ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – On Monday, December 11, both the current and former managers of the Delta County Airport expressed their opinions on the ongoing “administrative crisis.”
Former manager Andrea Nummilien resigned from her position in June. Shortly afterward, the Delta County Airport underwent a scheduled Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspection.
“Airport staff were unable to locate and produce the majority of the records the inspector requested, which could only have been the result of negligence, malpractice, or incompetence, not necessarily on the part of a sole individual, but overall,” current manager Robert Ranstadler told the Airport Advisory Board.
On December 5, Ranstadler told the County Board of Commissioners that Nummilien did not turn in those records before she left. Nummilien attended the Airport Advisory Board meeting to tell her side of the story as public comment.
“I offered to come back and complete the FAA audit,” she said. “My offer was not taken up. All of these problems that you listed could have been alleviated had they let me come back and complete that audit.”
“That is not what I was told,” Ranstadler told WZMQ 19 after the meeting. “I am not accusing her of lying or deceiving anyone. I will just say that comments that I’ve received from airport employees, former coworkers of the former airport manager, investigative bodies contradict what she had said.”
At the County Commission meeting, Ranstadler also said the airport’s Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) account had been in a “non-collection” status since November of 2020. He said that caused the airport to “miss out on” $180,000 that would have been used to offset airport improvement costs.
“That had nothing to do with me,” Nummilien said to WZMQ 19. “It had to do with internal things regarding an audit and stuff that happened during COVID and getting enough projects to put in an application.”
Nummilien told the Advisory Board, “During the height of the pandemic, we were all caught up on projects and we weren’t starting any new projects. From the federal government, we got a series of grants. 100% of our airport was funded at that time with those grants. It was impossible to put anything into our PFC application. Plus, we didn’t have any large projects, which is typically what we would put in that PFC grant.”
“What I can’t account for and what I just don’t understand is, how did this go on for four years without anyone in any leadership position clearly knowing what was going on with it?” said Ranstadler. “When I discovered this and I briefed it to the board back in November, everyone’s jaws dropped. That leaves only a handful of alternatives. Either she didn’t share the information with them or they received it in an incorrect way… I don’t know. It’s hard to wrap my mind around how something so significant was not captured or better understood by a large portion of the leadership.”
Nummilien says while she was willing to offer support following her resignation, she is not interested in providing services at this time but hopes the county can “course correct.”
“I don’t know anybody that would want to come and work for a county when they know that you’re going to be on blast as soon as you leave,” she said. “They’re going to scrutinize every single thing that you did, and even embellish in some areas.”
The FAA would like the airport to correct the ongoing issues by the end of the year. With a small staff and only a few weeks, Ranstadler expects to address 65% – 75% of the issues by that time. He told the Advisory Board that the Delta County Airport is on the right track.
“The FAA inspector has been very accommodating and understanding,” he said. “What it essentially boils down to is if they see we’re putting in the hard work, time, and effort to make things right, they will give us some additional time.”
Ranstadler continued, “I am just here to serve. I’m here, more importantly, to fix problems. There’s a lot of unanswered questions about how we got to this point, but honestly, I am less interested in exploring answers to those questions and trying to investigate the past and assign blame. I just want to fix the problem and I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again in the future.”
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