ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – In December, Delta County Airport Manager Robert Ranstadler informed the Delta County Board of Commissioners of an “administrative crisis” at the airport. In March, the board turned an investigation into the situation by its hired attorney, Scott Graham, over to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Now, a summary of Graham’s report—which can be read at the end of this article—has been released to the public.
“My conclusions can be summarized as follows,” Graham wrote. “Andrea Nummilien, the Delta County Airport Manager in the first half of 2023, subjected the airport and the county to serious jeopardy by performing her duties in a grossly negligent manner that jeopardized continued airport operations. She may have intended to harm the airport and the county by sabotaging the annual inspection. The question of what should be done about her misconduct should be referred to the FAA so that claims of bias against the county can be avoided.”
Graham’s report goes on to state that Nummilien “failed to prepare” information required for the FAA’s 2023 inspection. He says she “tried unsuccessfully to postpone” the inspection and “falsely told the FAA Inspector that she had a scheduling conflict” the day of the inspection. Graham says Nummilien “falsely told the FAA that all inspection documents had been loaded into the file sharing system used by the FAA and the airport.”
Nummilien submitted her resignation as manager on May 31, officially leaving on June 3.
“A lot of the decisions that have been made, I feel, are just going to make things harder in my position and all the county department head positions,” Nummilien told WZMQ 19 at the time. “I’m heartbroken to leave, but if you can’t follow the direction of the organization you’re working with, it’s time to move on. It’s not because I didn’t love my job or love my community.”
Graham says in his report, “Rather than deal with and participate in the periodic inspection for which the airport was not prepared, the airport manager resigned her job with no meaningful notice to the airport or the county.”
Graham also says Nummilien showed a disregard for security, did not arrange for FAA-required employee training, and did not assist the assistant airport manager.
The report reads, “The airport manager said that she would return to help with the periodic inspection but did not do so.”
However, Nummilien tells WZMQ 19 that her offer to return was refused.
“There was still a couple of weeks before the inspection was due when I left, and I knew that I was not going to be able to finish it,” she said. “I offered to come back, and that offer was ignored. My offer to train the new assistant manager was ignored. I suggested a third party to help out with things. I did everything I could as far as the county to help get that inspection done, and my offers were ignored. After I had left, I reached out to Commissioner [Steven] Viau anytime something popped up to pass pertinent information to him to give to Ashleigh Young, who was the interim airport manager at the time. She reached out to me personally with questions that I answered immediately. I don’t know what more I could have done.”
Graham’s report also says Nummilien “spent her last two days of work shredding documents and cooking for her friends.”
“A reasonable inference is that the airport manager destroyed records that showed the extent of her misconduct,” the report reads.
Numillien responded to both claims, saying she only destroyed old documents that had piled up in the process of digitizing them.
“I was not destroying any documents that were necessary for the functioning of the airport,” she said.
As for “cooking for her friends,” Nummilien says she and the operations staff cooked out for lunch in recognition of her last day.
“We would normally do a cake or some kind of lunch to say goodbye,” said Nummilien. “My entire last day was not spent ‘cooking for my friends,’ which was a completely bizarre claim.”
Graham also says Nummilien left her office “in shambles,” with “piles of documents” unfiled and left sitting out.
“It is unclear when the airport manager knew that she had not properly prepared for the periodic inspection,” Graham’s report says. “It is also unclear whether the airport manager intended to harm the airport by sabotaging the inspection. This is something that the FAA and perhaps the FBI should determine.”
“I was bouncing between the manager’s desk and the assistant manager’s desk,” Nummilien says in her defense. “There wasn’t a single time where I could start a project and sit down and finish it. The only way that anybody would know what was going on was for me to leave it out. Like the bills that needed to be paid. If I had just put them in a file somewhere, nobody would know that they were due.”
The summary of Graham’s report concludes, “A significant issue exists regarding whether the airport manager mismanaged the payment of airport funds to contractors who worked at the airport. The airport manager was, at the least, grossly negligent in fulfilling her work duties. The airport manager is potentially criminally liable for her actions. The airport manager committed other acts of misconduct that I will not report on at this time because of my desire to commitment to protect SSI.”
Nummilien says Graham’s report is filled with “subjective statements stated as fact.” She says Graham never interviewed her and says she is unsure where he obtained much of his information.
“There was nobody there during those six months that he could have interviewed that would have been present at that time,” Nummilien said. “There is no way that I was acting negligently. You would be very hard-pressed to find anybody at that airport that would say that I would willingly hurt the airport.”
The FAA determined there was nothing to “further pursue” after receiving Graham’s report.
“I feel like the FAA completely substantiated my take on the whole situation,” said Nummilien. “I feel that I truly did all I could have done to make sure that we were successful.”
Nummilien maintains that she “was forced out” of her position as airport manager due to the behavior of County Commissioners David Moyle, Bob Barron, and Robert Petersen. However, Moyle told WZMQ 19 that is untrue.
“She wasn’t forced out,” he said. “She resigned with two days’ notice, and she lied to the feds when she told them she’d be back to help. The FAA issued three letters of noncompliance going back to 2021, and neither she nor the administrator at the time made any mention to the Advisory Board or to the County Board of Commissioners.”
The Board of Commissioners introduced a new policy requiring the airport manager to bring proof of FAA compliance to the County Board. Moyle says the policy was proposed for that reason.
“I don’t have any ill will toward Andrea Nummilien,” said Moyle, “but I question why she spent so much time on the media trying to clear her name when she’s off doing a different job and nobody’s going after her with any criminal intent. This is all politically motivated, and it’s unfortunate.”
Moyle also says Graham did a thorough job investigating the airport, defending what Nummilien refers to as “subjective statements.”
“The FAA would not have accepted the investigation if it was malarkey or made up,” he said. “They not only accepted the investigation; it’s on file. They thanked us for our transparency, which was a nod toward the credibility of that investigation. They’re not pursuing criminal charges; we’re not pursuing charges. We’re moving forward with a competent staff.”
Read the full summary of Graham’s report below:
