MUNICIPAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY
The Regular Meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority of the City of Fargo, North Dakota, was held Tuesday, August 13, 2019, at 8:00 a.m. in the Airport Boardroom.
The members present or absent were as follows:
Present: Linn, Engen, Clark, Haugen
Absent: Lind
Others: Bossart
Chairman Haugen presiding.
Approved the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority Held July 23, 2019:
The minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority held July 23, 2019, were approved without objection.
Approved the Airport Vouchers Totaling $59,430.76:
Dr. Clark moved to approve the airport vouchers totaling $59,430.76. Second by Mr. Engen.
On the call of the roll, members Linn, Engen, Clark, Haugen voted aye. Absent and not voting: Lind
The motion was declared carried.
Approved the Individual Voucher to Sixel LLC:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the individual voucher in the amount of $4,600.00 to Sixel LLC for July passenger enplanement fees for Frontier Airlines.
Second by Dr. Clark.
On the call of the roll, members Linn, Engen, Clark, Haugen voted aye. Absent and not voting: Lind
The motion was declared carried.
Approved the Individual Voucher to The Forum:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the individual voucher in the amount of $308.55 to The Forum for legal advertisement for the Airfield Pavement Marking Project.
Second by Dr. Clark.
On the call of the roll, members Linn, Engen, Clark, Haugen voted aye. Absent and not voting: Lind
The motion was declared carried.
Approved the Individual Voucher to Flint Group:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the individual voucher in the amount of $10,813.90 to Flint Group for partial payment request for the 2019 Airport Marketing Program.
Second by Dr. Clark.
On the call of the roll, members Linn, Engen, Clark, Haugen voted aye. Absent and not voting: Lind
The motion was declared carried.
Received Request From the Fargo Air Museum for Annual Event Sponsorship:
The communication from Mr. Jim Sweeney, Chairman of the Fargo Air Museum, dated August 8, 2019, was received and filed without objection.
Mr. Dobberstein stated the Fargo Air Museum’s annual fund raising event is September 14 and they are requesting a sponsorship from the Airport Authority. He stated in the past the board has approved a silver level sponsorship for $2,500.00.
Ms. Linn moved to approve a silver sponsorship of $2,500.00 for the Fargo Air Museum’s 2019 Celebrity Dinner and Auction.
Second by Dr. Clark.
All members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.
Discussed Annual GFMEDC Membership Contribution:
Mr. Dobberstein stated Mr. Joe Raso, Executive Director of the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, came out last week to give an annual investor update. He stated the Airport Authority started a number of years ago investing $1,500 annually with the GFMEDC, increasing that the last few years to $1,650. Mr. Dobberstein stated he is going to suggest that we increase our annual pledge amount to $5,000 per year for the next three years. He stated they will be setting up an Air Service Task Force, which will be a joint effort with the GFMEDC and The Chamber. He stated Mr. Raso was very involved in our conversations with DGS during their customer service problems and staffing issues. He stated they provided wage information to DGS that was instrumental in getting DGS to increase their employee wages recently.
Mr. Engen moved to approve an annual pledge of $5,000 for the next three years to the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation.
Second by Ms. Linn.
All members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.
Authorized Attendance at the Great Lakes Chapter Airports Conference and Environmental Workshop, October 27-29, 2019, Chicago, IL:
Mr. Dobberstein stated this is the largest conference the Great Lakes Chapter AAAE has each year. He stated this conference has a lot of focus on airfield operations. He stated as the chapter President he will be attending the conference, but we will also select a couple of employees from our airfield staff to attend.
Mr. Engen moved to authorize attendance by multiple staff members at the Great lakes Chapter Airports Conference and Environmental Workshop, October 27-29, 2019, Chicago, IL.
Second by Dr. Clark.
All members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.
Received Bids and Recommendation of Award for Airfield Pavement Markings Project:
Mr. Dobberstein stated we advertised a request for bids for airfield pavement markings with the bid opening to be yesterday at 2:00 p.m. He stated there were no bids received.
