Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-15-22 - Airport Commission Minutes Page 1 of 10 AIRPORT COMMISSION ACTION SUMMARY MINUTES OF REGULAR ADJOURNED MEETING Wednesday, June 15, 2022 – 5:30 P.M. _____________________________________________________________________ 1. CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Dada called the Airport Commission Meeting to order at 5:30 P.M. and he invited Commissioner Payne to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting was held via videoconference. 2. POSTING OF THE AGENDA: Posted on June 9, 2022. 3. ROLL CALL: Commissioners Present: Gerald Adams (Palm Springs) Kathleen Hughes (La Quinta) Patricia Breslin (Palm Springs) Gabriel Martin (Coachella) Paul Budilo (Indian Wells) Scott G. Miller (Palm Springs) Todd Burke (Palm Springs) John Payne (Palm Springs) Aftab Dada (Palm Springs) - Chair Jan Pye (Desert Hot Springs) David Feltman (Palm Springs) Jhan Schmitz (Indio) Ken Hedrick (Palm Springs) Thomas Weil (Rancho Mirage) Commissioners Absent: Kevin Corcoran (Palm Springs) – Vice Chair, Jill Philbrook (Cathedral City), M. Guillermo Suero (Palm Springs), and Kevin Wiseman (Palm Desert) Staff Present: Harry Barrett, Jr., Airport Executive Director Daniel Meier, Deputy Director of Aviation Marketing and Air Service Victoria Carpenter, Airport Administration Manager Christina Brown, Executive Administrative Assistant 4. ACCEPTANCE OF THE AGENDA: Commissioner Miller said that he had requested that an agenda item be added to the June agenda to discuss the recommendations that the City staff had proposed to the City Council for making changes to Boards and Commissions, and he said that he thought that the Commission had asked that an agenda for the strategy session be sent to the Commissioners. Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 2 of 10 Commissioner Dada thanked Commissioner Miller for his comments, he said that there would be a separate discussion about the strategy session, and he said that once Vice Chairman Corcoran returned from his trip, he and Vice Chairman Corcoran would meet with the committee chairs to discuss scheduling the strategy session. Commissioner Miller inquired about the agenda for the strategy session. Airport Executive Director Barrett said that airport staff could propose an agenda, and he said that the Commission would need to determine what needs to be discussed as a group. Commissioner Miller said that he believed that there were several Commissioners who would like to discuss the role of the Commissioners outside of staff concerns, and the operations of the Commission and how the Commissioners see themselves working in the future. He said that he wanted to make sure that everyone on the Commission has an opportunity to give their input. Chairman Dada asked if any of the other Commissioners agreed with Commissioner Miller’s comments. Commissioner Hedrick said that it was his understanding that there would be further discussion by the City Council in June, and he suggested that the Commissioners watch the meeting to see what the City Council is thinking before going down the path that Commissioner Miller was suggesting. Commissioner Payne asked Commissioner Hedrick for clarification on what he was suggesting, and he said that he believed that the City Council’s discussion and the agenda for the strategy session were two separate items. Mr. Barrett noted that the Commission was going off topic from the agenda. Commissioner Hedrick said that he agreed with Commissioner Payne, and he said that he wanted to point out that there is a City Council meeting in June that is in regard to this matter. Commissioner Payne said that he seconded Commissioner Miller’s comment, he asked Mr. Barrett if he was getting back on topic, and he said that he agreed that there are Commissioners that would like to give their input on the agenda for the strategy session. Mr. Barrett said that he would be discussing the strategy session in his Executive Director’s report, and he said that the Commission needed to vote to accept the agenda to get back on topic. Commissioner Pye said that she agreed with Mr. Barrett, she said that if there is anything to be discussed on the subject, it should be discussed during agenda item 12.A, and she noted that a motion could not be made because the item of discussion was not on the agenda. Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 3 of 10 ACTION: Accept the Agenda as presented. Moved by Commissioner Hedrick, seconded by Commissioner Weil, carried 13-1, with Commissioner Miller voting No and noting the absence of Vice Chairman Corcoran and Commissioners Philbrook, Suero, and Wiseman. 5. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None 6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: ACTION: Approve the minutes of the Airport Commission Meeting of May 18, 2022. Moved by Commissioner Burke, seconded Commissioner Hedrick and unanimously approved with Commissioner Schmitz abstaining and noting the absence of Vice Chairman Corcoran and Commissioners Philbrook, Suero, and Wiseman. 7. INTRODUCTIONS AND PRESENTATIONS: None 8. CITY MANAGER REPORT: None 9. