There is a move afoot to change the management of Jackson’s main airport. Right now, the airport is run by a city-appointed commission. A Rankin County state senator is introducing legislation proposing a tri-county commission.
The Medgar Evers International Airport is run by the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, consisting of five Jacksonians appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council.
Rankin County state Sen. Josh Harkins is proposing a new seven-member board. Hinds, Rankin and Madison County supervisors will appoint two members each with the state governor appointing the seventh.
Given that both Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves are from Rankin County, the legislation has a real possibility of passing, especially now that the Republican Party has super majorities in both the state House and the Senate.
House Speaker Philip Gunn has already shown his attitude toward the city of Jackson by supporting the relocation of the state Department of Revenue to Clinton rather than its traditional location in downtown Jackson.
This identical scenario has been played out in Charlotte, N.C., where the two sides are in a judicial stalemate. A local judge issued a ruling leaving the city of Charlotte in charge pending approval of the new regional commission by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The FAA says they won’t approve the transfer unless first asked by the existing city-appointed commission, which of course, has no intention of asking the FAA to approve its own demise. No doubt, more litigation lies ahead.
If the Legislature wants a regional board for its international airport, I don’t think the FAA or the courts can stop it. Cities and airport commissions themselves are creatures of the Legislature. Given Mississippi’s new one-party Republican dominance, all sorts of things are now possible. Be careful what you ask for. Historically, one-party rule is rarely a good thing.
So the million dollar question: Is the existing city-appointed airport commission doing a good job?
We all know about Southwest Airlines leaving Jackson a couple of years ago. That was a big blow. It’s hard to blame the airport commission for that. Most of the evidence indicates that was a basic economic corporate decision.
The Jackson airport is profitable, but that means little. Few monopoly airports in significant markets aren’t profitable.
Three of the five airport commission members are relatively new, having been appointed by the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. The commission consists of a retired school superintendent, a retired probation officer who has an MBA from JSU, an environmental engineer who served 30 years in the Air Force National Guard, a nurse with a master’s degree in health care administration and pastor who has a CPA and a law degree from Mississippi College. The commission has no pilots and no one who has to meet a significant payroll.
Shortly after the new commission was approved, 25-year airport director Dirk Vanderleest retired. He was replaced by Carl Newman, who had been a top manager at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
A huge proposed real estate development on airport property may be behind the power grab. Just last month, the airport commission, in a session closed to the public, agreed to lease 130 acres of prime Lakeland street-front property for 40 years to a little-known Jackson real estate firm.
Because the commission met in secret, the public knows little about this deal. This is certainly not in the spirit of our open meetings laws.
The beneficiary of this lease is Freedom Real Estate, LLC, a start-up company that has been approved for a Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) retail tourism subsidy of $50 million.
The subsidy law has since been repealed by the Legislature but Freedom’s Flowood proposal got in under the wire. This is the same boneheaded tax subsidy being used in the Costco proposal at the Renaissance and the outlet mall in Pearl. So far, the MDA has approved $233 million in tax subsidies for these retail projects. Your tax dollars hard at work. Brought to you by our Republican leaders, who claim to be against crony capitalism.
The development is planned to be 350,000 to 500,000 square feet with 22 stores. According to the minutes, “an anchor store tenant and four tenant stores are already committed to leasing space in the proposed development and have executed Letters of Intent after the land is leased.”
Freedom Real Estate executives at the commission meeting were Ronald Harvey, a former JSU football player; Charles Theus, a Monroe realtor; and Jeff Dungan, a civil engineer from Columbia. I called airport head Carl Newman for more details, but he did not return my call. One of his assistants promised me more info soon.
A lease of this magnitude should not be negotiated behind closed doors with one private party, especially when $50 million in tax subsidies are involved. This lease should be put out to bid and the airport commission should negotiate with the highest bidder. This is another example of why we need bidding law reform in Mississippi.
Another red flag is the huge legal fees being paid by the airport commission to two law firms, Walker Group and the May Law Firm.
The lawyers are getting $20,000 for one board meeting. Legal fees are running about $750,000 a year – more than the legal fees at the Charlotte airport, which has three times more passengers than Jackson’s airport.
To the victor go the spoils, no doubt the Rankin Republicans want to replace Jackson’s Democratic cronies with their own.
That being said, a more regional approach to managing the Jackson metro area is not a bad idea. But that also means more financial responsibility for the surrounding suburbs and the state for our capital city.
