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County re-appoints five of six airport authority members
By Lynn Hotaling
Acting on the advice of their attorney, county leaders Monday (Jan. 31) took action to reorganize the airport authority in the wake of their surprise Jan. 12 decision to remove that body's chairman from his post.
Re-appointed by commissioners to serve the remainder of their previously established terms were Eddie Madden, Gary Buchanan, Jim Rowell, Eldridge Painter and Chip Hall. Conspicuously absent was Tom McClure, appointed to the authority in 2000 but removed by commissioners some three weeks ago.
County attorney Paul Holt said he advised commissioners to take the unusual action because he had determined from reading the legislation that established the airport authority that none of those presently serving had been appointed correctly. Another technicality, Holt said, was that the legislation requires authority members to be sworn in, and none of the five had been.
Commissioners' Chairman Stacy Buchanan said Jan. 31 that the re-appointments were necessary because the legislation called for vacancies on the airport authority to be filled by the commissioners, who would select the member from two names proposed by the authority. Because that procedure had not been followed in the case of the existing members, he said, commissioners would re-appoint them and then see that they were duly sworn in.
Chairman Buchanan asked the five re-appointed authority members to recommend at least two people to commissioners who will then choose one to fill the authority's sixth spot.
McClure said initially that he wasn't sure commissioners had the power to remove him from his post.
"I don't know that they actually have the authority to remove me," he said Jan. 18. "The airport authority was created by the Legislature."
McClure held to that position this week.
"I don't really know if I'm a member or not," he said Tuesday (Feb. 1). "I've engaged legal counsel to determine that."
The most important thing, according to McClure, is to keep things moving with regard to planned improvements at the Jackson County Airport.
"Good things are evolving at the airport," he said. "I think all who support the airport want it to move forward."
McClure's contention that commissioners may not be able to remove him is supported by David Lawrence of the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill.
In a Jan. 27 letter, Lawrence states that there is "no provision in the act for removal of members by any person or body once a member has been appointed."
During a Feb. 1 telephone interview, Lawrence said he wasn't sure if the fact that McClure might not have been correctly appointed changed things.
"I'd have to research whether the failure to submit two names is enough to make the appointment invalid," he said.
At least two airport authority members – Sylva town board member Eldridge Painter and Western Carolina University publicist Jim Rowell – would prefer to see McClure, who is director of the Office of Regional Affairs at WCU, remain on the authority and continue as chairman.
"Tom's expertise and background are so valuable to the airport because of his experience with various funding agencies," Rowell said.
"I don't think there could be a better chairman than Tom," Painter said. "I don't know what their reason is for getting rid of him."
Painter, who has served on the airport board before his current term, said after Monday's commissioners' meeting that he intends to nominate McClure to fill the vacancy on the authority.
"Tom is an asset as far as I'm concerned," Painter said. "His removal was a shock to me. Tom is a good leader and did a wonderful job with the airport."
According to Rowell, the airport authority has some $450,000 in federal aviation funds coming its way, and McClure is responsible for making sure Jackson County qualified.
The funding is funneled to local airports by way of the N.C. Department of Transportation's Division of Aviation, and airport authorities have to meet certain criteria to be funded, Rowell said.
"They gave us a list of things you need to have on file to qualify, things like an up-to-date master plan, a height ordinance to protect the airspace and operating procedures. Tom took the lead in putting all that together."
Painter agreed.
"Tom knows how to get the money," he said. "There's no reason or rhyme why he was dismissed that I know of. I'll back him 100 percent."
Hall said Wednesday morning that he was also surprised by McClure's removal.
"I thought he made an effort to try to see the airport progress," Hall said.
Airport authority member Madden, also a county commissioner, offered a different view, though he said he liked McClure and worked well with him. Madden also acknowledged the benefits of McClure's WCU connections and his relationship with Rep. Charles Taylor.
It was the information that commissioners received in connection with the county's Economic Development Commission (of which McClure is chairman) that caused him to feel McClure should be removed from the airport authority, Madden said.
The line of credit McClure established for QC Apparel is what Madden said caused him to question McClure's decision making, as did the loans McClure renegotiated.
"(McClure) said he was unclear about the EDC's loan responsibility, but he was out there renegotiating loans," Madden said. "He wants all the control but he doesn't want the responsibility."
When asked how that was related to McClure's role on the airport authority, Madden said that as chairman, McClure had "wide latitude" and that the questions surrounding his leadership of the EDC justify the decision to remove McClure from the authority.
Questions have also arisen about the specifications of the planned new hangars, Madden said, and also about the proposed financing arrangements.
Madden said it was his understanding that those persons who hve agreed to lease the new hangars would be asked to guarantee the loan needed to finance their construction.
"Absolutely not," was McClure's reply when asked if those individuals would have to stand behind an airport construction loan.
According to McClure, the initial legislation didn't allow airport authorities to borrow money – to engage in installment financing – but he and others had petitioned the Legislature to amend the Public Finance Law to change that.
