Heated Motion Amendment Leaves Airport 80D Unfunded

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Staff Writer

HARRISON – The Sept. 30 special meeting of the Clare County Board of Commissioners saw all commissioners present other than Samantha Pitchford, who had been excused. After approval of the agenda, with one addition, the meeting moved to General Public Comment which allows three minutes per speaker.

First to speak was Kim Kennicott, former Clare County Airport manager, who described the need to preserve airport funding. Next up was Linda Barkell from Hamilton Township, who explained that she had been working elections for the past 13 years, and offered some support of the Clare County Clerk’s previously denied request for an election stipend to remunerate for additional workload. Barkell offered a lengthy description of the job difficulties and how the change in elections has created lots of work on the county level. She said the hardest part is maintaining election integrity, then also compared the proposed cost of the stipend for programming ballots to the much higher cost for ElectionSource to do it.

Hayes Township resident and outspoken community advocate Pat Adams addressed both of the previous topics, leading off by describing himself as a staunch supporter of government. Describing the stipend issue, he noted helping out with elections where he had begun work at 6 a.m. and ending at 1:30 a.m. the next day – adding that Clerk Lori Mott had come into Hayes at about midnight to ask if there were any issues and was there anything she could do. Adams acknowledged that elected officials by and large do not receive overtime, but that the changes in elections and the extra work seemed to warrant the stipend request.

Adams then moved on to the airport funding issue, which he described as very important, and asked the Board to approve another $20,000 for the coming year as they had graciously done prior.

At this point, 9:12 a.m., Chairman Jeff Haskell opened the public hearing on the budget, and the agenda moved to motions.

-Approve the grant from Region VII Area Agency on Aging in the amount of $274,674.

-Allow the County Administrator to approve any and all budget adjustments through the end of the day on Sept. 30, 2024.

-Approve Budget Adjustments Nos. 24-189-1 and 24-187 in the amounts of $64,100 and $264,329 respectively.

-Ratify the tentative agreements ratified by the following bargaining units: The International Union UAW Local 1974 Unit 1; The International Union UAW Local 1974 Unit II; the Police Officers Association of Michigan Corrections Bargaining Unit; The Police Officers Association of Michigan Non-Supervisory Unit; The Command Officers Association Command Unit and The Police Officers Association 911 Dispatch Unit, and authorize the board chair to sign the successor collective bargaining agreements following approval as to form from the County’s legal counsel.

The next motion read by Commissioner George Gilmore was to: Adopt Resolution No. 24-17, approving and adopting the County General Appropriation Act for fiscal year 2025. After Commissioner David Hoefling seconded the motion, things took a definite turn when Commissioner Rickie Fancon immediately made a motion to suspend the already budgeted funding allocation for the Clare County Airport. Fancon said he reason for doing so was lack of support from any of his district’s constituents [City of Clare], and that only one township and city benefit from it. He also noted the intention stated last year when the budget was approved, was to renew a cooperative agreement with Hayes Township and the City of Harrison for shared funding – which had not been realized. Fancon also conjectured that the customer base at the restaurant was so great that the restaurant would not be affected, and there would not be much loss to the Harrison community. He added that a spot for MedFlight to land could be maintained because the county still owns a lot of the airport property.

Fancon finished by saying, “If we’re not good stewards of our finances, how can we expect the department heads and the county associates to be good stewards of finances?”

When Commissioner Gabe Ambrozaitis said he “completely disagreed,” Gilmore questioned if Fancon was asking for an amendment to the motion offered, and Fancon affirmed that he was. Gilmore immediately seconded the motion to amend.

Ambrozaitis then said he not only disagreed with the amendment process, but with also with the amendment. Broaching the statement about not getting funding from the other two entities, Ambrozaitis reminded that Fancon had not been to any meetings lately and asked why he was not there to help out with that process.

“Only Dave [Hoefling] and I are at these meetings every month,” he said. “Where are you, Commissioner?”

[For clarity on that issue, Fancon has been on the Airport Committee since its reinstitution in 2023, and from its first meeting March 27 of that year [when there was no July meeting], he attended three of the meetings in 2023, the last being in September. In 2024, he has attended only one meeting which was in March. Combined, that equals his meeting only 28% of his appointment obligation.]

Gilmore then spoke, attempting to distinguish the Clare City Airport as “functional” implying that the county airport was not, but Ambrozaitis quickly pointed out that the county airport also is functional. Gilmore cited the Clare City Airport as funded by the City of Clare and that if the City of Harrison would like to have the county’s airport it could be leased to them for $1 for the next 99 years. He said that if the amendment passed, that is what he would propose. He started to say that he wasn’t saying the airport had to be closed, but that alternate funding was needed. That’s when Ambrozaitis spoke up sharply.

