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Meeting Minutes
Airport Commission
Regular Meeting
August 14, 2024, | 5:00 p.m.
Chandler Airport Terminal
2380 S. Stinson Way, Chandler, AZ
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Hawley at 5:00 p.m.
Roll Call
Commission Attendance
Staff Attendance
Chairman Christopher Hawley
Ryan Reeves, Airport Manager
Commissioner Cecil Orozco
Scott Rinkenberger, Airport Ops Manager
Commissioner Mark Mount
Chris Andres, Airport Planning Program Mngr.
Commissioner Robert Ehlbeck
Diana Alonzo, Management Assistant
Commissioner Damian Nichols
Absent
Vice Chairman Charles McCorkle
Commissioner Mark Riesterer
Others in Attendance
Matthew Dunbar, Budget & Policy Director
Stephanie Romero, Public Information Officer
Scheduled and Unscheduled Public Appearances
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY asked if there were any members of the public that would like to address the
committee on any items not on the agenda.
None.
Approval of Minutes and Discussion
1. June 2024 Regular Meeting Minutes
Move to approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of June 12, 2024.
Consent Agenda Motion and Vote
It was moved by COMMISSIONER EHLBECK and seconded by COMMISSIONER OROZCO to
approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of the June 12, 2024.
Motion carried unanimously (5-0).
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COMMISSIONER MOUNT stated that he’d like to introduce edits on the operations report. The last
sentence of the first paragraph says CHD is the 15th busiest GA in the country, 45th busiest nationwide
country. If country and nationwide are the same, can there be some clarification indication if it is for the
state or is it for county.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated that he thinks it's 17th busiest GA Airport at 45th.
MR. REEVES responded that nationwide refers to all counts GA and air carrier counts and that the
clarification will be made.
COMMISSIONER MOUNT asked if that's for the country that nationwide 50.
MR. REEVES responded yes.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated that on the first page there is a typo just under roll call where it says VICE
CHAIRMAN arrived during after the roll call. I think it was after but if you guys could check the recording
just to make sure we got it right.
Briefing
2. City Capital Project Funding/Bond Election Discussion
MR. DUNBAR gave a presentation the Bond Exploratory Committee/Election Process for fiscal year
2024-2025. MR. DUNBAR stated that he was happy to be here tonight to discuss some of our capital
project funding and bond election. There are some additional changes that may be coming down. Mayor
and Council have asked that staff go out and share this information with all the Boards and
Commissions, to make sure everyone is aware of these changes and to gather feedback. Today, we're
going to talk and share a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-gEyz6Y1wc) that our CAPA
department produced for the last bond election in 2021. This has some good overall information about
what a bond election is and why it's important. Then we'll talk about our current 10-year Capital Plan,
some of the impact’s inflation has had on that plan, and why that's driving the need for bond election a
little earlier than anticipated. He discussed the general obligation bond authorization status we currently
are in, the different categories of bond authorization as far as utilizing that, our history and timeline of
our bond elections and then the direction that Council gave us for some next steps.
Cities build and maintain all kinds of facilities as well as infrastructure like streets and parks, which can
cost a lot. There's only so much money, and selling bonds is a way to pay for public infrastructure when
it's needed. Bonds are really a loan that is repaid over time with property taxes. Taxpayers have the
ability to decide what they're willing to pay for with their property taxes. This is like a credit limit that can
be used over many years as long as they're paid off. Coupons can be sold, resulting into no change to
property tax rates. Chandler has gone through remarkable growth for the last 40 years and a lot of the
current infrastructure the City has to maintain or replaced to continue to provide a great quality of life to
the residents.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked if any of these bonds were specifically tied to the airport.
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MR. REEVES responded no, not directly. However, the ones that are the most sensitive to the airport
are the adjacent roadway projects. We see those as our driveways into the airports We throw a
significant amount of our support behind the street’s projects, particularly the ones adjacent to us.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked if the Cooper Road Collector is still on the airport’s radar.
MR. REEVES responded yes; the Cooper Rd. Collector is a project several people in the room can
speak to very finitely. That project is integral to the airport’s development. The roadway will be on the
south side of the airport, servicing essentially 2/3 of our property with a 2-lane frontage road. The project
is approaching 60% design as we speak.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked if that was the 6ST719 Collector Street Improvements.
MR. REEVES responded yes.
