Tense exchanges and questions about executive sessions were factors in last week’s Fairhope Airport Authority meeting, when accusations and explanations went back and forth between Airport …
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Tense exchanges and questions about executive sessions were factors in last week’s Fairhope Airport Authority meeting, when accusations and explanations went back and forth between Airport Authority Chair Joe McEnerney and Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson on numerous matters of discussion.
Bond attorney withdraws
In one item, the Airport Authority was forced to pick a new bond attorney after its current firm, Birmingham based Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, withdrew from being the authority’s firm citing unrest in Fairhope’s city government.
“(The attorney) called and said he didn’t want to do any business with us,” McEnerney said. “He said there were too many moving parts with the city of Fairhope … too many things pulling against the bond issue closing in a timely manner.”
Wilson: So, the fact that you have said something totally different at this meeting.
McEnerney: Karin, I didn’t say something different.
Wilson: (To City Attorney Marion “Tut” Wynne) Tut, did we hear that at our meeting?
Wynne: You said that you were considering having to go forward without the cooperation of the mayor, whereas yesterday when we talked, we are all trying to work together with Mayor Wilson to get everybody back on the same team again.
Wynne said he believed Wilson was an ex-officio member of the board and including her in the requests for proposals and other board matters would help bring everyone onto the same page.
McEnerney said exchanges like this were “one of the reasons our bond counsel retired.”
Wilson said she didn’t like being accused of postponing the refinancing for the airport’s debt.
“I want everybody at this board to understand that I have nothing to do with postponing this,” Wilson said. “You tried to push it through with an email that would have happened before I took office. After I took office, the negotiations continued without me. Those deadlines on the original RFP were October and you didn’t send another RFP until January, so how is that my fault?”
Wilson: You continue to state facts that are not true. I’m going to come in here and state the truth. I have nothing to do with prolonging this. The banks could have been called before this deadline. Extend it, or let’s work on right now putting something else in place.
McEnerney: I disagree with everything you’ve said, but I’m not going to debate you. You came in here and you planted two people and told them to table the motion.
Wilson: Did we table your efforts? You’re still engaging these same banks. I’m not going to micromanage this - I have a city to run.
Wilson: They’re finally witnessing what I witness all the time. It’s fine what you say behind close doors, but once you go out, you say a totally different thing.
McEnerney: You think I go into that board and people don’t say bad things about me.
Once the board entered the executive session, Wilson said she felt she and Wynne deserved to sit in on that meeting, but were asked to leave the executive session based on the legal interpretation of Wilson’s role on the board from Airport Authority attorney Josh Myrick.
Following the executive session, Wynne told Myrick based on an interpretation of Robert’s Rules of Order from Florida, an ex officio member is a “full-fledged member and does have the right to attend that meeting.”
Burrell said the current bylaws did not necessarily grant Wilson full status as an ex officio member.
“It says the mayor ‘shall ex officio be entitled to notice,’” Burrell said. “There is no reference to the mayor being an ex officio member.”
Wilson disagreed with the interpretation.
“Y’all arguing this matter to try to keep me out is not in the best interest of the city, and I think the citizens will have a problem with that,” Wilson said.
This led to an exchange between Wilson and Burrell.
Wilson: That was not a voting session. I wasn’t there to vote, and when I come to these meeting, I’m not here to vote. If that’s how you interpret it, that needs to change.
Burrell: The board is a sovereign entity that does operate separate from the city. It very specifically states you aren’t a voting member, and that states to me you shouldn’t be in the executive sessions. I think it’s a worse violation to allow a member of the public in a executive session - that’s a far more serious thing.”
Both Wynne and Myrick said they would study the law on the matter and get back to both the board and mayor with their opinion.