2 new members join airport commission
As 2021 starts, policy-setting entity for LR facility still facing pandemic hurdles
The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission began the New Year with a new look and a problem from last year — the coronavirus pandemic — that stands to linger long into 2021.
Two of the seven spots on the commission that sets policy for Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field have new faces after Mayor Frank Scott Jr., in a departure from custom, didn’t recommend the city Board of Directors reappoint Meredith Catlett and Gus Vratsinas, whose initial five-year terms had expired.
Tiffany Mays O’Guinn, a lawyer, and Patrick Schueck, a steel company executive, replaced Catlett and Vratsinas at the commission’s first meeting of the year Tuesday. Schueck’s late father, Tom Schueck, also served two terms on the commission and served with Scott on the Arkansas Highway Commission.
A third commission member, John Rutledge, a top executive at Security National Bank, Scott’s former employer, was reappointed to a new five-year term.
They join Bill Walker, another appointee under the Scott administration, and Stacy Hurst, Jill Floyd and Mark Camp, all appointed under former Mayor Mark Stodola.
The commissioners are not paid for their service.
The commission met for about 20 minutes in executive session Tuesday to elect new officers. Rutledge was elected commission chairman. Floyd will serve as vice chairman and Camp as secretary.
The new members join the commission as the pandemic continues to batter the finances of the state’s largest airport.
Passenger traffic has fallen more than 50%. Revenue, as a result, also is down markedly. Operating expenses fell 33%, to $24.7 million last year compared with the $36.6 million in 2019.
The airport’s budget has been supplemented by drawdowns from a $25.1 million grant Clinton National received under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, a $2 trillion federal relief package designed to help offset the economic impact of the pandemic.
Airport officials used almost $10 million from the grant in 2020. As a result, the airport hasn’t laid off anyone. Clinton National finished last year with a workforce of a 154, the same number it began the year with.
The same cannot be said of the companies operating the restaurants and newsstands throughout the airport.
Last fall, it was disclosed that the main company operating the airport restaurants, HMS Host, notified its workers at Clinton National in August that they would lose their jobs Oct. 15 if they weren’t recalled by that date. Airport officials said the notices went to 65 employees.
At the time, only two restaurants were open on the airport concourse. Two more have opened since then.
Walker on Tuesday again pressed the airport staff to require HMS Host to open all of the airport’s offerings, which he said is a requirement in the 10-year contract HMS Host signed.
The commission approved a tenant relief package for the fifth time since the pandemic began. Walker was the only member heard to vote against it. The relief is reviewed every two months.