MR. DUNBAR stated that the Collector Streets Road has already been sold. We just sold it last fall, so
portion of that project has been sold already. There's also a portion that's going to be sold in 2027 or
2025 when we do another bond in the bond sale. As we go through this presentation, one thing to keep
in note is that authorization doesn't mean we're actually issuing that debt. That just means that we can.
It's kind of like a credit limit. As the plan calls for projects to move forward, we're able to then sell that
debt and then fund that project and fund for projects that have already begun, and we fund back a year
and forward fund a year. So, we sell kind of in the middle, that way we don't presell. If the project doesn't
move, then we have some issues to focus on if we're making more on our interest than we're actually
paying on interest. We have to follow that and try to avoid that arbitrage situation and just sell kind of in
the middle. We have half of the project out and resolved; the other half is coming up for in the next sale.
When we're talking about our Capital Projects, our new 10-year Capital Plan has about &2.5 billion
dollars’ worth of infrastructure needs citywide. 68% of that is bond funded. That's a combination of
general obligation bonds, which means voter authorization and excise tax revenue obligations, which
funds our water, wastewater, and enterprise fund. Bond funded projects don't need voter authorization.
It's a separate type of debt sale, but the general obligation due our current CIP is also funded with
current revenues or cash on hand or cash anticipated to be collected at 22 percent, 7% grants and 1.9%
in our system. Development fees are impact fees when new buildings come into the city of Chandler.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked what the vertical graph on the left was.
MR. DUNBAR responded that it is the dollar value. What cost $90 in 2009 would cost $170 today.
You can see the escalation of costs today. We still have some supply issues with anything with steel,
concrete and asphalt, our big three that are still seeing slightly higher than that 3 to 4% labor has
cooled slightly which is good. A lot of our projects require steel, concrete and asphalt, so we're still
seeing that.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY and COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked MR. DUNBAR to include their name
for potential Bond Committee members.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated that he didn’t see anything that pertained to the Airport. He thought
there were talks about adding the runway extension.
MR. DUNBAR responded that there are talks about that still, but Mayor and Council have to
determine which categories they want to get authorizations for. We don't currently have a need for
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bond authorization with airport. We could throw a project up in the time frame that would put it into
asking for authorization because with that authorization we could put the question of runway
extension on that Bond Election. There are still discussions at the City Council and Mayoral level as
to if this is the right time for extension of the runway or if in the next one when it goes out in three or
four years to do another bond authorization. They're having those discussions. For right now we don't
have all the categories, but we would anticipate Parks, Streets, Police, Fire, Buildings and Facilities.
The Airport maybe goes in or maybe it doesn't.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated that maybe this is premature then, but they are kind of being forced to
think about it and if they actually need to borrow money to pay for a runway extension. Maybe this is
something the federal or state can pay for.
MR. REEVES responded that due to standing Council ordinance to extend the runway, the airport is
required to be added.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY asked if it has to be added to the ballot even if they don’t borrow money.
MR. REEVES stated that these are on-going discussions between the airport, City Council and City
Management. It is an evolving situation.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated we sort of had a plan in place here. We're going to finish the business
strategy with the Airport Strategic Business Plan and then we're going to do the Community Impact
Study. He also asked if the next option is to try to repeal that ordinance.
MR. DUNBAR responded if it's to leave the ordinance in, we have to go to a vote this time or next
time. If there's a decision that we just want to remove that from the ordinance language, that's a
Mayor and Council decision they can do administratively on their end after public comment, but they
could do it and remove that. We wouldn't need to go out to the voters with any bond funding if there's
a funding or other funding sources.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY asked if there anything the Commission can do in terms of weighing in on that
particular decision and what to do about the ordinance.
MR. REEVES responded that there are Exploratory Subcommittees that are being shored up now as
we speak. I think just your honest input, and MR. DUNBAR has your name down. As those calls
come in just be ready with ideas and evidentiary back up for said ideas.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY asked if there is a target date for the Business Plan.
MR. REEVES responded that he has an update on that during his Airport Manager’s Report, but can
address it now.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY responded that it is alright to talk about it then as well as discussing the
Community Impact Study.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked if they will be at a point in the Community Impact Study to have
some summary data to back up if they do decide to put it out to the voters since there is usually a
description of what that bond is there to do. If there were some positive economic indicators as to
how it provides value to the city, even summary data would be great to be able to tie to any kind of
description, likely to get more support. If they can do that, are we going to be in a position to have at
least some summary data in advance to add supplemental information for the voters.
