Report on the 2/15/96 Planning, Transportation
                Health and Welfare Committee meeting

                          Tim Scully

  The Planning, Transportation, Health and Welfare committee met in Ukiah
at 1:30pm on 2/15/96. Supervisors Peterson and McMichael were present,
along with Budge Campbell (director of Public Works), Joel Bornstein,
Trey Loy, Robin Bell and Diana Scully. Norma Leone took minutes for the
county. There was another lady from the county there whose name I didn't
capture.

  Before our report was presented, Budge Campbell spoke, He is concerned
that Andy Becker may choose to resign as airport supervisor and wants 
direction regarding a back-up plan in case this happens. His concern
arises from the fact that Andy has been absent from the airport more
and more of the time, leaving his wife as substitute supervisor. This is
permitted by the contract, but Budge is concerned that it may indicate
that Andy is thinking of leaving. Additionally, Andy has declined to
generate reports requested by the County on the grounds that they are
not part of his contract duties.

  We were asked if the Ad Hoc committee knows of anyone who would be willing
to work as stand-by airport supervisor. Joel said he'd talk to John
Merriman about Coast Flyers possibly doing this. Trey indicated that he
and some other non-pilots would prefer not to have an FBO as airport
manager due to concerns over possible conflict of interest. Budge said
that he isn't in favor of an FBO as supervisor either, but that he'd
support this as an emergency stand-by.

  There was some discussion of the last year's history regarding Andy's
position. Budge reported that the note has been paid in full, but that Andy
has declined to set up shop as a mobile mechanic on the field. Frank was
unhappy that a lot of County staff time was wasted on this proposal and
wanted to know why Andy didn't accept it. Tim said that he believed that
Andy's analysis showed that there was not enough business for him as
a mechanic to make ends meet, and that he was not confident that he'd
be allowed to retain the position of airport supervisor.

  Budge emphasized that his department has no plans to terminate Andy's
contract and that they would like him to stay on. Budge said that there is 
no other back-up airport supervisor and that he would like the Supervisors to 
consider making the position into a full-time County job instead of a 
contract position. He added that Andy would be welcome to apply for this 
job, if the position were approved by the Board.

  Charles expressed concern over the fact that this would probably amount
to 1.4 headcounts due to the 6-day per week schedule and allowances for
vacation, etc. 

  There was general agreement that Charles will talk to Andy to try to
find out what his intentions are. We were asked to delay discussion of
this topic until after Charles has been able to talk to Andy.

  Budge said that he believes that the airport gives a lot back to the 
community and that it should not be required to entirely pay its own way, 
when no other County department is required to do so. There was some
discussion of medevac flights and earthquake emergencies.

  Budge said that he believes there is a lot of money to be made for the
County at the airport, but that the expansion involved would require a
full time County employee as supervisor.

  Frank said that he's open to the idea of a County employee as airport
supervisor, but that the position can't come out of the general fund. And
he hastened to add that he also doesn't want to see operating expenses such
as this paid from from timber harvest revenue. He could support investing
capital from the harvest and using the revenue for expenses.

  Tim pointed out that Healdsburg airport had installed card-lock fuel and
eliminated the airport supervisor position to balance their budget. He also 
said that some of the airport neighbors were opposed to eliminating the 
supervisor at Little River because they find the supervisor a useful 
interface to the community. Tim suggested a possible compromise: install 
card-lock fuel and reduce the number of days the airport supervisor works 
at the airport, keeping the airport staffed on the busier periods 
Friday-Monday.

  Budge said that it would take staff time from his department to study
and report on the various alternatives for the airport supervisor position.
He also repeated that he felt that the airport timber harvest revenue should 
be reserved for airport use.

  Charles said that he has earmarked some of the timber harvest revenue
for an economic development study at the airport (a precursor to any
non-aviation development there), but that the bulk of the money has to
go to the general fund to balance the budget. He also said that once
a timber harvest plan is approved, the projected income from the harvest
is likely to be lower than previously estimated.

  Frank said he'd like to see a plan with strong community support to
avoid lawsuits.

  Tim began presenting the Ad Hoc committee's 2/7/96 report, beginning
with the revised tiedown fee. Budge asked what about charging a different 
fee for singles vs twins. We agreed that we'd failed to consider that.

  Frank said he'd heard of strong opposition to the proposed fee. Tim agreed
that pilots have objected, but that many indicated that they would reluctantly
accept the fee if it is essential to the health of the airport.

  Budge expressed concern about the additional work required of the
airport supervisor to collect the new fee, particularly in light of the
uncertainty over how this position will fare in the future. The Supervisors
agreed to hold off on a final decision regarding the fee until July.

  We moved on to discussing an officially appointed Airport Advisory
Committee. Tim handed out our proposed draft by-laws. 

  Frank said that the ALUC (Airport Land Use Commission) will soon be
defunct, having completed its work. Budge said that Public Works staff
should participate, but that there is no budget for this.

  Frank said he'd like both airports (Little River and Covelo) to be
covered. He said this needs to be an inclusive process. Charles favored 
a committee just for Little River. Tim said that the Ad Hoc Committee
was strongly in favor of a local committee, to avoid diluting our
input.

  Charles said that 2 or 3 current Ad Hoc Committee members would carry
forward to an official committee, but that there would be new people too.
He also told us that anyone serving on an official committee would have
to file a finacial disclosure statement with the County - he said we could
get the form used for this from the County clerk at the courthouse, so we
can see what's involved.

  He also said that we'd have to work under the Brown act and that this
would probably require changes in how we work. Tim said that we have
already been trying to comply with the Brown act, and have been publishing
our agenda both by posting it at the airport and by sending it to interested
parties.

  Charles said we could also appoint subcommittees which would be exempt
from the Brown act. One of us said that we preferred to work as a committee
so that all points of view were preresented.

  Frank offered to come to the Coast to attend some of our meetings. He
said we should invite him if we'd like him to come. Charles said he'd
wait to hear from us regarding the need for County staff at our meetings.

  The Supervisors agreed that they'd like to aim for July as a date for
establishing an official committee.

  The time allotted for our report was running out. Tim summarized the
survey figures in the report. Budge was surprised by the results of the
instrument approach survey and said that this was important new data.

  The pilot's strong support for private hangar ownership sparked a discussion
of the private hangar issue. Tim said that the Ad Hoc Committee plans to
work on the hangar issue next. He also pointed out that revenue from
private hangars accounts for about 25% of the airport's net income.

  Frank indicated that he had incomplete information when he voted for the 
original minute order which led to the letter to hangar owners, and that he
now supports withdrawing the order. Charles said that he supports removing
the 1999 date but wants the concept of buying the private hangars kept
alive until it has been carefully studied.

  Trey brought up the issue of depreciated vs fair market vs appraised
value. The Supervisors agreed that the wording of the original order
was unfortunate and should be changed.

  Tim said that some committee member have expressed concern about resolving
the private hangar issue in isolation, referring to the connections to
future hangars, non-aviation development and the timber harvest revenue.
Frank said he be happiest if we could come up with an umbrella agreement
to settle as many as possible of the issues at once.

  The supervisors would like to see as many of the issues as possible resolved
by July. They suggested that we should go through the steps outlined in the
airport budget (bu3060) as we consider these issues: how to finance,
maintain, etc.