“My goal in being airport manager was to make the airport and the city a better place,” said Bevis, whose resignation is effective Dec. 31. “With the current city manager, I do not believe either is possible.”
Gilleland declined to comment about Bevis’ departure or the points raised in his resignation letter other than to say “that change is often a good thing.”
Bevis’ resignation came just weeks after a Middletown City Council executive session discussion about selling the airport was leaked to the public. Bevis said the information leak hurt expansion efforts at the airport, including an aircraft manufacturer that would have brought 25 jobs to the city, but backed out because they were “looking for a place with stability.”
City officials tout Hook Field — which handles more than 40,000 aircraft operations a year — as a valuable economic development tool for Middletown, but have been exploring ways to make it more self-sustaining. The city spends about $90,000 annually to offset costs for the airport.
“My staff and I are working with the airport commission to create a financially sustainable model for the airport operations,” Gilleland said. “We have some great things going on at the airport, Start Skydiving and other businesses, that we need to build upon.”
Gilleland said the city has already received numerous calls from people interested in becoming the next airport manager.
The Journal reviewed dozens of city documents — including emails and contracts — to examine some of the claims made by Bevis in his resignation letter. One of his major contentions was that Gilleland’s “failure to follow through” on the 2010 Start Skydiving contract in a timely manner cost the airport more than $70,000 in annual revenue.
That contract was concerning Start Skydiving looking to make hanger improvements and wanting the city to invest $350,000, which would be repaid to the city.
City documents show a contract investing $350,000 in hanger improvements for Start Skydiving, which was to be repaid to the city, was discussed by City Council in November 2009 and a contract was signed in December 2009. However, then-Public Works and Utilities director Dave Duritsch wrote in March 2010 because of the legal troubles of John Hart, the managing member of Start, “the city does not intend to expend public funds on the hanger expansion until the legal matter is resolved to the city’s satisfaction.”
The matter was brought back to the city in October 2011, but documents show the matter was pulled from the agenda at Start’s request and the matter was never reintroduced to the city.
A year later, Bevis said Gilleland “mishandled” the contract that would allow Start Skydiving to take over the fixed-base operator duties from B&B Aero. He said delays in approving the contract cost him $35,000, the difference from an earlier offer.
Bevis said he also had problems with the city manager on his own managerial contract. His last signed contract in January 2009 was for one-year agreement with an option for a second. That contract was amended by a letter and was extended for a third year to cover 2011, according to city records.
A proposed contract was drafted in late 2011, however, according to emails in December between Gilleland and Finance Director Russ Carolus, the then-employee liaison to the Airport Commission, the city manager did not want to offer Bevis a guaranteed two-year contract. She wrote that two years guaranteed “in today’s world is excessive.”
The email indicated if Bevis’ contract was terminated early, he still would have been paid the full contract valued at more than $101,000.
A second contract was drafted as a one-year contract with an option for a second year, but a 90-day no-fault termination clause was added. Bevis, who said he would have signed a one-year deal “just to get it done,” was uncomfortable with that clause.
Gilleland indicated in emails that she had no intention of enacting the clause, and had written she was “pleased with Rich’s management of the airport.”
“I want to ensure that the city is protected from issues,” Gilleland wrote in a March 27, 2012 email to Carolus. “We want to be fair to Rich as well.”
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