Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Former Asheville City Council member Bryan Freeborn, also a former member of the governing board of the Asheville Regional Airport, was the subject of a follow-up story in the Asheville Citizen-Times today regarding controversy over board members’ trip to Hawaii. Here’s the comment Freeborn left here at Ashvegas regarding his trips and the controversy.
Myself and other board members never hid the fact that we went on trips via our service to the airport. It was never a problem because we were actually getting tangible results from those trips, our operating and capital budgets were good, we were making major improvements to the airport while putting money aside for future needs, we did not raise fees, and everyone was happy. That is the airport.
Now if it was city council and the city’s taxes funding a trip like this it would be a different story. I know the Mayor and Councilwoman Cape have made a number of trips on the city’s dime. They seem to justify them by saying they used those trips to get federal money and the public has given them a pass.
The AC-T is missing the boat on this one. What most people do not get about the airport issue is that the industry, laws, and the doling out of user fees is based on the conversations that take place at conferences like this one. If you are not part of the conversation or make sure that the players know about your airport, the likelihood of your airport getting capital improvement funds is small.
When you look at the amount of money spent on travel to conferences like this one by the airport and the additional federal and state funding that has been leveraged it is a no brainer. These trips are a great value for our airport. I still maintain my contacts from the 4 or 5 trips I took on behalf of the airport. You have to know your industry and you have to market your organization with in that industry. Otherwise you will get looked over.
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The second problem and why this trip is even getting coverage is due to budget irregularities that have occurred over the last year. Apparently airport over reported the money they had and have come up short on operational funds. The airports most recent audit did not come back clean, which may be a first. The letter from the auditor raises a number of red flags that need to be further investigated.
