Fort Collins, Loveland eye independent airport commission

LOVELAND — Business people are welcoming an effort by the city managers from Loveland and Fort Collins to develop the framework for a new commission that would include residents of the cities to help govern the airport.

Development of the commission comes two years after Allegiant Air, the airport’s sole commercial carrier, departed the airport in October 2012. The company cited too many general-aviation aircraft in the sky as its reason for leaving. The decision to leave came despite higher numbers of passengers boarding airplanes there.

Officials have discussed an airport commission for some time, but only recently have they moved forward with the proposal. The idea to create an airport commission would represent a key change to an intergovernmental agreement between the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, which jointly operate the facility.

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The proposal to form the commission is expected to come before the two city councils in coming weeks.

“We view this as a giant step forward in finding some streamlining and some efficiency in decision-making out there,” said Martin Lind, chief executive of Windsor-based Water Valley Land Co. who developed the Discovery Plaza at the airport, among other properties in Northern Colorado. “We applaud their efforts: We’re looking forward to the new governance model being a group that can actually make decisions without going to the (city councils).”

Jim Sampson, founding CEO of Scion UAS LLC, which makes unmanned aircraft and has an office next to the airport, also applauded the proposal. The company relies on the airport to operate its business, including everything from the location of its facilities to testing its aircraft.

“It’s where we do everything,” he said. “We flight-test here, we train here, we do all of our maintenance here, we buy all of our fuels here. The airport is where we spend all of our time and earn all of our money.”

The joint ownership of the airport by the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland can create

hardships, especially when it comes to doing business at the airport.

“The fundamental problem right now is that the airport’s owned and operated by two separate cities,” Sampson said. “What that means is it’s quite time-consuming and tedious to try to get anything approved. Even something as simple as a lease for a hangar can take quite a long time.”

The commission would replace a steering committee made up of the mayors, city council members and city managers of both cities that handles lesser airport matters. The city councils of Loveland and Fort Collins generally decide on more important matters, such as budgets and leases.

The seven-member airport commission, however, would include three residents appointed by the city councils and would be given more authority than the steering committee. Each city council would approve a resident and both city councils would jointly select one resident. The city managers and mayors from both cities would retain positions on the commission.

“The idea of the three additional (residents) is that they would be airport stakeholders or citizens who are interested in the airport,” Loveland City Manager Bill Cahill said. “They are most likely not elected officials.”

The idea stems from discussion between the private sector and the city governments about how to improve the governing structure by giving it greater authority, he said. Under the steering committee, any decision of consequence must be returned for city councils’ consideration.

“The existing steering committee right now is really advisory to both city councils,” he said. “The idea here was to broaden representation and give it more authority. That authority, in turn, would address another issue, which is timeliness and being able to act with a bit more speed than the current structure might be capable of.”

The people who would occupy seats on the commission would likely have some authority in airport matters, Cahill said. It also could draw more attention to the airport and hopefully more business investment.

“It’s a way you bring more interest into the organization,” he said.

Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry said the cities will be mindful of potential conflicts of interest that might arise among commission members who might use their power to influence business deals.

“They’re not going to be able to influence decisions at the airport that benefit them personally,” Atteberry said.

Steve Lynn can be reached at 970-232-3147, 303-630-1968 or slynn@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SteveLynnBW.