Mr. Jeff Klein, Mead & Hunt, was recognized and stated the project was to remark all of the paint markings on the main runway and the surface pavement hold signs on the airfield. He stated there were three plan holders but no one provided a bid. He did talk to the local contractor, Northstar, and they did not submit a bid because they were unable to get a quote on water blasting. He stated we specified water blasting rather than sand blasting because of the mess and clean-up with sand blasting. He stated another factor might have been that it is night work, which is not that appealing. He stated he recommends rebidding the project in the spring.
Mr. Dobberstein stated we do have our FAA Part 139 certification inspection in the fall so we will be doing some painting before that inspection.
Mr. Henry Swedberg, Airfield Supervisor, was recognized and stated painting over the existing markings is not ideal but they will be painting over the critical areas as a temporary fix, even though it will not last.
Mr. Dobberstein stated we could look at having Northstar come out and help us with what they can before the FAA inspection.
Received Update on Runway 36 Special Authorization CAT II Approach:
Mr. Jeff Klein, Mead & Hunt, was recognized and stated they have been working on the Special Authorization Cat-II Feasibility Study. He stated today he has some weather data to present, as well as the results of a survey sent to airport tenants.
Mr. Klein stated the weather data they gathered from the FAA's data base and pulled IFR operations for non-hub airports similar to Fargo that do have CAT-II approaches or special authorization CAT-II approaches. He stated from a weather standpoint there seems to be justification for the special authorization.
Mr. Klein stated we have a draft technical memo we are working on finalizing to submit to the FAA for review.
Mr. Klein stated they sent surveys to the air carriers, cargo carriers, Fargo Jet Center, and some of the general aviation tenants with larger aircraft. He reviewed some of the survey results that stood out to him.
Chairman Haugen stated he felt the survey questions were geared to what have you done and what are you doing now, rather than emphasis on the future. He asked Mr. Jim Sweeney, Fargo Jet Center, how many corporate aircraft based on the airport are equipped to make CAT-II approaches and how many pilots have that training.
Mr. Sweeney was recognized and stated a few. He stated only if it is a brand new aircraft, unless it was retrofitted.
Mr. Klein stated they will be getting this tech memo off to the FAA for their review soon.
Received Update on Proposed SRE Building Project, Receive Architect's Project Scope and Fee Proposal:
Mr. Terry Stroh, TL Stroh Architects, was recognized and presented the Project Scope for the SRE Building, along with a Fee Proposal for the project. He stated the FAA requires an independent review of the fees and they were able to find an architectural firm in Grand Canyon, AZ, that will conduct the review.
Mr. Stroh stated they continue to have their weekly meetings with the airfield maintenance staff. He stated next week they will be talking with the staff about some specifics with regards to electrical and mechanical aspects of the operation. He stated the goal is still to get in the ground this fall.
Mr. Stroh stated there is a fair amount of concrete around the existing facility that is in need of replacement. He stated it was originally thought that would be a different project but in discussions with Mead & Hunt we might have that as an alternate in this project, as some of the pavement will be replaced because of the relocation of the existing fuel tanks. He stated the project will have three alternates: 1) service bay addition to the existing building, 2) upgrade lighting in the existing building, 3) pavement replacement.
Mr. Dobberstein stated the action needed today is to approve the proposed project scope and fee proposal, subject to the independent fee review, which he will forward to Mas Airport Services in Grand Canyon, AZ. He stated the proposed fee is $509,809 for the SRE Building project estimated to cost $5,872,000 for the new building and $1,000,000 for the service bay addition and lighting upgrade to the existing facility.
Mr. Engen moved to approve the Project Scope for the SRE Building and the Proposed Fee of $509,809 submitted by TL Stroh Architects, subject to a favorable independent fee review.
Second by Dr. Clark.
All members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.
