ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Amid an “administrative crisis,” the Delta County Airport is taking steps to correct ongoing problems and prevent future ones.
The Airport’s Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) account—which is designated for funds to offset airport improvement costs—has been in a non-collection state since November of 2020. On December 5, manager Robert Ranstadler told the Delta County Board of Commissioners that because the account was in a non-collection status, the Delta County Airport had “missed out on” $180,000.
On December 11, previous airport manager Andrea Nummilien told WZMQ 19 the PFC account’s status had “nothing to do” with her, adding, “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.”
At that time, Ranstadler had said he could not “account for” how the situation went on for years “without anyone in any leadership position clearly knowing what’s going on.” Since then, Ranstadler says he has uncovered old Airport Advisory Board minutes that show Nummilien brought the issue to the board ten times between November of 2020 to July of 2022.
“Back in November 2020, she expressed quote, ‘We are running out of things to fund with our PFC and we need to get projects going or we’ll have to restart an application, which is a lengthy and challenging process,'” Ranstadler said at a special Airport Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday. “Absolutely correct.”
Ranstadler detailed other times Nummilien mentioned the PFC account, including a project that was put on hold in February of 2021 and a plan in June of that year to try to start collecting again.
“In February ’22…’PFC program has been currently suspended because the audit hasn’t been done yet… Anderson and Tackman [the airport’s accounting firm] are three years behind,'” Ranstadler read from Nummilien’s notes. “Two months after that, she shared that the FAA had not accepted an application for PFC Project 11 due to Anderson and Tackman not having completed the audit. In my mind, she’s doing everything that she needs to do at this point. She’s trying to submit applications, she’s trying to put the money towards projects, but now the problem is Anderson and Tackman being behind on their audits.”
In July of 2022, Ranstadler says Nummilien told the airport board that the Federal Aviation Administration had received a PFC audit for review. He says Emily DeSalvo, who worked as County Administrator at the time, said the airport was then current with the PFC account.
Ranstadler read, “‘It was explained that there were mistakes made with the PFC account by prior airport managers…but a policy is put in place. County Administrator DeSalvo explained that the contract holds Anderson and Tackman accountable and now everyone has a much clearer idea of what is needed.'”
Finally, Ranstadler says that at that month’s Delta County Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner David Moyle motioned to approve an “Airport PFC Account Use Policy.” The motion was seconded.
Now, Ranstadler wants to ensure the airport does not have future problems with the PFC account. He added that he does not want to “point fingers” or critique any former airport employees.
“I’m not suggesting a failure to submit the application caused the account to go in a non-collection status,” Ranstadler told the Airport Advisory Board on Tuesday. “Moving forward, who’s ultimately responsible for this thing? How do we communicate better with each other to make sure this doesn’t happen again? In my mind, the due diligence here is, this account’s been in a non-collection status for a long time. The airport manager needs to be working with a consultant to pre-draft, pre-plan an application for the next PFC project.”
To keep the PFC account on the forefront of the Airport Advisory Board’s minds, Ranstadler says the account will become part of the minutes for all future airport board meetings.
Click here for WZMQ 19’s last report on this story.
