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Potential lawsuit, legislative woes hang over Airport Authority
By Lynn Hotaling
Though they emerged victorious from a February courtroom, members of the Jackson County Airport Authority once again find themselves navigating difficult skies.
Jackson County officials have filed notice that they will appeal the court ruling, forcing the three Airport Authority members – Chairman Tom McClure, Jim Rowell and Eldridge Painter – to spend more of their personal funds on lawyers’ fees. Authority members also face the possibility of another lawsuit by landowners adjacent to the Airport who fear their property may be damaged by landslides, and word came last week that an effort is under way in the state Legislature to change the way Authority members are appointed.
With regard to the potential suit, the Authority has received notice from attorney Eric Ridenour of Sylva that his clients, Dewayne Pruett and R.B. Ammons, may file a complaint if authority members don’t release documents relating to liability policies owned by the Airport Authority and Jackson County.
“It has now been close to a year since the two mudslides took portions of my clients’ properties,” Ridenour’s letter said, making reference to slides triggered last August by a localized rainstorm that dumped massive amounts of rain on the Little Savannah watershed.
Ridenour also referred to a slope stability report related to the Airport that was completed in February by geologists Rick Wooten and other staff members of the N.C. Geological Survey, which is a part of the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Division of Land Resources.
“Please be reminded that the slope report concluded that the slopes adjacent to my clients’ properties ‘are over-steepened and subject to further erosion and slope failure,’” Ridenour wrote. He then quotes another passage from the geologists’ report: “The seepage and runoff will likely have a destabilizing effect on the old roadbed and could trigger a future slope failure. Continued seepage and piping could also destabilize the rock slope and these slopes may be susceptible to future slope failures that could endanger public safety.”
Ridenour’s letter indicates his clients are growing impatient with officials lack of action despite the fact that this year’s hurricane season has begun.
“My clients are no longer able to sit by and wait for the county and the Airport Authority to quit their fussing about liability and responsibility in hopes that a mudslide does not take their lives during this waiting period,” Ridenour writes.
The lawyer goes on to suggest that it might be cheaper to condemn the Ammons property and parts of the Pruett property than to attempt to repair the damage.
When contacted Friday, Ridenour indicated that he views the Airport Authority as a “sub-entity” of the county, but that regardless of who actually owns the facility, the current owner has an obligation to keep the property in good repair.
Airport Authority Chairman McClure says the Authority owns the Airport and its liability because title to the Airport was transferred from the county to the Authority when it was formed in 1997.
McClure said he was aware that Pruett and Ammons still had concerns about the safety of their property and pointed out that the Authority had spent $10,000 on repairs after last summer’s slides. He referred other questions regarding the potential suit to the Authority’s lawyer, Doug Wilson of Asheville.
Wilson responded to a Herald e-mail that he couldn’t comment at this point since nothing had actually been filed.
Geologist Wooten said Monday that there is potential for future slides in the vicinity of the Airport and that the February report had recommended the Authority secure a detailed engineering study to identify problems. Wooten also said there had been problems associated with the Jackson County Airport during construction.
The Airport, which opened in 1976, lost 500 feet of runway to a 1977 slide. Jackson County had to buy out several landowners, including R.B. Ammons’ brother, Jimmy Ammons, after their property was condemned.
McClure was willing to discuss the current effort within the General Assembly to change the way members are appointed to the local Authority, which he described as an attempt by the county to take over the Airport’s governing body.
Currently, county commissioners make the appointments but must choose from two names submitted by the Authority. Proposed legislation would change that process to allow commissioners to appoint any county resident regardless of prior approval by Authority members.
The current method was chosen for a reason – to help eliminate county control, McClure said.
Current Authority members were not informed of the pending legislation before it was introduced, McClure said.
“There was no discussion. Absolutely none. I found out when I happened to see the bill,” he said.
McClure said it is his understanding that the bill has cleared the Senate and is currently in the House rules committee.
Rep. Phil Haire (D-Sylva) could not be reached for comment. However, Jackson County Manager Ken Westmoreland and Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan both confirmed that the bill is currently in the state House of Representatives.
According to Westmoreland, the change in how appointments are made was discussed when Authority members urged commissioners to fill two vacancies. Commissioners expressed their concerns to the Authority that the current method of appointments is “self-perpetuating,” Westmoreland said.
“The board’s (of commissioners) idea is to make (appointments to the Authority) like other appointments,” Westmoreland said.
Commissioners have talked about the change for a long time, Westmoreland said, though he did not offer any specifics regarding when and where such discussion occurred.
McMahan echoed Westmoreland.
“What we’re asking is to allow Jackson County to have the same appointment process for the Airport Authority as with other boards,” McMahan said, describing Airport Authority appointments under the current system as “rubber-stamping.”
McMahan did not say exactly when commissioners decided to ask the Legislature to amend the statute governing the Airport Authority but said the dialogue had been “ongoing.”
The Airport Authority has not met since March; before that its last meeting was in October as members waited to see the result of a lawsuit McClure, Rowell and Painter filed against Jackson County in March 2004.
Superior Court Judge Zoro Guice Feb. 14 upheld an April 2004 injunction that had restored McClure and Rowell to their posts. He also ruled that Jackson County had violated North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law and denied McClure due process when they removed him from his Authority post in January 2005.
The series of events that led to the lawsuit was set in motion by commissioners on Jan. 12, 2005, when – with no public discussion – they removed McClure from his Airport Authority seat as part of a complex, five-part motion that also sought to transfer Economic Development Commission activities back to the control of Jackson County.
Commissioners subsequently filled McClure’s seat, and in February 2005, a new chairman and secretary-treasurer were elected, despite the protests of then Secretary-Treasurer Rowell and member Painter.
McClure, Rowell and Painter filed suit March 21, seeking an injunction that would restore the Authority as it was prior to commissioners’ action to remove McClure, which would also reinstate Rowell as secretary-treasurer.
An April 15, 2005, injunction restored McClure and Rowell to their former positions, pending the resolution of the lawsuit.
Several members of the Authority – including Commissioner Eddie Madden – resigned last summer, leaving only three on that board.
County commissioners also sought legislative help last summer when the General Assembly passed a bill that would allow Jackson County to enter into a regional airport authority with Macon County.
Sen. John Snow (D-Murphy) pushed through a bill that prevented the Jackson County Airport Authority from entering into any contracts and was also instrumental in persuading state Department of Transportation officials to freeze funding allocations to the local Airport.
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