Receive Update on Airport Services Discussion:
Mr. Dobberstein stated we have exchanged some letters with city hall in terms of our path forward for the services the City is currently providing under our 1969 agreement. He stated he did put together a Request for Proposals for Professional Employer Organization Services (PEO services) for a company to come in and provide all human resources, payroll administration, benefits administration, workers compensation, risk management and human resource information systems. He stated the advertisement is basically ready to go and it would run for a couple of weeks with a submission deadline of Monday, September 16, 2019. He stated that is one step forward in terms of the decision to continue with the City or doing everything on our own.
Mr. Dobberstein stated the other areas we would need to evaluate are IT, finance, and pension. He stated Darren Anderson has had some preliminary discussions with current IT providers. He stated as far as finance, we could look at the possibility of having a separate module of the current H.T.E. accounting system the city uses, and if not we would split off and find a system/program of our own. He stated Attorney Bossart has been reviewing the pension system and the agreement with the City of Fargo from 1969 that airport employees be allowed to be part of that pension system. He stated that does not change, regardless of the rhetoric. He stated she has done a lot of review on the city ordinance being silent on the inclusion of the airport employees as there is a separate agreement saying we are part of that pension plan. He added that the Fargo Park District is part of the City of Fargo pension plan and they not mentioned in the city ordinance.
Mr. Dobberstein stated there are many things that will need to be discovered and accomplished in a short period of time. He stated whoever the PEO would be would handle all of the human resources functions. He stated they would go out into the market with a broker to solicit health insurance, as well as other insurance coverages, 457 deferred compensation, etc.
Chairman Haugen stated there are a lot of moving parts in negotiating this agreement with the City of Fargo and we are going to need more time and information to make a good value judgment and decision.
Mr. Dobberstein stated there is no doubt the health insurance costs will go up but part of that will be looking at different plan options, such as a Health Savings Account. He stated some of the other airports in the Airport Association of North Dakota (Grand Forks, Dickinson, Devils Lake and others) are looking to get together to form an employee group to purchase health insurance. He stated there is a company in South Dakota that handles health insurance plans for associations.
Mr. Dobberstein stated per the board’s direction today we can start down that path.
Mr. Dobberstein stated the agreement proposed by the City of Fargo totally ignores state statute. He stated if we were to sign that agreement as presented we would be in violation of North Dakota Century Code 2-06 and there is no way we could even think of signing something like that.
Mr. Engen stated regardless of the outcome of this, it is a good practice to go through every few years anyway to understand advances in technology, changes in prices and understand that there is an opportunity and decide whether we take it or stay where we are.
Mr. Dobberstein stated there are going to be upfront costs that we do not know yet. He stated there will certainly be political pushback and we will be prepared for that, but it is time to be an actual airport authority.
Dr. Clark moved to approve the advertisement of the Request for Proposals for Professional Employer Organization Services with proposals to be received by September 16, 2019.
Second by Ms. Linn.
All members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.
Airport Construction and Security Update:
Chairman Haugen stated the ND National Guard is having the groundbreaking ceremony for their new readiness center on the north end of the airport tomorrow at 1:00 pm.
Mr. Dobberstein stated Mead & Hunt is working on the closeout for Project AIP48.
Other Business:
Mr. Dobberstein stated he had a conversation yesterday with Nancy Olson from Lutheran Social Services, who now manages the RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program). He stated RSVP had administered the airport information center from its inception in 1989 up until a few years ago when the CVB, without our knowledge, started to pay the volunteers. He stated we received notice from the CVB that effective September 1 they are going to stop paying those employees at the Airport Information Center.
Mr. Dobberstein stated the RSVP program has been moved around a bit locally, but it is a federal program and there is a stipulation in the program that they cannot provide volunteers to fill positions that have been paid positions. He stated the Airport Authority has never paid a salary for these positions so we will work with Ms. Olson on those details. He stated he does not know how many of the current volunteers will be interested in staying if it is not a paid position. He stated this is still a work in progress and he will have more information later.
Chairman Haugen congratulated Mr. Shawn Dobberstein on recently being named the 2019 Great Lakes Chapter AAAE Airport Professional of the Year. Mr. Dobberstein was also recently elected President of the chapter.
The meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority was adjourned until the next Regular Meeting to be held August 27, 2019.