“You’ve made it clear that this airport needs to be closed,” he said. “You have an animosity toward anything north of James Hill, and that includes everybody in Hayes Township, Frost, Franklin, Hamilton, Hatton, Greenwood, Summerfield, Winterfield and Redding. You, sir do not like anything north.”

Gilmore objected, saying the comment was rude and very untrue, adding that he had been contacted by some of Ambrozaitis’s constituents. At that point, the chairman interrupted saying, “Guys.”

Hoefling then posed the question, “Why are we pulling funding from the airport when the budget is already balanced? What is the justification for removing even more funding from something that’s already been handles – we already have a balanced budget. It seems, in my opinion, as if the welfare of certain parts of the county are of less importance. We have heard a multitude of citizens that support the airport; they want us to continue developing it. At the board meetings that we have every month, we had very positive feedback from the public: people that fly as pilots and people that don’t. We had president of Harrison’s Chamber of Commerce come, who had nothing but rave reviews. We brought in a lot of economic value to the communities.”

When Gilmore called that out, saying “name one,” Ambrozaitis informed there had been a call just the day prior from an individual who wants to build a hangar at the county airport.

“But, yet, you guys want to close it,” he said. To which Fancon declared he was not trying to close the airport, but was opposed to fully funding it. Ambrozaitis loudly declared the two to be the same thing, which Fancon denied at equal volume.

 Hoefling then pointed out that at the last board meeting, there was discussion with Hayes Township about opening negotiations with them and the City of Harrison. To which Gilmore said it had been a year and had not been done.

“The outgoing supervisor of Hayes Township indicated to me, as did members of the City Council of the City of Harrison, that you guys need to show us what you’re going to do,” Ambrozaitis said. “And we’ve shown that; we have done immense improvements at the airport. And now, I believe that they are onboard because they have seen those improvements. We have been good to our word. We have funded the budget last year. And that’s why we’re asking to have it funded again to continue to move forward. These two entities are looking to us to continue this process. This is a long-term problem; it has been years of neglect and I and David cannot turn this around in one year.”

Fancon then made a snarky comment about Hoefling’s remarks, and asked for three good reasons why it was fair for the rest of the county to pay for the airport. Gilmore added that the county does not fund the Clare City Airport.

Hoefling reminded that the County is not the City of Clare, and Ambrozaitis clarified that tax dollars do fund the Clare City Airport as it is federally funded by the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems and receives more than $150,000 a year in non-appropriated monies from the federal government. Gilmore said federal taxes, not local, but of course federal tax dollars come from taxpayers just like any other tax monies.

Haskell reiterated that “We don’t own that Clare Airport, we own the Clare County Airport.”

Again, Gilmore suggested that Hayes or Harrison could take on the airport, because the whole county shouldn’t fund it for recreational purposes.

Haskell then asked Gilmore’s opinion on whether the airport could be a good economic draw “for the City of Harrison which does help Clare County, Hayes Township bringing in business.”

Gilmore said he did not see it as an economic draw, that the only airport economic draw comes through the Clare City Airport.

“Anything south of James Hill is your priority,” Ambrozaitis said. “I understand.”

When Gilmore attempted to respond by calling it criticism, Haskell halted it by saying, “Enough name calling, let’s go roll call.”

The motion to amend the budget motion to suspend the $20,000 airport allocation, was then called, and passed with dissenting votes cast by Ambrozaitis, Hoefling and Haskell.

The vote was then called to adopt Resolution 24-17, approving and adopting the County General Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 2025, as amended. The motion passed, with a lone dissenting vote cast by Ambrozaitis.

Two more motions were voted on and unanimously passed by the Board:

-Adopt Resolution 24-18 Establishing Fiscal Year 2025 Compensation.

-Increase the per diem for the Board of Canvassers, the Jury Board and Elections Commission form $25 per half day to $50 per half day, and from $50 per full day to $100 per full day.

The public hearing was then closed at 9:26 a.m., and the meeting adjourned. Shortly thereafter, Pat Adams again rose to say that he knew the meeting was over, but offered the following additional comment.

“As I said, I don’t fly the airport,” he said. “But I believe the airport was a good financial program. I made several of the airport meetings; I never saw Mr. Fancon in the meetings that I went to, except for one. Some of the things he complained about that didn’t happen – he was on the board, and he didn’t apparently assist in trying to get with the city of the township to get the contract or the notability of the contract happening.

“I know it’s done, I know it’s over with,” he said. “I just don’t think it was fair to the county and the township.

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