MUNICIPAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY

The Regular Meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority of the City of Fargo, North Dakota, was held Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. in the Airport Boardroom.

The members present or absent were as follows:
Present: Haugen, Engen, Lind, Clark (via phone), Linn
Absent: None
Others: Bossart, Strand, Piepkorn

Chairman Linn presiding.

Approved the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority held February 25, 2020:
The minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority held February 25, 2020, were approved without objection.

Approved the Airport Vouchers $57,839.99:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the airport vouchers totaling $57,839.99.
Second by Mr. Lind.
On the call of the roll, members Haugen, Engen, Lind, Clark, Linn voted aye. No member being absent and none voting nay the motion was declared carried.

Approved the Individual Voucher to Sixel LLC:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the individual voucher in the amount of $899.55 to Sixel LLC for consulting services (expenses) Delta HQ Network/Planning Meeting.
Second by Mr. Lind.
On the call of the roll, members Haugen, Engen, Lind, Clark, Linn voted aye. No member being absent and none voting nay the motion was declared carried.

Approved the Individual Voucher to Sixel LLC:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the individual voucher in the amount of $6,380.00 to Sixel LLC for February Passenger Enplanement Fees (American/Phoenix - $4,572.00, Frontier/Phoenix - $1,808.00).
Second by Mr. Lind.
On the call of the roll, members Haugen, Engen, Lind, Clark, Linn voted aye. No member being absent and none voting nay the motion was declared carried.

Approved the Individual Voucher to FTZ Corporation:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the individual voucher in the amount of $962.50 to FTZ Corporation for consulting services for the Foreign-Trade Zone.
Second by Mr. Lind.
On the call of the roll, members Haugen, Engen, Lind, Clark, Linn voted aye. No member being absent and none voting nay the motion was declared carried.

Approved the Individual Voucher to Mead & Hunt:
Mr. Engen moved to approve the individual voucher in the amount of $1,406.00 to Mead & Hunt for partial payment request for engineering services in connection with the CAT-II Feasibility Study.
Second by Mr. Lind.
On the call of the roll, members Haugen, Engen, Lind, Clark, Linn voted aye. No member being absent and none voting nay the motion was declared carried.

Received Update on Proposed Car Rental Ready Lot Reconstruction Project:
Mr. Jon Scraper, Mead & Hunt, was recognized and distributed the proposed layout for the car rental ready lot reconstruction project. He stated they are proposing to change the layout of the lot. He stated the spaces currently follow the curvature of the road, but the spaces will be changed to straight rows in order to make snow removal easier and we also gain 11 parking spaces. He stated because the spaces are being reconfigured we will need to move some of the lighting within the lot. He stated during reconstruction there will be no parking in the lot so there will be alternate areas for the ready lot and for the return lot. He stated we will be utilizing part of the Long Term lot and part of the Economy Lot for about one month. He stated we are working with SP Plus on those arrangements.
Mr. Bernie Ness (Avis/Budget) was recognized and stated the car rental agencies have been involved in the planning process and everyone feels this is the best solution and it will be very doable.
Mr. Scraper stated they are planning to start the project the week after July 4th and plan for the project to take one month.

Receive Update from Flint Communications Regarding 2020 Marketing Plan:
Ms. Tara Olson, Flint Communications, was recognized and thanked the board for the opportunity to review the annual media budget. She stated 2020 is year three of the ‘Find Your Reason to Fly Fargo” campaign. She stated the media budget has really stayed the same. She stated the major shift is from local TV stations to over the top TV (pre-roll commercials on your smart TV). She stated a lot of people are moving away from cable TV to TV apps. She stated the print budget has remained steady. The online media portion will increase just slightly over last year. She stated the overall media budget has increased $10,000 over last year. She stated the remainder of the budget is for public relations, creative updates, social management and website maintenance for a total budget of $243,639.00. She added that social media engagement is up 23.7% over the previous year.

Received Update Regarding Foreign-Trade Zone Operator Agreement with Digi-Key Corporation:
Mr. Dobberstein stated working with our consultant, Foreign-Trade Zone Corporation, we put together the Operator Agreement with Digi-Key, which is the final piece of their process before getting their letter of activation from US Customs and Border Protection. He stated the agreement before the board for approval today is identical to the agreement we have with CNH America. He stated the annual fee for each operator is $15,000 but we are going to offer each of them a multi-user discount of $5,000.
Gen. Haugen moved to approve the Foreign-Trade Zone Operator Agreement with Digi-Key Corporation.
Second by Mr. Engen.
All members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.

Received Proposal for Change Order #1 to the SRE Building Project Architectural Services Contract:
Mr. Terry Stroh, TL Stroh Architects, was recognized and stated the watershed district recently started to put some setback restrictions for projects near their drainage ditches. He stated County Drain 10 has a 175’ setback. He stated the new building will be in line with the existing SRE building, but the district’s engineer, Moore Engineering, has asked for a stability assessment of the drainage ditch. He stated the building will not be close to the drain but there will be some pavement, which can be closer than the 175’. He stated we did get a waiver for that pavement, but they are requesting some additional soil testing to make sure the bank of the drain is stable. He stated this request did come pretty late in the process.
Mr. Lind moved to approve Change Order #1 to the SRE Building Project Architectural Services Contract for the stability assessment.
Second by Haugen.
On the call of the roll, members Haugen, Engen, Lind, Clark, Linn voted aye. No member being absent and none voting nay the motion was declared carried.