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MR. REEVES responded absolutely. Staff is currently rescoping the Community Impact Study,
particularly Phase 1 and redrafting Phase 2 (it's a four-phase program0 in light of the accelerated
bond question and that first phase alone is going to produce several things that are important to this
discussion. To your question directly, it's going to produce talking points for Council and City
Management. It will contain a great deal of public outreach through canvassing and so forth. To put it
plainly, the airport has not officially canvassed the public in a number of years on the question of the
runway extension. I can say without any hesitation that in the five years I've been here, that opinion
has gone through a complete paradigm shift. MR. REEVES wouldn't have believed the positive
support we're receiving community-wide now if you would have told him they had it when he got to
the airport five years ago. But those first two phases will be high touch, very public facing and will
produce not only just that canvas data, but the economic impact data from an extension for both
development without the environmental impact with an extension. It will cover all bases for
socioeconomic and day-to-day operations.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked if there will be another Airport Days in advance of May where we
could potentially get petitioners to say yes, we want to support just for feedback, for the city to
determine whether or not they want to do that. If we want to listen to public feedback, that might be a
great way.
MR. REEVES responded not an airport day per se, there will be events with our City Management
group as well as with the service provider that's handling the Community Impact Study. We have
already had multiple discussions about not one, but perhaps several public events at the airport. So,
think a miniature airport day where we actually would show the aircraft that would be utilized on this
field on a year-round basis rather than the 8 months. The public will be able to interact not just with
the aircraft, but with the crews that fly them with the maintainers that put them in the air to see the
true economic impact. It is my goal that during this process to give the public an opportunity to see
and address that every airplane that flies over their head has exponentially more people putting it
there than just the people in it. They are a small fraction of the economic impact.
3. Monthly Operations Report
MR. REEVES presented the Monthly Operations Report for June and July 2024.
June had very good numbers. I will draw your attention particularly to the three-year average, just shy
of 20,000 and we came in above 21,000. Numbers are up at Chandler as they are across the valley
and it's for the same reasons we've discussed before increased flight training. We are seeing a pretty
significant increase in commercial travel, formal commercial 91 and 135 turbine traffic, as you can see
in our total IFR itinerant traffic. June of 2023 was only 276, and we added up to 312 for June of 2024.
Year over year we are up significantly.
In July, we see the normal summer slump as July historically and meteorologically in Arizona is our
warmest month. In fact, the average temperature in July our high was 109 our low was 99. Our average
temperature was 104.87°. We averaged somewhere above 3500 feet density altitude on our best days,
and we saw 4000 feet and nearly 5000-ft almost daily. With that, you see the normal drop in operational
numbers.
It's not insignificant that we're still quite above July of 2023. You can see our total operations for July of
2023 were 17,403 in July. We are not very concerned our IFR traffic, Again, IFR is where we see
commercial turbine traffic. Most of those flights in and out of the field are not flight training, but
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commercial operations. That we are stable is positive because on the overall North American corporate
aviation projections, they were anticipating nearly a 4% drop corporate travel year over year, July to
July. We did not see that. In fact, with June they said we should have been stable. There should have
been a 0% change, but we built in June. Traffic counts are very positive holding at 46 now instead of
47 in the overall ATAC ranking and 15th in GA. The year over year counts put us at 1/4 of a million
operations per annum. Again, it has been many years since we've seen 250,000 plus operations. We
do not see those numbers going down.
4. Monthly Noise Report
MR. RINKENBERGER gave an overview of the monthly noise report for June and July 2024.
For the month of June, we had 3 households make three reports, two were for noise, one was for low-
flying aircraft. All three were repeat residents of note. The third household reported loud aircraft doing
flyovers. It turned out to be a flight training aircraft that was doing pattern work after 10:00 PM, but they
landed 26 minutes after the hour to a full stop. That was the end of activity for the remainder of that
night, so relatively quiet.
For the July report, again very quiet and I attribute this to the high temperatures. Many residents are
buttoned up in their residences with the air conditioning on full blast and running from their house to
their vehicles, and vice versa. There were two noise reports, both were from repeat residents. The first
one was again aircraft doing repeated patterns after 10:00 PM. That was a non-based aircraft doing
pattern work between 10:00 PM and just after midnight.
Second household reported many aircraft flying at 7:00 AM on a Sunday morning and was requesting
restrictions on touch and go weekend traffic. Flight tracking data showed that all the aircraft in both
reports were at or above regulatory altitude. Of the first household for July data base, this particular
household was reporting aircraft at 9,000 or 11, 000 feet AGL. All aircraft were well above regulatory
altitudes and even above the ceiling of the Class D airspace for Chandler.
