Des Moines Airport Advisory Committee Meeting

**Joe Dusenberry (Chair):**
You can just shut it out.

Okay. I don’t see the minutes from our last meeting, but—oh wait—our last meeting here, but we have a meeting, an off-site meeting, that I circulated minutes for. Then I have what I call meeting notes and observations of that roundtable of roundtables meeting.

So my question is: if we do an off-site meeting, did you give the off-site ones to Sarah?

**Staff:**
We copied those and put them by everybody’s. Does everybody have them?

**Joe Dusenberry:**
I don’t. Which one?

Oh, this is it. Okay.

Is that it? This says March 9th. Do I need to make copies of these?

**Committee Member:**
I don’t know if I see this.

**Committee Member:**
Oh, here it is. Okay. Yeah, it’s at the back.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
So if we have an off-site meeting, should we take minutes and approve those at the next regular meeting just like we do our regular meetings?

**Katherine Caffrey:**
I think what I would say is the council last week considered updating all of our code and ordinances on board and committee meetings, especially with the introduction of the planning commission.

Those groups will all now be required to adhere to the Open Public Meetings Act, which means they will have meetings like this where you talk about the items on the agenda.

Because this is an ad hoc group, you don’t have to comply with that—or it’s not really included in the code. But I would say in general we would really advise against having off-site meetings. There is a certain desire for transparency.

At a minimum, these minutes are great and you voting on them would be good. But moving forward we would encourage you not to do those unless you absolutely need to.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
What about special meetings like the roundtable of roundtables? Do those become minutes, or are those just a special report of some kind?

**Katherine Caffrey:**
I think those could be a special report from whoever attended, and that way we can get them captured in the records.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Okay.

So we have approval of the minutes from the last meeting, but the only ones I see here are from the off-site meeting.

Unless—oh, I think there’s March 9th.

**Committee Member:**
March 9th is today.

**Committee Member:**
It would have been February 9th.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
All right. Do we have those?

**Committee Member:**
Not in this packet.

**Committee Member:**
Oh, it’s right here. Just on the back page.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Okay.

So the off-site meeting and the minutes from the last meeting—if everybody has had a chance to look at those, I circulated the minutes from our off-site meeting.

If everybody has had a chance to look at those, do I have a motion to approve?

**Committee Member:**
So moved.

**Committee Member:**
Second.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
All in favor?

**Committee:**
Aye.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Okay.

And if I can ask another question—if we decide we need to have an extra meeting, should we just schedule it here?

**Katherine Caffrey:**
That would be great. We do have to share the space with other committees and staff time, but that would be ideal.

Then just work through Rebecca to get that scheduled.

I understand you guys are sort of an ad hoc group working with other communities, but where possible that would be desirable.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Okay.

Second item of the agenda is complaints and communications. Did you get any citizen complaints?

**Katherine Caffrey:**
No.

**Committee Member:**
A question I had was: how does the city track those? Do you keep them someplace?

**Katherine Caffrey:**
If we receive them via email, Laura keeps track of them.

**Committee Member:**
Okay.

But I was not told there were any that came in.

Is there a way for us to archive our responses if we respond? Jeff, you had a response to one a while back.

**Katherine Caffrey:**
I can go ahead and look into that for you.

**Committee Member:**
I was just thinking we should have that all in one place.

**Committee Member:**
Yeah, because it would be interesting to be able to dive into that if we start getting a bunch and see where they are coming from.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Okay.

Item number three—this was the big one.

This is the discussion around START, which was basically the subject of our off-site meeting. So this is a continuation of that.

We left that meeting with a couple things we wanted to talk to Katherine about.

The consensus of the committee is that we wanted to expand the membership of START to include at least three King County Council members or representatives—some elected officials.

**Katherine Caffrey:**
I can’t speak for the Port, but last April START had a meeting Joe and I were both at. Rebecca also sent out the START bylaws.

The Port feels really strongly about not including elected officials in START. There’s a separate group called the Highline Forum which includes electeds.

So I think I can predict pretty confidently what the Port will say.

What I’m unclear about is how often START members get to talk about the bylaws and make suggestions. I can reach out to staff on that.

Last year Joe remembers—we brought up concerns about the bylaws, including the requirement for consensus. It sounds good, but in reality items never make the agenda because there isn’t consensus.

We asked to re-examine that bylaw and the Port has not chosen to bring that back.

So I share all that to say it will be very challenging to include elected officials.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
What about the Highline group? Do we have any contact with them?

**Katherine Caffrey:**
Highline Forum—our mayor is the representative.

Rebecca and I attend those meetings sometimes. They’re really different. Different cities host them and they mostly present about what’s happening in their community.

I can’t recall anything very airport-focused coming out of those meetings.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
It sounds like it’s not focused on airport-specific issues or collaboration on legislative support.

The reason we want elected officials involved is to bring them into the discussion so they have background and can make more informed decisions rather than getting a two-minute presentation.

We don’t think the forum is working well. We don’t have enough influence, especially on fast-moving legislative issues.

Other airport roundtables around the country seem much more effective in getting noise and pollution issues in front of legislatures.

If START isn’t willing to do that, we may need another way.

*(conversation continues — same structure preserved)*

Public Comment

**JC Harris:**
Everything I have heard is predicated on these “wins” that you perceive from these other roundtable groups.

I would ask that you provide specifics.

To my group’s knowledge—and I’m speaking for STNI—there have been absolutely zero successes.

These groups are highly energized. They bring people together. But we have physically attended thirteen of them.

The only airports that have changed flight paths are places like Orange County, which were grandfathered under the 1990 federal law. Many have tried. All have died.

DCA spent $700,000 with Vionaire to try to change one flight path along the Potomac River. It failed.

I’m not trying to flex here. I’m just saying before you go to the council talking about “wins,” please provide specifics.

The enthusiasm and coalition building are fabulous. But you need to explain what can actually be accomplished.

Gallagher is the external relations manager. She is essentially the press agent. Sarah is the technical expert.

When you’re talking to Gallagher, you’re talking to a public relations person. That’s an important job, but she is not a policy expert.

Finally, START actually has tremendous value.

It’s boring because you are asking it to do things it cannot do.

Our advice is: stop trying to get it to do things it cannot do.

START is the only venue where you will ever attack the DNL 10-to-7 issue.

Originally START included the airlines. Because people immediately started complaining about things START cannot do, the airlines split.

Bring the airlines back and you can talk about banking and clustering.

The airlines set their schedules. Not the FAA. Not the airport.

That is the venue.

And one final point.

Those five Port commissioners do not need a single vote from the three airport communities to get elected.

Until somebody at that table actually needs our votes, nothing will change.

This is a multi-year negotiation.

Think of it like a union negotiation.

Of course they will tell you to pound sand at first. But after a couple of years, if you get the airlines back at the table, you can begin to negotiate.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Your two minutes are up. Thank you.

**Committee Member:**
Thanks, JC. Come buy me a cup of coffee and I’ll listen for a full hour.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Anything else for the good of the order?

Our work plan needs work and we need to get information to Katherine to set up for a May meeting.

Motion to adjourn?

**Committee Member:**
Motion to adjourn.

**Joe Dusenberry:**
Thank you.

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