval for Mr. Williams to propose and obtain a finalized CBP lease for the YCAA President to sign if it became available by Jan 1, 2010 and was in compliance with the terms and conditions briefed. The board also instructed Mr. Williams that after January 1, 2010, he was to move forward with any opportunity for that property, especially those that supported the requests from YPG.

TAXIWAY Y:
On Taxiway Y, Lt Col Workman reported that progress was slow but the project was moving forward. Mr. Williams stated that he had advised the FAA that coordination with MCAS had run into some bumps and that the Airport was preparing to have two grant proposals for the coming year; one for Taxiway Y, in the hopes that everything could be finalized, but also a backup project, the DCC Apron Phase 2, which had been designed last year. Mr. Williams is planning a trip to the FAA in January to bring them up to speed on events here.

MILITARY LIAISON
Lt Col Workman expressed Col Werth's continued support for the Taxiway Y project. He also mentioned he would like to begin work with the airport on the lease for the Antenna Farm.

CALL TO THE PUBLIC
There was no Public Comment.

ACTION

Mr. Hengl made a Motion to Authorize the Airport Director to initiate negotiations with the two qualifying vendors, in turn, to renovate the GA Terminal and to sign a construction contract for not more than $500,000 to be drawn from the existing tax exempt note with 1st Bank Yuma, contingent upon successful review by staff and airport counsel. Dr. Cullen seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business before the Board, Mr. Hengl made a motion to adjourn, Mr. Gardner seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. The meeting adjourned at 5:11PM.



// Approved //
Craig Williams
Airport Director
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