Airport Litigation Ends
Those who follow local news know that the Airport Authority refused to seat one of Cascade County’s appointees, Dan Johannes, due to an alleged conflict of interest. Mr. Johannes works for D.A. Davidson & Co., a local company that rents an hangar from the airport. (In the interest of full disclosure, I was on the Airport Authority board at the time of Dan Johannes’s appointment, and consistently tried to get him seated due to what I believed was the Airport Authority’s lack of jurisdiction to decide who could sit on it.)
In the face of this refusal, the County filed a lawsuit seeking an order that Mr. Johannes be seated. The Airport Authority resisted, and the matter has been in litigation for about 2 years. The Airport Authority has been represented by Gerry Fagan, an attorney from Billings.
This morning, Dan Johannes resigned his appointment. The County Commission intends to act soon on a Motion to appoint Joe Briggs, County Commissioner, to the seat being vacated by Mr. Johannes. The full text of the press release is as follows:
Pilot Dan Johannes resigned as Great Falls International Airport Authority Commissioner today for personal reasons. Johannes, of Great Falls, was appointed to the Airport Authority by Cascade County Commissioners on February 14, 2006. The Airport Authority refused to seat Johannes, and litigation ensued.
“We fully respect Dan Johannes’s decision to tender his resignation,” Cascade County Commission Chairman Lance Olson said, “We hope circumstances will allow him to volunteer his time to the community in the future.”
The Airport Authority disputed the Commissioner’s right to appoint Johannes to the Authority. Cascade County asked the courts to decide. “There is no practical reason to go forward with legal action since the dispute with the Airport Authority hinged on Johannes’s appointment,” Cascade County Chief Civil Attorney Brian Hopkins said.
Commissioners will act on a motion to appoint County Commissioner Joe Briggs to fill the remaining 10 months of Johannes’s term. It is common for County Commissioners to serve on Airport boards. Missoula County added a County Commissioner to the Missoula County Airport board two years ago. “We believe that adding a Commissioner will improve strained relations with the Airport and allow our community to move forward,” Commissioner Peggy Beltrone said.
Thank you, Commissioner Briggs, for agreeing to assume this responsibility in service to our community.
Hopefully the remaining board members will act quickly to seat Commissioner Briggs so we can begin to move forward. Frankly, I can see no legitimate reason why they would not.
Thanks and good luck to Commissioner Briggs and the spirit of open government.