County Eyes Integrated Team For MidAmerica Airport
BELLEVILLE, IL (August 20, 1999) -- A County Board member on Thursday revealed that St. Clair County officials are meeting with a company that wants to combine the marketing and management of MidAmerica Airport.
Joe Behnken, an O'Fallon Republican and frequent MidAmerica Airport critic, said he believes the new management company would be paid on a contingency basis, something he said will be cheaper and will bring airlines quicker than the current system.
Right now, MidAmerica Airport is managed by a St. Louis company for a flat fee while marketing is handled by other firms for other fees. While the total cost of operating the airport under this contract is unknown, marketing has cost the county more than $500,000 since 1995.
The county's Public Building Commission on Thursday met in closed session for more than two hours with A3M, also referred to as Airport Third Millennium, Behnken said.
An A3M officer asked for a closed session, not wanting details of its proposal to be released to the public. Other county officials, including County Board Chairman John Baricevic, honored that to the letter, not eyen disclosing what services A3M performs.
"It is one of a number of companies that have visited the airport with the county," Baricevic said. "They started the meeting with a demand for propriety so I have to honor that."
But Behnken said he was not revealing any proprietary information in talking about what the company could offer the county. "There hasn't been a consortium that has come in and made a presentation like this before to my knowledge," he said. The visit Thursday was A3M's third.
According to Behnken, A3M is a Denver-based airport management firm that would run the airport on a contingency basis, rather than get paid upfront.
"This is a giant step toward privatization," Behnken said. "We should have hired a firm like this 11 years ago."
According to a contract obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat on Thursday, the county doesn't just pay the salaries for MidAmerica Airport workers. It pays the cost of those salaries plus 35 percent to the management company, an offshoot of St. Louis' Sverdrup Corp. called SP Operations and Management Services Co.
For a MidAmerica Airport maintenance worker's approximate $30,000 salary, the county pays Sverdrup $40,500. The county is charged 10 percent above the cost of subcontractor expenses and 8 percent above standard costs like office expenses or machinery rental.
"There is no incentive to perform, they get paid whether the airport makes money or not," Behnken said. "They have nothing to do with the marketing of the airport."
The meeting coincides with legislation signed last week by Gov. George Ryan that allows tax abatements for businesses that locate to MidAmerica Airport. Local legislators pushed for the bill, which would allow a development authority to decide how the tax rebates would be structured.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
Michael Shaw Article
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