Airport Construction and Security Update:
Mr. Terry Stroh, TL Stroh Architects, was recognized and stated we finally received the review from the FAA for the SRE Building Project. He stated we will be advertising for bids starting March 16, with a walk-through scheduled for March 25, with bids to be received April 7.

Mr. Jeff Klein, Mead & Hunt, was recognized and stated advertisement for bids on the Cargo Apron Expansion Project will begin April 6 and bids will be opened on April 30. He stated at the next meeting he would like to have a fee proposal for the board for the Terminal Expansion Study. He stated last year we advertised for bids for an airfield marking project on Runway 18/36 but there were no bids received. He stated what the airport has been able to do for the past few years is to just paint over the markings. He stated after a period of time the paint will no longer stick so the markings need to be removed and new markings painted. He stated today he is going to go out on the airfield with Airfield Supervisor Daren Byrum and inspect the condition of the markings to see if we can wait another year or if the project should be done this year.

Other Business:
Mr. Dobberstein stated the City of Fargo has requested access to airport land east of University Drive as a borrow pit in the event of a flood. He stated this is the same site the airport has granted the City of Fargo access to for decades.

Mr. Dobberstein stated our meeting with Alaska Airlines and Microsoft in Seattle has been postponed due to the coronavirus situation.

Mr. Dobberstein stated passenger traffic in February was up 18.2% over last year and we are up 17.9% YTD over 2019. He stated we have been working with SP Plus on overflow parking areas and that has been working well. He stated we are expecting flight reductions in April because of the coronavirus but we are awaiting further details from the airlines on that. He stated we have taken actions in the terminal building to increase awareness of handwashing, sanitizing, etc.

Mr. Dobberstein stated he attended the AAAE Legislative Conference in Washington, DC last week and we discussed a lot of items. He stated we discussed increasing the PFC cap and there is bipartisan support in the house for that. He stated airports are pushing to continue funding of the TSA LEO Reimbursement Program, which funds the staffing of our checkpoint by the Fargo PD, as well as the staffing of the exit lanes by TSA personnel.

Gen. Haugen gave a summary of the AAAE Industrial Aviation & Military Operations Workshop in Colorado Springs he attended. He stated there were some very interesting tours of the airport. He stated he did meet Mr. Robert Craven, who is the Director of Airport Planning and Programming for the FAA. He stated he is new in the position but he talked to him about grants and our terminal building expansion project specifically. He stated his presentation included his realization that the FAA has been awarding grants late in the fiscal year which then means grant money arrives during the construction off season. He stated his big push is to see grants awarded in February and no later than August. He stated about half of the group in attendance were military members from bases collocated with commercial airports.

Mr. Dobberstein stated we are still in a standoff with the City of Fargo regarding the NDPERS Public Safety Defined Benefit Retirement Plan for our firefighters. He stated Attorney Bossart has been working on this. He stated our firefighters qualify for this plan but the City of Fargo does not offer that. He stated in order for our firefighters to get that benefit the airport needs to have its own NDPERS account or the City needs to figure out how to offer that to our firefighters. He stated this has been going on since January and it is getting very frustrating. He stated there is nothing to meet about. It is a matter of the City offering it to our firefighters or the MAA has its own NDPERS account. He stated it is very simple. All of the paperwork here is ready to go to offer that to our firefighters but for some reason the City cannot figure it out.

Mr. Strand asked if the MOU offers any guidance on that.

Mr. Dobberstein stated it should. He stated the City of Fargo firefighters do not have this as they are not in the NDPERS, they have their own pension fund. He stated this is not an issue for the Airport PEC as it is not a compensation matter. He stated this is a benefit and has nothing to do with their pay. He stated the two are not tied together.
Mr. Strand stated he would like to see the Airport PEC in place and start there to resolve the matter. He asked if this was something new.

Mr. Dobberstein stated the Public Safety option is new in the NDPERS retirement plan just within the last legislative session. He stated our firefighters should have access to this but right now they can’t.

Mr. Engen stated this is a benefit due the firefighters and they deserve to get this immediately. He stated this is not a payroll issue, this is a benefit they are due under state law. He stated he does not know that the Airport PEC even matters. He stated this has to get dealt with immediately, regardless of the status of the PEC.

The meeting of the Municipal Airport Authority was adjourned until the next Regular Meeting to be held Tuesday, March 24, 2020.

Time at adjournment was 8:37 a.m.
Chairman Linn asked Mr. Strand if he would look into this for us. She stated this is a benefit due them. She stated either the City has to do something to accomplish this or the MAA is ready to activate our own NDPERS account.
Mr. Dobberstein stated we are anticipating two to three retirements this year and this would definitely benefit the new firefighters coming on staff.