Its Hangar Time

I was watching the Aviation Advisory Board meeting last Thursday. I heard something that piqued my interest. The Corporate Hangar contract is coming to the BOCC on August 26th..

If you are not familiar with that, here is some background. Livewire Aviation, led by Alonda McCarty is the company that has been given the corporate hangar. Why were they selected? No one knows. Why is that a problem for me? Let me explain.

From what I can find, Alonda has been involved in the county for some time. She has a home in Homosassa that was purchased in 2018. Not sure if she was here before then, but has been here since at least then. She was instrumental in getting the noise ordinance for Homosassa River back in 2021 I believe. She was also part of the contingent that had traveled up to Tallahassee for some economic development talks surrounding the airport (along with Andy from Right Rudder). So this is not someone that just came here out of the blue.

However, the first formal introduction I can find is and email she had sent to former Commissioner Ruthie Schlabach on January 18, 2023 asking her to set up a meeting with county administrator Steve Howard.

Commissioner Schlabach forwarded that to Howard and he responded that he will get it scheduled. He emailed Alonda that he would get her on the schedule.

Why does the timing of all this matter? Because the county had been working with Andy from Right Rudder for the previous two years to bring a corporate hangar to the Inverness airport. Going back to January 2022, and possibly before then, Andy had been trying to get grants for Citrus County to help get money to build a new hangar at the Inverness airport.

On February 22, 2022, the BOCC voted to apply for a grant for $4.5 million. That hangar was going to be used for the FBO services (Right Rudder). The Citrus County Chamber of Commerce wrote an email to commissioners on behalf of Right Rudder. The Economic Development Authority of Citrus County wrote a letter to support this ask and referenced the FBO.

For all intents and purposes, the hangar was going to Andy and Right Rudder Aviation. The county did not receive this grant, but tried to secure other grant opportunities to get a hangar throughout 2022 and into 2023.

Then Alonda's email to Commissioner Schlabach changed everything. Let's take a look.

Behind the scenes, I am told that Alonda was very close to Commissioner Schlabach. Nothing wrong with being friends with a county commissioner. However, it can be a problem if that friend is getting you preferential treatment. That is what it appears to be the case here.

At some point, she was later "passed" off to Commissioner Rebecca Bays and that is who has been involved in this since then. It's nice to have one commissioner friend.. certainly better to have two, right?

I cannot find a single document where Alonda applied for the hangar space. There appears to be no formal application process. Maybe it was done in a meeting with county staff. Who knows. Even former Economic Development Director Frank Calascione stated that Alonda did not have a letter on file and noted that Andy had been asking for a hangar.

There was a letter of intent given to Mr Calascione on May 26, 2023 after he met with Alonda and Commissioner Bays earlier that day.

However, it appears that she was added to the list February 24, 2023. There is a spreadsheet that was included in the public records I requested that says "Corporate Hangar Wait List". It states "Directed to create list and add Livewire" on line one. So someone on staff was directed to make this list and that person was told to put Alonda/Livewire #1 on the list, even though Andy had been there prior asking for a hangar.

Who directed staff to create the list and add her #1? I do not see that in any email anywhere. A meeting with someone perhaps? Who knows, but regardless, a list was created and she was added #1.

So she comes to the county formally in the middle of January, meets with Mr Howard at some point in February after introduction and ask by Commissioner Schlabach and then gets added to the top of the newly created Hangar Wait List a couple of weeks later without any public discussion? Perhaps being friends with commissioners has it's perks.

Then the majority of Aviation Workshop on June 6, 2023 was spent talking about her company and creating a so called heliplex at the airport, when that has never been mentioned publicly before. Most of the conversation was led by former Commissioner Schlabach and Commissioner Bays. Where did this idea come from and why is the county jumping to do this without much discussion?

Later that afternoon, in the regular meeting, the BOCC voted on applying for a grant for a 24k sqft hangar and the accompanying documents in the application suggest Andy/Right Rudder would be the beneficiary. This letter was from the Chamber of Commerce and included in the grant application packet.

Ok, now the background information is established and you know how we got here for the most part. There is A LOT more details I could cover, but we would be here for awhile, so I will summarize it as this... A LOT of behind the scenes conversations were happening to get to the point of signing a lease. Commissioner Bays was active in the process with emails and text messages, as was former commissioner Schlabach to a lesser extent.

Further, Alonda was given unprecedented access to not only staff but to the consultants that the County had hired. There are emails from Alonda to Daniel (airport consultant) asking if he and his staff were available to meet with herself and Commissioner Bays for dinner on two occasions while they were in Tampa for other meetings.

She worked with Daniel to create a document for Commissioner Bays to sent to Tallahassee, breaking county ordinances along the way (Ordniance 2-31).

She attended staff meetings to discuss the airport study BEFORE it was presented to the public and the other board members.

She routinely popped into Lecanto Government Building to meet with various staff members. And so on.

I have never seen anyone with this level of access to county staff and consultants, although, in fairness, I have only been looking the last few years. It's certainly possible that someone else has had that kind of access in the past.

Regardless, I doubt that very many of us can simply roll up to LGB and get those meetings with staff or ask to get a meeting for a private presentation of a study before it is presented to the public and the BOCC.

In fairness, this hangar should bring a good chunk of revenue to the county. According to our aviation manager, Todd Regan, this hangar will result in a profit to the county of $7m over the 50 years it is estimated to be in service. The amount of money spent on the hangar (not including attorney's fees) will be recouped by year 19.

So what is the problem?

My issue with this isn't with Alonda. My issue is the process in which all of this has taken place. The county has been asking for a hangar for several years. It was something that they viewed as a way to help boost industry in this county and to kick off the Inverness Industrial Park, although the projects are separate.

Knowing all this, you would think they would have a process in place to solicit businesses to come here for the hangar? That was not the case. Alonda/Livewire were hand picked to get it. You saw where staff was instructed to put her first.

How did she get put on the list? All I see is a relationship with commissioners as the list was created and staff told to put her first. That is not to say her business would be a bad fit or anything like that, but it reeks of the "Good ole boy/girl system" that we are trying to get rid of in this county.

If it's going to be an asset for the county, why not have a formal application process? Advertise that there is a space becoming available and see who applies for it. Give our current Economic Director Steven Baham an opportunity to solicit business proposals for this space. Then, go through the applications and discuss, publicly, which one represents the best business for Citrus County. Which company best represents the county vision for the airport and the future. Sort of a reverse RFQ/RFP bidding process.

If that is Livewire, then so be it. If Alonda is the only application, then she gets it. But the point is she was always getting the space and we never gave staff an opportunity to solicit other proposals. Is that really how we want to do business here in this county?

I certainly hope that commissioners bring this up for a discussion as I am sure there will be other hangars to come in the future. Might as well figure that out now.