MARQUETTE — On April 23, Delta County Circuit Court Judge John B. Economopoulos ruled in favor of Kubick Aviation in its lawsuit against Marquette County, which argued that the county’s termination of Kubick Aviation’s FBO agreement was in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

According to 25th Judicial Circuit Court documents, on Oct. 27, 2025 Marquette County’s civil council sent Kubick Aviation a notice of termination of its Fixed Base Operator agreement at the Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport.

Economopoulos ruled that this letter constituted a “decision” by a “public body” and that this “decision” did not occur during a “meeting” as defined by state law, which requires that “all decisions of a public body be made at a meeting open to the public,” according to the court document.

Therefore, Economopoulos found the termination letter to be in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

“The court hereby declares said October 27, 2025 letter to be invalid and the six-month notice contained therein is void and of no effect,” reads the declaratory judgement.

Judge Economopoulos furthermore found that the Nov. 25 meeting of the Marquette County Board of Commissioners, in which the board discussed the termination of Kubick Aviation’s FBO agreement and voted in favor of the county taking on FBO services at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport, constituted a public meeting in which the decision to terminate Kubick Aviation’s FBO agreement was made.

Therefore, “all that remains is for the county to act in accordance with the termination clause by issuing its written notice to the plaintiff six months in advance,” according to the declaratory judgement.

If that letter was sent by the county immediately, it would delay the county’s takeover of FBO services to approximately the end of October.

However, on April 24, the county board held a special meeting with an agenda item of “Termination of Contract with Kubick Aviation Services, Inc. for Non-Payment & Contract Default,” indicating that the county was considering another route.

The board voted to delay voting on this agenda item until a special meeting to be held the following week, but this meeting was canceled.

Furthermore, on Thursday, Economopoulos ruled in a separate hearing that Mark Hangen would be granted permissive intervention in Kubick Aviation’s lawsuit against Marquette County.

Hangen originally sued Marquette County independently in U.S. District Court. According to Hangen’s lawyer, Mark Demorest, the court that heard the case ruled it was a state law issue.

Economopoulos found that Hangen could be granted permissive intervention, which allows third parties to join pending lawsuits at the discretion of the court when applicants have law or fact in common with the main action, the application is filed in a timely manner and when the addition of the third party would not cause undue delay or prejudice.

Economopoulos found Hangen’s application to be in compliance with all of these requirements.

Hangen’s allegations against the county are slightly different from Kubick’s, though Hangen also alleges that the county violated the Open Meetings Act.

“Our case is OMA-related, but deals with the fact that the county held a finance subcommittee meeting without following OMA,” said Hangen, referencing the Airport Advisory Board’s Finance Subcommittee meeting held on Nov. 10, in which it decided to recommend that FBO services be provided by the county. “(This meeting was) never announced. No minutes, no video, no public attendance.”

Hangen has indicated that he will additionally be considering pursuing legal action against individual Marquette County commissioners, if the judge rules in his favor.

“If the judge agrees with our position we will likely approach the Michigan Attorney General’s office to investigate possible criminal charges against certain commissioners who we believe conspired to mislead other commissioners into supporting this boondoggle,” said Hangen.

More information can be found in The Mining Journal’s previous coverage of these lawsuits. See: “Lawsuit over county taking ownership of Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport FBO filed” from March 3, “Lawsuit against Marquette County dismissed” from April 25 and “County board cancels special meeting relating to FBO” from April 29.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.