5. Monthly Origins and Destinations Report
MR. REEVES gave a report for June and July 2024.
There were 159 operations in and out of Chandler for June. You can see on the national map that we
have 4 repositions that accounted for about 2,015 gallons of fuel burn. All aircraft were repositioning to
either Scottsdale or Phoenix for their longer runways. All four of those repositions were based Lear 45
type aircraft. You can also see the temperatures were appreciable with the one exception being
Burlington, WA at 81°, but that's still a pretty respectable density altitude for an aircraft. The total fuel
burn for that month for business aircraft was just above of 24,000 gallons to and from the field. The
longer distance flights are representative of straighter wing, slower cruising aircraft than the Lear 45,
specifically Citation 680 Sovereigns and Latitudes. We can see that unsurprisingly; we've got a lot more
propeller driven aircraft in the top 10 Aircraft Chart. Many of these aircraft are based here and are not
transient aircraft.
In July, we see a marked change. We actually went up 195 flights, with 1 reposition. The one
repositioned flight saw us lose about 600 gallons in fuel. The overall fuel burn for this past month was
32,494 gallons. We believe we are seeing increased corporate use of the airport, continuing the trend
that we've been reporting for 2 years now.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated that he trusts that staff will make good use of the data for the business
plan.
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MR. REEVES responded that he is happy to report that C&S Corporation already has all the data and
continue to receive it on a monthly basis.
6. Monthly Construction Report
MR. ANDRES gave an overview of the Construction Report.
Information Items
7. Manager’s Report
MR. REEVES shared that the Strategic Business Plan, as well as the Community Impact Study, have
accelerated due to the Bond process. One of the Strategic Business Plan’s primary recommendations
has been the extension of the RWY 4R-22L. Airport Administration and City Manager Management, as
well as Mayor and Council, are in the process of rescoping the Community Impact Study accordingly.
We are in the final third now of the Strategic Business Plan. MR. REEVES is currently rewriting the
Council workshop for both Strategic Business Plan and the Community I
Impact study because they are tied together. Once we have the buy-in from Council, particularly on the
Strategic Business Plan, then we come back and finish the final piece of that plan, which will produce
the deliverables as discussed earlier.
Our environmental cleanup project is one of five projects which total over $16,000,000 of City
investment in this airport with zero aid from the state or federal government in this fiscal year. This site
started officially being used in 1948 when the airport came official. The orange map locations have
toxaphene impact. What we are doing right now is preparing to treat Phase I. What we will do in the
future is treat all of the soil 2 feet down from surface all around that area with a chemical compound
that breaks the toxaphene. This is, to my understanding, the first time this process has been used in
the state of Arizona.
The landfill, as I said, is Phase I, a 10-foot-deep pit as of now with congoing excavation.
We do have a timeline as well as fiduciary cushion built into this, which call for completion by
Thanksgiving.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY asked he can ask a question on the cleanup project or wait until the end.
MR. REEVES stated that based on the previous meeting and conversations with the City Attorney, there
shouldn’t be a discussion during the Airport Manager’s Report.
Upcoming projects we are working with IT on airport wide Wi-Fi, we are looking at what types of emitters
we place on the terminal, possibly down by the T-hangers and the box hangers to see if we can get full
blanket coverage of all aircraft parking and storage areas. That's proving to be challenging.
We are also working with IT and city Buildings and Facilities to install security cameras that will blanket
the entire 500 plus acres. This will include several assemblies on the tower just below the cab on the
railing you see on the 7th floor. A We will have entry and exit cameras at all 5 mechanized gates. All
parking areas to the east will be covered, as well as all of the heliport and FATO. We are also trying to
work remote viewing cameras for tower staff so specifically they can have a closer and more detailed
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view of both the heliport, because it is a considerable distance from the cab, and more importantly,
Taxiway A at the D intersection, which is hidden from their view due to structures. Buildings and facilities
have been kind enough to work that into a citywide camera security project.
Fiscal year 2024 fuel sales numbers were very positive. You can see that the overall average went up
considerably from July of 2023. Our pricing structure and our competitive purchasing is working quite
well. We're remaining very competitive in the in the local market you can see we had predicted 55,000
gallons sold in this fiscal year, but we almost sold 68,000 gallons. When we started tracking this back
in Fiscal year 1995, this is our highest sales year since fiscal year ‘07 before the Great Recession of
‘08. If we look at the last fiscal compared to this, you can see that we are well above month-to-month
ongoing sales. The volumetric model is working very, very happy with that.
