Supervisors quiet on proposed airport settlement

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors took no action during a Monday morning executive session on a $10 million settlement proposal in the 2010 lawsuit filed by a former fixed-based operator at Yuma International Airport, which is set to go to trial in March.

The county is not currently a defendant in the case brought by DBT of Yuma LLC, as county Superior Court Judge John Nelson granted its motion for dismissal from the case earlier this year, County Administrator Robert Pickels said after the session, and the supervisors did not give any legal direction to staff.

Defense attorney Daryl Williams took the matter to the state Court of Appeals, which heard arguments from both sides early last month. A decision on whether the county should be a defendant may not come before the trial date.

DBT Yuma operated at the Yuma airport as Lux Air and was evicted in 2009 due to nonpayment of rent, but the company contends it had always been in arrears and its late payments had been accepted. Yuma County leases the airport property to the Yuma County Airport Authority, and was added as a defendant in the case in 2012.

Fixed-base operators, or FBOs, provide fuel, hangar space, trip-planning computers and other services to general aviation pilots at airports. Williams said he'd offered the county $10 million to settle the case, the only defendant to which it was offered.

Late Monday morning he said he'd already gotten a call from Bill Kerekes, chief civil deputy county attorney, who told him "he was given no direction by the supervisors at all. I assume that means they will not accept my settlement agreement."

He argues in an email he sent Kerekes about the settlement proposal, which he provided to the Yuma Sun, that as the landlord the county does bear liability for the actions of the airport authority and former director Craig Williams.

"I think the county's in trouble on this one," Daryl Williams said.

He said Craig Williams was using the late payment as an excuse to get rid of Lux Air, which had a 30-year lease and was under contract to build a $2.5 million service building.

The attorney says in the email that Craig Williams wanted to change the airport's revenue stream in order to get $2 million in Federal Aviation Administration funding, and that would have precluded any FBO from building its own structure or controlling ramp space at the airport.

DBT is seeking $9.5 million for lost assets plus compensation for lost profits over the course of the 30-year lease. Daryl Williams said total damages could run anywhere from $45 million to $95 million.

Kerekes confirmed Monday that Daryl Williams sent the email to him. Airport authority attorney Wayne Benesch had no comments on the case. Craig Williams retired from the airport authority in August 2013.

The DBT of Yuma suit was a focus of the now-defunct yumaairportwatchdog.com site, which was harshly critical of Williams and the airport's general aviation policies. Founder Joe Gamez, who had worked for another FBO, and others recorded authority board meetings, some of which are still on YouTube. 
 
- Source:  http://www.yumasun.com