It's Your Money

Last week we congratulated Witham Airport Action Majority (WAAM) for dropping their long running legal actions against the County over the noise and safety of operations at Witham. We believed that those actions would put an end to the exorbitant legal costs the County has faced over these airport issues. We may have been premature as we now find that members associated with that group are continuing a separate lawsuit they filed back in 2004. This suit alleges that the County has decreased the value of homes located near the airport by “trespass and harassment” thereby “taking” the resident’s property without compensation. The suit is being pursued as a “class action” as well as a companion suit seeking individual damages for the plaintiffs.

Many could take the position that, given that the plaintiffs chose to purchase a home and move near an active Federal Aviation Administration monitored airfield, the suit is basically without merit. These folks have been offered buyouts or free sound insulation and given a voice on airport operations. Unfortunately if the County does not actively challenge these claims the potential liability is enormous and the legal costs defending this suit have already amounted to some $320,000. The only funds generated by the airport are lease fees, rent and aviation fuel taxes ($885,000 in 2008) and this has to cover operations and capital outlays. This leaves the about $70,000 for litigation expenses which is woefully inadequate to fight this major lawsuit.

The first hearing is scheduled for December of this year and, if the County is successful, could go a long way to limit taxpayers’ liability. The additional legal costs running up to this critical 3-day hearing could easily amount to $300,000. Recognizing this, on Tuesday the Commission earmarked another $350,000 from their contingency funds to fight this suit.

We abhor wasting taxpayer money, especially on legal fees to fight what may be opportunistic actions by a few residents. However, given the potential liability to the County’s taxpayers we must reluctantly concur with spending the money. Hopefully the remaining plaintiffs will follow the lead of those that accepted the County/FAA solutions and have already dropped out of this litigation - and the money can be returned for more appropriate uses.

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We applaud another Commission action at last week’s BCC meeting. Commissioners decided not to create a new, formally appointed “Budget Committee” to advise the Administrator/Commission on their spending. We are all for taxpayer involvement in the budget process. However, we believe the problem is the process itself and formal access to the Commission during that process, NOT the lack of competent staff and informed groups willing to share good ideas.

The appointment of a formal Committee is inherently political and the results achieved are totally dependent on the knowledge, abilities and work ethic of the handful selected. A formal, appointed committee can only meet during staff hours, has to schedule around the availability of members, County Staff, suitable facilities and meet all Sunshine Law requirements. These numerous legal provisions do not allow ANY discussion among members except in a formal meeting with a prescribed agenda, advance public notice and formal minutes. After that the formal Committee would still have to get the results of their deliberations through the staff to the decision makers. This formal process might well reduce the quality of resident/taxpayer inputs – not enhance them.

The Commission appeared to go with our recommendation to expand the scope and number of budget meetings and workshops. This will provide more opportunity for existing community organizations to be involved in the process and present more unfiltered ideas and perspectives directly to the Commission. Compared to creating a formal committee these actions will save staff time and achieve a better result with no additional cost to the County.