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS: Item 9.A was heard after Item 10.C. 9.A Push Media, Inc. dba Gleeson Digital Strategies, Inc. Director of Aviation Marketing and Air Service Meier announced that Push Media, Inc. dba Gleeson Digital Strategies, Inc. had the winning proposal for the Advertising RFP, he reviewed the advertising services that Gleeson Digital Strategies, Inc. would be providing and their previous work. He said that pending the Commission’s approval, the agreement with Push Media, Inc. dba Gleeson Digital Strategies, Inc. would be on the June 16th City Council agenda, and work was scheduled to begin in July. Mr. Meier said that the contract term would be for three years with two one-year options to extend the contract, the three-year contract was not to exceed $1.5 million with up to $425,000 annually for advertising and $75,000 annually for agency service fees, and he said that the City could terminate the contract at any time with a 30-day written notice. Commissioner Feltman noted that typically media buying is done on a commission, and he asked if the $75,000 agency service fee was a flat fee, and if the advertising would be bought and passed on at cost or would there be a commission paid for the advertising. Mr. Meier said that the contract explicitly says that a commission would Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 10 not be paid on the advertising, and he said that the agency service fee is a flat fee. ACTION: Recommend to the Palm Springs City Council to approve an agreement with Push Media, Inc. dba Gleeson Digital Strategies, Inc. Moved by Commissioner Burke, seconded by Commissioner Hedrick and unanimously approved noting the absence of Vice Chairman Corcoran and Commissioners Philbrook, Suero, and Wiseman. 10. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT: Item 10.A was heard after Items 10.B, 10.C, and 10.D. 10.A Projects Update and Airport Capital Improvement Program Update Airport Executive Director Barrett apologized for not having the number of noise complaints or information for the parking occupancy for the month of May, and he reported that the Assistant Airport Director position had been posted and that it would be open until June 21st. He said that there has been a significant number of applicants applying for the position and that he planned on holding interviews in July. Mr. Barrett said that he may reach out to a couple of the Commissioners to sit on the panel for the final interview which he would coordinate with Chairman Dada or Vice Chairman Corcoran. Mr. Barrett referred to Commissioner Miller’s inquiry about the City Council’s Commission and Boards discussions, and he said that at the recent City Council meeting, the City Manager was given a policy direction by the City Council to reduce the size of some of the Commissions which excluded the Airport Commission, and to make changes to some of the rules and policies of the Boards and Commissions. He explained that staff has not sat down to discuss how to move forward with the City Council’s direction and that he believed that the discussions amongst staff would be taking place over the next couple of weeks or months. Mr. Barrett said that until staff can have an internal discussion at the City level about how to proceed, it would be difficult for staff to discuss the subject with the Airport Commission. He said that he believes that it is a subject that should be discussed in the future and that the discussion would not currently reap any benefits. Mr. Barrett said that because of the changes that are being made to the Boards and Commissions, the City Clerk had directed staff to postpone the Commissioner appointments, reappointments, and the election of officers for the Airport Commission and that the City Clerk would be focusing on filling the more critical vacancies of other Boards and Commissions to ensure they have a quorum for their meetings. Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 5 of 10 Mr. Barrett announced that on Tuesday, June 21st, there would be a special joint Boards and Commissions meeting that would be hosted by the City Council and the City Manager, he encouraged the Commissioners to attend the meeting, and he said that Chairman Dada or Vice Chairman Corcoran would be providing an outline of the Commission’s highlights for the last year. Mr. Barrett referred to the strategy session, and he said that there needs to be a discussion to choose the date for the meeting, and there also needs to be a discussion to determine what the strategy session looks like for the growth of the airport. He said that the strategy session would have to be a public meeting and that it would be a hybrid in-person and virtual meeting. Mr. Barrett explained that because of the hybrid meeting requirement, the airport staff would need to host the meeting either in the City Council Chambers or at the Convention Center because those are two locations that IT can accommodate a hybrid meeting. Commissioner Payne asked if there would be a strategy session to plan the strategy session. Mr. Barrett said that he could work with Chairman Dada on planning the strategy session agenda and that the Commissioners could email Chairman Dada their input for the agenda. He said that the Commission needed to determine if the strategy session would be a half or full day meeting. Commissioner Payne asked for confirmation that the Commissioners should send their ideas to Chairman Dada. Mr. Barrett said that he recommended that the Commissioners send their ideas to Chairman Dada and to courtesy copy Executive Administrative Assistant Brown. Commissioner Breslin referred to the June 21st special joint meeting, and she asked if the City Council and the City Manager would be presenting something