Confounding.
That’s how the Naples Airport Authority’s aviation attorney describes the City of Naples’ claim that the authority is who it has a conflict with when it comes to a new state law changing the airport’s board of commissioners to elected members from appointed.
The law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis April 6, changes the Naples Airport Authority (NAA) Board of Commissioners from appointments by the city council to an elected body by both Collier County and Naples residents. This despite loud and numerous objections by the city council.
The city council in an effort to stop a Nov. 3 election, passed a resolution saying there’s a conflict between it and the NAA, which runs the airport. With that resolution, it declared its intent to start conflict resolution and mitigation between the two entities – a required first step before one governmental body can sue another.
“We’re eager to hear the city’s theory as to why it thinks they have a conflict with the authority,” said aviation attorney Peter Kirsch in an interview after a special NAA Board of Commissioners meeting Thursday, April 30.
Naples Airport initiates separate litigation process over 99-year land lease
Neither the city council, the airport authority or the NAA board pushed for the bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Adam Botana (R-District 80), and passed almost unanimously in the Florida House and Senate.
The council says the state has overreached. The council also has been trying for years to take more control of the airport, believing if they have more control, they can reduce volume at the public airport and, therefore, noise.
So, what will conflict resolution look like when neither body can change the law?
“I think that’s a question asked to the city. I mean, I don’t know,” Kirsch said. “I have no idea if, even if, the authority had a view – and it has taken no position – our view is not relevant. It’s even less relevant than a voter. We are the subject of the legislation. We have to do what the law tells us all doing.”
The NAA and city council have a first meeting May 11 to discuss the city’s process, said NAA Executive Director Chris Rozansky. Rozansky, who was hired by the board of commissioners, answers to the board, not the city council.
In its notice letter to the NAA, the City of Naples said it identified several issues of conflict arising from the new law, including whether the conversion of the Airport Authority from a dependent special district of the city, controlled by the city, to an independent special district, not controlled by the city, “frustrates the purpose upon which the lease and related agreements were entered, rendering them unenforceable.
The City of Naples owns most of the 732 acres on which the airport sits and leases it to the NAA. The 99-year lease – at a $1 a year, which was paid in advance – expires in 2068. The Naples Airport Authority was created by the Florida Legislature in 1969 at the request of the City of Naples.
The Naples airport’s economic impact in 2022 (the most recent year of a report) was $781 million, up from $273.1 million in 2010. The airport takes no tax dollars from the city or county, nor does it have any taxing rights. Revenue comes from hangar rents and fuel sales.
The idea that that lease may be rendered null and void by the change in the NAA board prompted the airport authority to starts its own conflict resolution process, so that it might sue the city if necessary.
In two resolutions approved unanimously by the NAA board, Rozansky was given authority to participate in the city-initiated conflict resolution and litigation if need be and to initiate a separate conflict resolution to defend the lease.
“The Authority intends to participate in good faith in the Conflict Resolution Procedures, including the conflict assessment meeting requested by the City in the Notice Letter (the “Conflict Assessment Meeting”) and any joint public meeting, mediation or other remedies provided for” in state statutes, the resolutions say.
Naples Airport tenants want certainty about their home
Airport tenants encouraged the airport authority to do everything it can to “defend” the airport and protect it. They said the city’s actions make for uncertainty in their businesses.
“The ground lease between the city and the airport authority is the foundation upon which this airport operates,” said Bruce Byerly, owner of Naples Jet Center, which has been a tenant at the airport for 19 years.
“The existence of the lease affects everything behind the scenes, the financing, the insurance, the staffing and investment,” he said. “So, if we can’t rely on the stability of our own leasehold interest, It becomes very difficult to justify continued investment and expansion. For example, my banker wasn’t entertained when I told him to keep his fingers crossed.”
The jet center is a locally owned high-end airplane storage, maintenance and management company. The company is building a new 31,000-square-foot hangar that will give the jet center a total of 125,000 square feet of hangar space for the approximately 30 planes kept with the company.
Keith West, owner of RexAir Flight School based at the Naples airport, serves as the President of the Naples Airport Tenants Council, which represents the interests of businesses and individuals renting space at the Naples Airport.
“It’s really hard to understand what they’re getting at,” West said of the city council’s action. “We’re fully supportive of the resolutions to give appropriate authority to the executive director of the NAA to be able to take the actions to uphold the law and make sure that the airport continues to be run as it should be run.”
Jennifer Hollander, an attorney with Woods Weidenmiller Michetti & Rudnick who represents the watchdog group Friends of the Naples Municipal Airport, said the law doesn’t invalidate the lease.
“The city has not identified any clear legal theory supporting that claim,” she said. More importantly, even raising the possibility that the ground lease is invalid creates significant downstream consequences. If the lease is called into question, it could impact the Airport Authority’s ability to certify that it has the legal authorization necessary to carry out federally funded projects and meet its obligations under FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) grant assurances – obligations that have been in place and satisfied for many years.”
“That matters,” Hollander said, “because the Authority, as the airport sponsor, must confirm it has control of the airport and can meet those obligations in order to receive federal funding. If its leasehold interest is uncertain, it may not be able to make those certifications, putting that funding at risk.”
Do you have an opinion about this topic? Write a letter to the editor and send it toletters@naplesnews.com and/or mailbag@news-press.com. Keep it to 250 words or fewer and include your contact info. Have more to say: Send a guest column of no more than 600 words.
J. Kyle Foster is a senior growth & development reporter for The News-Press & Naples Daily News. Reach her by emailing jfoster1@usatodayco.com.
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples Airport aviation attorney ‘confounded’ by city council action
Reporting by J. Kyle Foster, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
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