A committee overseeing the national search for a new airport director is asking the Metro Council for $40,000 to hire a consulting firm to solicit and vet potential candidates for the position.
An item requesting $40,000 for the firm will be introduced at the Jan. 10 Metro Council meeting. The council will vote on the item on Jan. 24.
Metro Council member Barbara Freiberg, who has led the controversial effort to conduct a national search, says the committee voted at its meeting in late December to allocate $40,000 in airport funds to hire a search firm. The committee later found out, however, that it does not have the authority to spend money without Metro Council approval.
The committee is comprised of three Metro Council members and four airport commission members.
“Any money the Metro Council allocates from any funds the city oversees has to be announced before any action can be taken,” Freiberg says. “So this delays things by a couple of weeks.”
Theoretically, the council could decide against appropriating the money, but Freiberg doesn’t think that will happen, especially considering council member and airport commissioner Trae Welch—one of the biggest opponents of the national search initially—is serving on the search committee with Freiberg.
“I think the Council understands that people want to move forward with this,” she says.
Before the council votes on approving money to retain a consulting firm, it will consider a previously introduced item to raise the salary level of the airport director from a range of between $77,000 and $129,000 to between $89,000 and $149,000. The council will vote on that matter next week.
If both measures are ultimately approved, Freiberg hopes to have a consulting firm in place by late January that could bring to the search committee somewhere between five and 10 qualified candidates to lead the airport.
The airport has been without a permanent director since longtime director Anthony Marino retired one year ago. Marino’s No. 2, Ralph Hennessy, has been serving as the interim director ever since.
Freiberg and others have said the airport needs to conduct a national search for a new director to see if an outsider could bring fresh ideas to the airport that could result in more direct air service for the market.
—Stephanie Riegel
