The question of which stakeholders of the Sedona Airport deserve representation on the Sedona Oak-Creek Airport Authority’s Board of Directors is at the heart of an ongoing battle over how to fill two board vacancies and bring the body to its full complement of seven members.
A faction that includes an unofficial organization claiming representation of hangar owners at the airport, the Sedona Airport Hangar Owners, which is seemingly allied with SOCAA board member Steve Hein, is fighting to have SAHO representatives included in the candidate selection process for all new board members.
Because SAHO members were not included in an October nomination committee and interview process — though at least two of its members were candidates — Hein and SAHO have sought a do-over of that selection process and a codification of SAHO involvement in the future.
Three current board members, Vice President Pam Fazzini and members David Cooper and Scott Schroeder, voted against a re-do of the October selection process during a Nov. 9 meeting to deliberate on the vacancies. Two board members, Fazzini and Cooper, explicitly voiced opposition to SAHO involvement in airport governance, now and going forward, including the selection of board nominees.
Hein, on the other hand, expressed the view that hangar owners are the board’s principal constituents and thus deserve a seat at the table.
“It was proposed a long time ago that two people from the airport SAHO group would be on that [committee], and they’ve been on that interview committee every single time,” Hein said. “And it’s fair because we’re the board of our constituents. And they are our constituents …. If we take them out of the representative process, which has happened in this last interview, than who are we a board of?”
In response, Fazzini offered a more expansive view of the board’s constituency.
“I can tell you right off the top of my head, that there are hangar owners who are not actively represented by the group that calls itself SAHO,” Fazzini said, “but we also owe other people representation: The people who park their airplanes on the ramp; people who come up to the airport at the overlook; people who live in our communities; people who rent hangars up here — they deserve representation just as much as hangar owners.
“I think that it behooves us as a board to realize that we have a greater responsibility. And while we don’t want to overlook the needs of the people calling themselves SAHO, we also need to meet other needs,” she said.
Following the dueling remarks, the faction represented by Hein and SAHO won a battle in their campaign for greater representation on the board. That’s because board president Harold Idell, whose actions have benefited both sides at different times, joined Hein in voting against a motion to advance the candidates recommended following the October interviews — a process that did not include SAHO.
That vote was 3-2 in favor of advancing the October candidates, but since SOCAA bylaws require that candidates for the board receive approval from at least 75% of current members, the motion failed despite receiving the majority.
Afterward, the board approved a motion to form a committee to establish a fixed process for evaluating board candidates going forward. That motion passed 4-0 with Fazzini abstaining.
The failure to advance the previously recommended candidates, combined with the move to create a new process, means that SOCAA will essentially have a do-over of the candidate review process it performed in October.
Though Hein claimed during the meeting that “it’s really easy to do a do-over” of the selection process, there are signs that an added delay to the confirmation of new board members could create difficulties for the airport.
As noted by Cooper during the meeting, one of the candidates recommended by the October nomination committee, David Palm, has withdrawn himself from consideration — a result, Cooper suggested, of the current delay and conflict over the process.
There was also evidence at the meeting that Yavapai County, which leases the airport to SOCAA to operate in the public interest, is starting to lose patience with the delay. Yavapai County Deputy County Administrator Jack Fields, who was in attendance, warned the SOCAA board following the votes that the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors was concerned with how long SOCAA has been operating without a full board.
“This board has been operating with only five members out of seven for a long time,” he told the board.
The county has veto power over SOCAA’s board of director selections, and the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors could theoretically weigh in on the dispute by vetoing any nominees it doesn’t like.
The next battle in the fight over SAHO’s representation on SOCAA’s board is the selection of the three [at mininum] current SOCAA board members who will serve on the committee establishing the new process for evaluating board applicants.
The power of selecting individuals for that committee belongs to Idell, who is out of town, but told the Sedona Red Rock News that he would be finalizing his selection when he returns.
