Hollister Airport Advisory Committee to be reworked
The Hollister Airport Advisory Committee, a five-person board
that has been advising the City Council for the past 20 years, will
be reworked and adjusted instead of disbanded.
Earlier this month council members began discussions about
disbanding the AAC after Mayor Robbie Scattini breached the
topic.
Hollister Airport Advisory Committee to be reworked
The Hollister Airport Advisory Committee, a five-person board that has been advising the City Council for the past 20 years, will be reworked and adjusted instead of disbanded.
Earlier this month council members began discussions about disbanding the AAC after Mayor Robbie Scattini breached the topic.
At the council’s Feb. 21 meeting, City Manager Clint Quilter explained that the council had three options. It could do nothing and let the committee continue as it was, it could pass a resolution disbanding the committee or it could retool the panel.
There were a number of airport supporters in the audience, none of whom were ready to let the committee disband.
“The main problem is communication,” said Hollister business owner Gordon Machado. “The liaison to the airport committee has not attended any of the meetings in the last nine months. We haven’t had minutes from meetings in the last nine months.”
The airport master plan is nearly complete, which is why the AAC was deemed unnecessary, but the master plan is a living document and just because the master plan has been brought up to date, it doesn’t mean the committee should be eliminated, Machado said.
Others in the audience had bones to pick with current airport manager Bill Gere. They argued that he has not done his job to the best of his ability. But councilmembers insisted the topic was the committee, not Gere’s job performance. Scattini suggested that perhaps the AAC members had forgotten that their role is to simply give feedback regarding events and practices related to the airport. AAC President Ruth Erickson explained that nearly every other airport has an advisory committee and to take away Hollister’s would be doing the community a disservice.
. “This is one of those tough issues. We have discussed the needs and desires of the airport previously,” said Councilmember Brad Pike. The thought I’ve been going over is how we could revamp the commission. Establish perhaps a more cohesive relationship. I’d like to see a five-person committee of some kind, including representatives from the community, the city and the airport manager.”
The rest of the council was on board with this idea as well. Councilmember Monica Johnson expressed concerns in regards to scope.
“I’d want to see what other municipal airports are doing,” she said. “I’d also want to see more Hollister residents on the committee.”
Scattini said there was a problem with getting information back and forth between the AAC and the council, but explained that much to some people’s belief, the AAC was never established to set airport policy, but somewhere along the line, the commissioners decided they wanted to make policy.
Scattini said he, too, favors Pike’s suggestion and agreed with Johnson that the scope of the group needed to change.
Ultimately a motion was passed appointing Pike, AAC members Machado and Ray Creech, Quilter and Gere to a taskforce that will study airport commissions from other communities and report back to the council.