An airport can pledge its improvements as collateral, McClure said.
"It's just like a municipality borrowing money," he said.
Any loan arrangement the authority entered into would have to be approved by the Local Government Commission, McClure said. In addition, the $150,000 allocated annually through DOT's aviation division could be used for debt service, he said.
The only thing individuals who planned to lease hangars were asked to sign was a lease agreement, McClure said. They were also asked to pay a deposit so the authority could demonstrate their commitment to the lending agency to demonstrate that the authority would have income to repay the loan.
How much money the authority will actually have to borrow is unclear, McClure said. By June or July the DOT Division of Aviation should add another $150,000 to the $450,000 currently earmarked for Jackson County. In addition, there's another pot of money – about $400,000 – that McClure is working to secure for the local airport. If all that money went to the $1.2 million hangar project, it could mean the authority would need to borrow only about $200,000.
McClure also recently secured a $12,000 grant from AdvantageWest that can be used to assist with the hangar project.
Another option that has resurfaced is the possibility of a direct, low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, McClure said. If that option becomes available, the authority might want to borrow the money for hangar construction and use its accumulated funds to begin restoration of some 500 feet of runway lost several years ago in a landslide.
With regard to the questions surrounding his role in EDC finances, McClure said the line of credit set up for QC Apparel was actually established by the Jackson Development Corp., the non-profit property-owning offshoot of the EDC.
"The intent is to get (QC owner Clemmey Queen) down to 8 percent interest instead of the 35 percent he was paying," McClure said.
As to loans, McClure said they were the commissioners' responsibility.
"I haven't renegotiated any loans," he said. "I don't know what they're talking about. That would mean the paperwork would have to redone, and (commissioners) would have to sign off on it."
According to McClure, the loan committee he chaired was a recommending body only, and served to process applications and make recommendations to commissioners.
Commissioner Madden indicated he might favor the authority moving in a different direction to secure improvements and hangars at the airport. One option might be to lease the facility to a fixed base operator, who would construct hangars to the authority's specifications and then derive income through renting hangars and fuel sales. Such an arrangement would be similar to the way Macon County's airport is operated, Madden said.
Commissioner Brian McMahan, in a written statement Wednesday morning, expressed appreciation to McClure while indicating that concerns over EDC operations led to his decision to remove McClure from the authority.
"Tom McClure has a long-standing record of trying to make Jackson County a better place to live and work. He has devoted countless hours in trying to promote economic development in this county and should not go unrecognized for his efforts," McMahan wrote.
"However, due to the fact that there are so many unanswered questions concerning the day-to-day operations of the EDC, the status of loans made and even the question of whether the EDC can continue to be effective in its current configuration, I felt that some type of action was needed to provide some answers to those questions.
"I have never had any question in my mind that Mr. McClure was guilty of any unethical act. I do have some questions about management decision that were made. In my mind, with all of these questions unanswered, it would seem best to remove Mr. McClure from all county-appointed positions until the scope of this audit and study is completed.
"Mr. McClure's participation in the airport authority may not be directly related to the EDC, but with questions still unanswered about management decisions and the fact that Mr. McClure serves as the CEO of the airport authority, I felt that it was important to remove him from the airport authority.
"This is in no way was an attack on Mr. McClure, just simply placing him in an inactive position until a later time," McMahan wrote.
When asked his reasons for voting to remove McClure from the airport authority, Commissioner Joe Cowan did not point to any specific thing.
"Given the information we had at the time, and looking at the total picture, we felt that taking (McClure) off all the boards was the right thing to do," Cowan said Tuesday.
Airport authority member Gary Buchanan and the other two county commissioners – Stacy Buchanan and Roberta Crawford – were contacted for this story but had not returned calls before press time Wednesday.
According to attorney Holt, the reconstituted airport authority may only meet at the times and place – 11 a.m. on the second Wednesday and 7 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday, both at the airport – stipulated in its enabling legislation until the group is sworn in and elects a chairman. At that point a new meeting date and time could be chosen.
The group met briefly Jan. 26 at the airport with Holt presiding. At that time he polled the five remaining members to see if they wished to be re-appointed by the commissioners. All answered in the affirmative, though Rowell said he didn't need to be re-appointed because he'd already been appointed, an objection he repeated during the Jan. 31 special commissioners' meeting.
"I might need to be sworn in," he said.
While Rowell and the other four said they were not sworn in, McClure said he did take an oath when he joined the authority in 2000. He remembers Clerk of Court Ann Melton administering an oath to him and another new member after he was appointed in August 2000. Melton said that while she doesn't have a record of the swearing in, it could have happened, because some officials hold onto the documentation for their files. McClure doesn't have verification, but said Reg Moody Jr., who was then chairman of the authority, might have kept it.
Moody said Wednesday morning that he cannot say for sure whether McClure was sworn in. All airport records were turned over to McClure when Moody left the authority, Moody said.
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