themselves as a general idea, and if the meeting would be open to the public. Mr. Barrett said that the meeting would be open to the public, and he said that he believed that there would be a presentation from the City Manager and the City Council. Chairman Dada said that each Commission would have a few minutes to make a presentation, and he said that he believed that the Airport Commission would be bringing up some the Airport Commission’s priorities that the Commission had identified and discussed. Chairman Dada said that he and Ms. Brown could work together to identify some dates for the strategy session and then Ms. Brown could email the dates to the Commissioners to confirm their availability. Chairman Dada advised Mr. Barrett that he would like for Mr. Barrett and his senior staff to attend the strategy session and that he wanted an invitation to be sent to the City Manager. Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 6 of 10 Commissioner Payne asked Mr. Barrett if he would want other entities such as the Visitors Bureau, PS Resorts, or SCAG to attend the strategy session. Mr. Barrett said that he would like to have other agencies to attend the strategy session, and he asked that the Commissioners to send their agency suggestions to Chairman Dada. Mr. Barrett said that he had envisioned the strategy session as a precursor to a full- blown airport master plan process, he said that a Master Plan RFP had been drafted and that from the airport’s perspective, staff would like to be able to go into a Master Plan process with very clear goals about what staff and the Commission want the airport to be, and a consultant could design an airport around those goals. Commissioner Miller asked if the Commission would be going dark in August. Chairman Dada said that he would like to request that the Commission go dark in August. Commissioner Payne said that he would support going dark in August and several of the Commissioners nodded their heads in agreement. Commissioner Miller noted that the strategy session would either be held in July or September which Chairman Dada confirmed. Chairman Dada noted that several of the Commissioners had notified him of the dates that they would not be available in July and that he would respect those dates, and he said that he hoped that the Commission would be able to determine a specific date that would work for each of the Commissioners. Chairman Dada noted that he would have liked to have made arrangements to hold a strategy session retreat at the Ritz Carlton or the JW Marriott. Mr. Barrett said that it wouldn’t be possible for IT to hold a hybrid public meeting at those locations. Commissioner Payne asked if the strategic session has to be a public meeting because the entire Commission would be attending the meeting which Mr. Barrett confirmed. Chairman Dada asked Ms. Brown to provide an update on the email that had been sent to the Commissioners that was in regard to the Commissioners that had terms that would be expiring. Ms. Brown explained that there were several Commissioners who had terms that would be expiring as of June 30th, and she said that as Mr. Barrett had mentioned, staff had been advised to postpone appointments, reappointments, and the election of officers. She said that staff had been asked to encourage the Commissioners that have expiring terms to stay on the Commission and that she would be contacting the Commissioners that have terms that would be expiring. Commissioner Miller inquired about the request that was made. Chairman Dada said that it had to do with the Commissioners that have terms that are expiring at the end of the month. Commissioner Miller said that he thought that Ms. Brown had said that Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 7 of 10 staff or someone made a request. Mr. Barrett explained that it was a policy direction from the City Manager, he said that the basis of that was that the City has several Boards and Commissions that are smaller than the Airport Commission that have reached a critical threshold, and the City needs to fill those vacancies first before the Airport Commission vacancies can be addressed. Ms. Brown said that she was explaining to the Commission that the City was requesting that Commissioners that have expiring terms stay on the Commission if they can. Commissioner Miller asked if that was normal practice. Mr. Barrett confirmed that it was within the ordinance to do so. Item 10.B was heard before Item 10.A. 10.B Financial Summary Update: Airport Administration Manager Carpenter provided a highlight of the financial summary for May 2022, and she said that staff was working with a consultant that was providing guidance to staff on how to utilize the airport’s CRRSA and ARPA grant funds to assist the airport’s concessionaires with the losses that they have incurred during the pandemic. Item 10.C was heard before Items 9.A, 10.A, and 10.B. 10.C Marketing Update: Director of Aviation Marketing and Air Service Meier provided the air service update for June 2022, and he said that the May passenger numbers had the tenth PAX record since June 2021 which had beat the previous record set in 2019 by 22.3%, and it surpassed May 2021 by 33.6%. Mr. Meier reported that Southwest Airlines Sacramento (SMF) services were set to return to double daily in November, and Swoop Airlines had suspended their Edmonton, Canada service for the summer because of pilot shortages, and they were expecting to start the service up again in October. Mr. Meier also reported that he had attended the 2022 JumpStart Conference which is an air service development conference. He said that he had attended the conference with Visit Greater Palm Springs and that they had met with twelve airlines, nine were existing PSP airlines and three were potential airlines. Mr. Meier’s said that he had received positive updates from the nine existing airlines and that the meetings with the other three airlines were also positive meetings. Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 8 of 10 Mr. Meier reviewed the scheduled departing seats, he compared 2022 versus 2021 for July, August, September, and October, and he said that he believed that PSP was set up for a great summer and a great rest of the year and that there was a possibility that 2022 could be a new record year for PSP. Mr. Meier said that a press release had been issued for the release of the Concessions RFP, and he said that the information was also distributed on social media. He said that the local area Chambers of Commerce were dispersing the information through their outlets, and PS Main Street Association had also sent out the information. Item 10.D was heard before Item 10.A. 10.D Concession RFP Update Airport Administration Manager Carpenter said that there has been a significant amount of interest in the Concessions RFP, she said that she has been referring businesses to Planet Bids, and she asked the Commissioners to spread the word about the Concessions RFP. Ms. Carpenter said that there would be a pre-proposal conference on July 18th that would include a walk through of the concession locations. Chairman Dada requested that Ms. Carpenter review the timeline of the RFP. Ms. Carpenter said that the Concessions RFP was issued on June 13th, the pre-proposal conference would be on June 18th, requests for clarification would be accepted and answered in August, and proposals were due on September 22nd. Ms. Carpenter said that interviews would be held with the highest proposers the week of October 17th, the interview panel would make their recommendation and selection in October, staff would bring this information to the Commission in November, and the Concessions RFP would be awarded in December. Commissioner Feltman referred to the news publicity that was in regard to high priced concessions at airports, he voiced his concern about protecting PSP’s brand, and he asked staff how they would ensure in the Concessions RFP that PSP wouldn’t end up with pricing that is not justifiable or warranted and that would damage PSP’s brand with the travelers. Ms. Carpenter said that there is a pricing program in the Concessions RFP that states specifically that concessionaires at the airport would offer value pricing to customers and that the products sold by the concessionaires would be equal in price and comparable to the products that are sold outside of the airport within the Coachella Valley with an allowance of a 15% gap and excluding special promotional items. Commissioner Adams noted that the 15% surcharge is referred to as street pricing. Commissioner Payne asked if there was any way to Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 9 of 10 consider driving down the 15%. Ms. Carpenter said that it would be up to the concessionaire to propose a reduction of the 15%. Mr. Barrett said that staff would vet the additional percentage in the interview process 11. COMMISSIONERS REQUESTS AND REPORTS: Commissioner Payne noted that he had taken on an issue with SITA, baggage, announcements, and the SunLine bus stop at the terminal, and he said that he had provided the information to Mr. Barrett and staff and that he would be requesting an agenda item to discuss the information that he had received. 12. REPORT OF CITY COUNCIL ACTIONS: 12.A Past City Council Actions 12.B Future City Council Actions 13. RECEIVE AND FILE: 13.A Airline Activity Report May 2022 13.B Airline Activity Report Fiscal Year Comparison 13.C Airlines Schedules July 2022 14. COMMITTEES: 14.A Future Committee Meetings Commissioner Payne asked Ms. Brown if there was an Operations, Properties and Facilities Committee meeting scheduled for July. Ms. Brown said that she hadn’t had a chance to confirm with the Committee Members that there would be a quorum for the July meeting, and she said that the Operations, Properties and Facilities Committee meeting was scheduled for July 7th at 11:00 a.m., she would be sending the agenda out 72 hours prior to the meeting and that the agenda would also be sent to the Commission for those Commissioners that would like to observe the meeting. Commissioner Payne asked if there were any other Committee meetings being scheduled. Ms. Brown said that she would be discussing the Budget and Finance Committee meeting with Commissioner Feltman and there is a Noise Committee meeting in July. Palm Springs Airport Commission Action Summary Minutes of Regular Adjourned Meeting June 15, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________ Page 10 of 10 15. ADJOURNMENT: ACTION: Adjourn the meeting. Moved by Commissioner Weil, seconded by Commissioner Adams and unanimously approved noting the absence of Vice Chairman Corcoran and Commissioners Philbrook, Suero, and Wiseman. The Airport Commission adjourned at 6:20 P.M. to a Regular Meeting on July 20, 2022, at 5:30 P.M. via videoconference. ____________________________ Christina Brown Executive Administrative Assistant