Collier County lawmakers have advanced legislation to change the course of Naples airport oversight.
Rep. Adam Botana, a Bonita Springs Republican, presented a local bill[1] to the Collier County legislative delegation that would restructure the Naples Airport Authority (NAA[2]) as an elected body rather than Naples City Council members appointing its members.
“This is the homiest of home rule because it gives it to the people,” Botana said.
The delegation voted 4-0 to advance the legislation. It will now be filed as a bill and directed to appropriate committees during the Regular Session.
Botana’s bill would also require all members of the authority to be Collier County residents, with three of five living in the city and the other two in the county.
City officials painted the legislative action as an attack on home rule and the authority of the local government over the Naples Airport[3], a small municipal facility that saw less than 9,000 passenger flights in the 2022 fiscal year.
“There is no factual basis to propose wholesale changes,” said Naples City Councilmember Beth Petronuff. “For decades, the city-appointed NAA has governed a successful Airport. The success is a testament to the diverse and qualified experts selected by City Council. Why fix something that is not broken?”
But Botana and others questioned both the current makeup and recent Airport Authority decisions. This week, the NAA nixed $9 million in federal grants awarded for the airport, for example. And one of the NAA’s current members does not live in the city; NAA member John Crees has been outspoken[4] against accepting federal grants.
The Airport Authority’s current structure dates to 1969, and Botana said it’s simply time to modernize the institution.
“I believe if there’s people there buying homes, and we have a lot of tourists that come here, a lot of locals that come here, who buy homes here, that want to use that airport,” he said.
In addition to changing how members get selected, Botana’s bill also shifts the power to fill vacancies to the Governor instead of the city. It also would impose requirements for five years of aerospace industry experience.
Mary Tatigian, a former NAA member, said that despite working decades as an administrative executive for airlines, she doesn’t know if her own experience would qualify her for the post, as state law defines aerospace work as directly connected to technology and manufacturing.
“That’s a very high standard. And I think that it’s restrictive, and I think it’s limiting, and we should think about that a little more,” she said.
But Keith West, of Rexair Flight School on the airport property, said he supports a change to the authority structure. He suggested the city politics also compromised the airport’s future.
“The situation that we have now is intolerable. In fact, it’s a form of tyranny, because we, the users and the tenants at the airport, have no representation whatsoever,” he said. “In fact, it’s even worse than that, because the commissioners are appointed by a board that has the City Council that has made it clear that they want to violate our rights by shutting us down and closing the airport.”
Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican, noted that the airport doesn’t fall entirely within city limits, so sitting county residents and members elected countywide makes more sense than the current structure.
“Somebody said it hands control to the outsiders,” she said. “But that’s not the case, because there are three — the majority is still city residents.”
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References
- ^ local bill (collierdelegation.com)
- ^ NAA (www.flynaples.com)
- ^ Naples Airport (www.flynaples.com)
- ^ outspoken (naples.granicus.com)