By Katie Northcott, News Director
At its meeting on Monday, April 27, the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) gave its approval for the Tullahoma Airport Authority to obtain legal counsel that specializes in airport law.
At its meeting on Tuesday, April 14, the Tullahoma Airport Authority (TAA) voted unanimously to hire Thompson Burton PLLC, a law firm based in Nashville whose specializations include airport law. Thompson Burton received the highest rating from the city of the four firms that submitted proposals and charged the lowest rate.
Additionally, TAA Chairman Karla Smith said that one of Thompson Burton’s attorneys, Margaret Martin, is from Tullahoma. Martin specializes in aviation law.
In its proposal to the BOMA, the TAA requested up to $50,000 to pay the firm, which charges about $420 per hour. However, the dollar amount was not a part of the motion.
“I hope to help negotiate with them on this once we get to that point,” Interim City Administrator Jeff Damron said. “I don’t think we go in there and say, ‘Hey, we have $50,000 to spend. Let’s spend it.’”
The BOMA approved the item unanimously.
At the TAA’s meeting on Tuesday, April 28, Smith said that her top priority in working with the firm would be to look at the airport’s hangar leases.
“Trying to figure out who we could collect from, who we couldn’t collect from, who was within compliance, who wasn’t within compliance, so many eyes have looked at this, … and we want the professional opinion of an aviation attorney to advise us on how to move forward,” Smith said.
Smith said problems with the leases included fees that were not charged uniformly, names that did not match signatures, and lease agreements on forms the city did not recognize.
In January, the TAA voted to enact a moratorium on all hangar construction and new leases until the new lease guideline can be written and approved. Sam Crimm, a newly appointed member of the TAA, made a motion to resume charging lease payments.
“Some people have larger hangars … if you come back in six months and you hit them with a bill for five, six, seven, eight thousand dollars of back rent,” Crimm said. “I mean, come on. That’s not how you do business.”
Damron directed the members of the TAA to the city’s Code of Ethics.
“In section two, it says, ‘definition of personal interest’, if you look at section two, three, and four,” Damron said. “It very specifically states that if you have a vested financial interest in anything, you should abstain from voting. … I’m not telling you what to do, but I just want to make you guys aware that you all signed this.”
Some members of the TAA own hangars at the Tullahoma Regional Airport.
Jeffrey Jackson, a representative from Curl Construction, pushed back on Damron’s statement.
“Well, wasn’t the code of ethics in effect when you did the moratorium?” Jackson said. “I don’t know how this is any different.”
Jackson expressed frustration at the moratorium at the TAA meeting on April 14.
“We ordered a building, had the building delivered, tried to have it delivered to our spot on the airport and was denied access to our spot to our lease to put our building out there,” Jackson said on April 14. “So now we have this $400,000 building sitting off site that has already been invested in.”
At the April 28 meeting, Damron said he wanted the TAA members to consider the Code of Ethics and come to their own conclusions before voting on Crimm’s motion to resume charging rent.
Crimm’s motion was tabled by the TAA.
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