Board votes to terminate Kubick Aviation’s FBO contract for 3rd time

County to take over FBO services at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport in April

MARQUETTE -- During Tuesday night's meeting of the Marquette County Board of Commissioners, the board voted to terminate Kubick Aviation's Fixed Base Operator contract at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport for the third time. The county is set to take on FBO services in April.

At an airport, an FBO provides fuel, aircraft maintenance and other services.

"What we're doing here tonight ... reconsidering this motion to terminate the agreement with Kubick and operate fixed based operator system ourselves, we're here because the judge, on Sept. 30, basically said we didn't, and this is my words, didn't use the magic word 'terminate' at the end of our Nov. 25 meeting, when we decided we would assume the fixed base operations and work it as a county business," said Commissioner Karen Alholm, who made the motion at Tuesday's meeting to terminate the contract.

At that Nov. 25 meeting, the County had voted to take over FBO services, but had not explicitly voted to terminate the contract with Kubick.

"We made a motion (at the Nov. 25 meeting) to accept the airport advisory board's recommendation to take over the FBO services as a county operated operation," said Alholm. "…We didn't say the magic word 'terminate' in the motion, so we've got to kick back again."

The discussion of the motion came after the board entered into closed session for nearly an hour to discuss pending litigation with their legal counsel, including the pending litigation between Kubick Aviation and the county. That pending litigation largely has to do with whether the county violated the Open Meetings Act in their previous attempts to terminate Kubick.

There had also been over an hour of public comment, largely from local aviators and those associated with Kubick Aviation.

Chad Kubick, president of Kubick Aviation, spoke about concerns he had with the county's takeover, including "whether certain expenses have been understated, whether projected revenues are realistic, whether the county currently has the experienced staff (and) operational resources necessary to provide the level of service ... the FBO requires.

"I believe those are legitimate questions that deserve to be thoroughly evaluated before a final decision is made."

Several other public commenters spoke about Kubick Aviation's quality of service, both at Sawyer and at the airport in Iron Mountain, concerns about projected profits depending on the hypothetical return of the military to K.I. Sawyer and the county taking on liability for FBO services that could be placed onto taxpayers in the event of a lawsuit.

"What (are) our goals and our objectives," said Chairperson Joe Derocha. "It's economic, it's quality services and it's best in class. And the administrator is assured the team is ready to go and has been trained. Which is very important.

"It's never been about this cloud of large money. It's about making (the airport) self-sustaining, to improve the airport as a whole. Sawyer has to pay its bills, and it's also about the control of services that we need to provide. They need to be in our control."

"Our staff has put together a plan, and I think that we have very good employees, and I think that we can do this in house," said Commissioner Bill Nordeen.

Commissioners asked several clarifying questions before voting, such as Commissioner Dana Lalonde's questions about whether the county would be able to continue programs such as the high school aviation career technical education program and emergency services at the airport, and whether the county would be able to offer competitive wages to FBO employees.

County administrator Duane Duray, whose previous position was Airport Manager, answered most of the questions during the meeting, saying that "The airport, the staff and this county, we are soundly behind this. We have a vested interest. There would be no reason why we would want to intentionally sabotage anything. We want our airport to succeed.

"…People automatically assume because we're a county, that we cannot provide quality services. I look forward to seeing our operation a year after we begin, and be able to rank us at how we're operating at."

Duray stated that the CTE program and emergency services would continue, and that the county had enough in its budget to offer competitive wages.

"You know, the irony of this is that now that we had two six-month delays through the court, that now there will be almost four years done in this five year contract, so it's interesting that we're almost up to it anyway," said Nordeen.

The vote ended up being 4-1, with Alholm, Nordeen, Lalonde and Derocha voting in favor, and Commissioner Fred Benzie voting against. Commissioner Karl Numinen was absent from the meeting.

After that vote, Nordeen put forward a motion to ensure that any profit generated from the airport would go back into the airport fund, rather than into the county's general fund. That motion was voted in 5-0.

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