The city will be sending me to NBAA-BACE in October. This is just one more example how the City
keeps driving the Airport to do more in getting our Airport in front of developers and operators.
The City, particularly City Management, Mayor, and Council, have a partnership with Harvard Kennedy
School of Leadership at Harvard University. They will be sending me to a week-long leadership course
that I will bring back and then teach to other colleagues.
I am going to be part of a Chamber of Commerce Economic Discussion on October 2nd from 11:00AM
to 1:00PM. I will be sitting down with some colleagues from Sky Harbor as well as Mesa- Gateway.
October 2nd and 3rd is AZAA’s Fall Conference. I highly encourage you all to attend. It will be held at the
Desert Willows Conference Center.
In November, airport staff has been tentatively invited mid-month to an FAA PBN airspace discussion.
This is the four-plus year process to reconfiguring airspace over Arizona. The FAA has involved us for
the past two years. This is typically a 5–7-year process. They are adjusting airspace, the standard
instrument departures, and standard approaches into airports in Arizona to match what flight crews can
actually fly with the current fleet. I have to commend the FAA on their procedure and processes on this
effort, having experienced some of the more difficult airspace restructurings in the past 20 years in this
valley, this is an absolute model of how it should be done. They're consulting with airports, they're
consulting with controllers, they're consulting with towers and they're taking flight data and actually
seeing what the aircraft are capable of making the SIDs and STARs match. I've seen the adjustments
to Chandler and have very few concerns. Pilots will welcome them, and it will be better for the
community because it is going to direct traffic over unpopulated areas quicker and much more
efficiently.
We currently have an Airport Operations Tech opening, but I'm happy to report the last week of this
month we will be fully staffed again.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY asked if they could entertain questions.
MR. REEVES stated that was per the City Attorney.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked MR. REEVES what the term he used to describe the toxic material
that on the dirt is.
MR. REEVES responded toxaphene.
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COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked what the toxaphene is.
MR. REEVES responded that it was an herbicide, a hazardous waste and relatively common with crop
dusting. We're just in a much better position than most airports are because the city of Chandler has
been saving to do this project for years.
COMMISSIONER EHLBECK asked if the plan for the whole area is going to be concrete and or asphalt.
MR. REEVES stated that more pointedly, the intention for that area is turning that into the highest value
development acreage on Chandler Municipal Airport because it is southernly situated with northern
exposure for hangars. Ease of operation, as in all real estate development rules, midfield on airport
should be your most valuable real estate asset and this $7 million project, it's going to ensure that that
acreage indeed is.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated that he doesn’t remember being briefed on this one and asked if it was
part of the construction report in the previous month.
MR. REEVES responded that it was, but it didn’t show in airport budget. This is a joint department effort;
we are doing this with our Environmental Division.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY asked if the Airport budget’s is being hurt by this project.
MR. ANDRES responded no, it’s our Environmental Division, a completely separate line of business.
CHAIRMAN HAWLEY stated that he was trying to remember back to our Airport Master Plan, there was
a triangle of contaminated land and asked if this is the triangle what will be left of the triangle.
MR. REEVES responded we will definitely need to go through a small update to the Airport Layout Plan
when this is done to show what that property should be developed as. The Airport Master Plan couldn't
directly say what it should be because it was environmentally designated.
Member Comments/Announcements
CHAIRMAN HAWLY shared that he was at Oshkosh in August and the end of July. It was the first time
he'd been there since 2003 It felt bigger than ever, and it was really inspiring to see the state of aviation,
not just in the U.S., but in the world. He would like to see more activities like that. He doesn’t think CHD
will ever be an Oshkosh, but the Airport Days, the airplane rides, hot air balloon rides and chili cook offs
and whatever events can be brought to the airport can strengthen the reputation within the community,
which is really important right now. He also wanted to mention that he felt the meeting minutes that were
just approved earlier were a fantastic FAQ about how to run Boards and Commissions. In fact, it might
be a good idea to just turn them into FAQs and post them online on the legal department’s website
because he felt they were just really valuable.
Calendar
The next regular Airport Commission meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, at 5:00
p.m., in the Chandler Airport Terminal, 2380 S. Stinson Way.
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Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 6:16 p.m.
______________________________
__________________________________
Ryan Reeves, Secretary
Christopher Hawley, Chairman