Council specifies airport lease terms

Hangar tenants at Boulder City Municipal Airport have a better idea about some of the new lease terms that will take effect in less than a month, except for the new rent amount.

At its regular meeting Tuesday, June 9, City Council approved 4-1 having staff bring the lease back for consideration at the June 23 meeting with some changes. Councilwoman Tracy Folda gave the dissenting vote.

Some of the changes discussed and requested by council members include: providing a 60-day notice of any rent increase, defining a late payment, making secondary card access more general, including Federal Aviation Administration requirements for what can be stored in a hangar, defining the time period to submit an airworthiness certificate, defining what maintenance responsibilities the city has for the hangars and including other applicable FAA regulations.

The lease did not include a specific rent amount because the agenda item was just to discuss the format. An outside appraisal for the property had been given to the city Friday, June 5, and the council members did not receive it until Monday, June 8. It was not included in the agenda packet.

Folda said she was concerned that talking about the appraisal could be an open meeting law violation because it was not included in the title of the agenda item.

“I would just remind everyone that the action requested is that the City Council approve the hangar rental agreement format,” said Mayor Kiernan McManus. “It doesn’t say approve the rent. It doesn’t say to discuss the appraisal. … so it seems to be pretty straightforward to me that we can discuss the format of the lease agreement … and not approve any particular dollar amount to be assigned for the lease.”

City Attorney Steve Morris said it was within the council’s purview to discuss the terms and conditions of the lease agreement and that the appraised value is one of those terms and conditions. He also said the city charter allows the city to lease property at or above market value. If the council wanted to lease it for less than that amount, it would have to be put on a future agenda.

McManus moved to restrict the discussion to the lease format and not any specific dollar amount for the space rent. It was approved 4-1 with Folda voting against it.

“My thoughts on that would be why would we even discuss it now without having the full terms because nothing in this document has changed (from) when we last saw it,” Folda said. “I would rather have it come back as an agenda item that we can fully discuss the aspects around it than try to stay within very tight, narrow bound(s) that we could potentially get off subject.”

During the discussion of the lease format, Folda said this process was not good governance.

“I just wanted to state for the record my disappointment in this agenda item,” she said. “I don’t know why we’re moving forward with talking about it at all. This isn’t good governance. We can only do one thing.”

Additionally, she said council members had expressed their concerns about the lease at the May 19 meeting but it came back for this meeting with no changes.

City Clerk Lorene Krumm said that although the concerns may have been expressed in the meeting there was no directive provided to staff.

Folda made a motion to hold the item in abeyance until staff could review any applicable state and local laws for the lease as well as any financial obligations for the city including cost of insurance, maintenance and rental rates.

That motion died with Folda voting for it and McManus, Councilwoman Claudia Bridges, Councilwoman Judy Hoskins and Councilman James Howard Adams voting against it.

Other requested changes for the lease include providing 24-hour notice to tenants of an inspection unless it’s for cause, including a warranty guarantee, a definition of what it means for the condition of the hangar and fixing various typos.

Additionally, the lease will include that experimental aircraft in the hangars must be airworthy within a year or the tenant will lose that particular hangar.

The current leases for 28 hangars expire July 2, at which time they will revert to city ownership.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, council approved an update to the general fund’s unassigned fund balance and the minimum operating reserves.

Contact reporter Celia Shortt Goodyear at cgoodyear@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow her on Twitter @csgoodyear.