Naples pursuing legal opinion from FAA on airport rent

A proposal to increase the rent the Naples Airport Authority pays to lease city land may not be dead after all.

At a meeting Monday, the council agreed in concept not to ask the authority’s board formally whether it would be willing to renegotiate the $1-a-year lease the authority pays the city to operate the Naples Municipal Airport.

But at the regular council meeting Wednesday, after much debate, the council decided to seek an opinion from the general counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration about whether it would be legal to increase the lease payment.

Some residents want the authority to pay the city more — perhaps millions — to lease 700 acres of city-owned land, and they have proposed new landing fees as a possible revenue source.

The authority and city entered into a 99-year lease in 1969 under which the authority pays the token rent.

Airport Authority lawyer Joseph McMackin has argued that the FAA would consider an increase in rent an illegal diversion of airport revenues.

But the city’s lawyer, Robert Pritt, has issued an opinion it would be legal for the city to charge fair market rent.

Councilwoman Penny Taylor said she has spoken with her constituents, and the city does not need to send the letter right now. She said that the city has a lot of crucial issues it is addressing.

She said this issue has consumed staff time, and firing off the letter now could add more fuel to the fire of what has become a heated issue.

“There has been some name-calling, there’s been some threatening,” she said.

She said she is certainly not suggesting the lease issue be dropped, just left alone for a while.

But her motion not to send the letter failed.

Councilman Bill Willkomm noted that the letter to the FAA already has been crafted by Pritt.

“We could actually be too busy to sign a letter? I’ll sign it. I’ll be more than happy to. I have enough time to sign the letter, and I’ll even pop for the postage,” he said.

He said he can’t believe that the council is talking about the possibility of raising property taxes without looking at all other possible revenue sources, including increased rent from the authority.

“I think anyone who votes against sending the letter is operating not in the best interest of the voters and taxpayers,” he said.

Councilman William MacIlvaine said he is not necessarily saying he wants to renegotiate the lease, but he wants to know if it’s a legal option.

“I think to sit back and to ignore the possibility of doing that would be negligent. I think we would be neglecting our duty,” he said.

However, Councilman Gary Price, who was the only council member who voted in favor of Taylor’s failed motion, said he’s not sure whether he agrees with the questions being asked. Pritt’s questions to the FAA include one in which he seeks a legal opinion on a lease-to-own deal under which the authority could buy the land.

But Price said the possibility of the authority’s buying the land has not been debated by council.

“I can’t ask the letter be written because I don’t know what I want the letter to say,” Price said.

Councilman John Sorey pointed out that he is supportive of the airport and the job the authority is doing, and he sees no harm in seeking this legal opinion.

“If (the ruling) comes back and says we can’t do any of these, then it puts it to bed, and we don’t have to revisit it,” he said.

Airport Authority officials believe the council’s question already has been answered clearly in a letter sent recently by a high-ranking FAA officials to authority Executive Director Ted Soliday.

Soliday sought an opinion, and got one in May 2006 from Robert Chapman, the FAA manager for its airports division for the southeastern United States.

Chapman writes that federal law requires that revenues from airports such as Naples Municipal be spent on maintaining and operating the airport.

And he wrote the federal law prohibits grant funds from going to a local government that diverts airport revenues.

“Therefore, we believe that an increase in the lease amount would clearly be an inappropriate diversion of airport revenue from the airport to the city,” he writes.

Soliday told the council Wednesday that he hasn’t had a chance to discuss with the authority the issue of sending the new letter to the FAA. But he said, after talking to individual members, he doesn’t believe they will be opposed.

“We believe we already know the answer (from the FAA), and it would be good to put this behind us so that we can start working on things that are more important to the local community and the airport authority,” he said.

Attorneys Pritt and McMackin have agreed on the wording of the letter.

But the idea is to have it signed as a joint submission from the authority and council. That means the letter must be endorsed by the authority, which is expected to take up the issue at its regular meeting today.