By BILL McMILLEN
MOHAVE VALLEY DAILY NEWS
BULLHEAD CITY — Rich Lettman will bring “concerns” about the Mohave County Airport Authority and its operation of Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport to the Bullhead City Council during a special meeting Tuesday.
A presentation by Lettman, a former Bullhead City Council member who is now the District 2 representative on the five-member Mohave County Board of Supervisors, is one of two items for public consumption in the special meeting that is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. in the City Council chamber, 1255 Marina Blvd. in the Bullhead City Administration Complex.
The other item, listed first on the agenda, is discussion or creation of a dog beach at Rotary Park. A designated dog beach, to be constructed around a man-made pond, is on the long-range plans for city expansion of Bullhead Community Park east of Highway 95. That construction, however, could be years down the line — and only since the city purchased the property — and would be the top recreational priority when funding becomes available.
Bullhead City residents have frequently asked the council and the Bullhead City Parks and Recreation Commission to create some type of waterfront facility where dogs could be released into the water without leashes. State law and city ordinances require that dogs in public places be secured on leashes of no longer than 6 feet.
The airport presentation is an expansion of a different kind. The Board of Supervisors has become frustrated with what it terms as “stonewalling” by the airport authority to answer requests made by the supervisors months ago: for a presentation on operation of the airport; for audited financial statements from the past two years and for a voting seat on the MCAA Board of Directors.
The airport authority operates LBIA on land it leases from the county under a long-term agreement in place through 2049. The county land includes not only the actual grounds used for aviation purposes but a considerable chunk of commercial real estate the MCAA sub-leases to businesses such as Sam’s Club and Home Depot.
The BOS in general and Lettman in particular have been applying pressure from several sides to get the airport authority to comply with its requests after seeing an opportunity “to have a say, an influence, in the direction of the airport relative to economic activity it generates,” Lettman said at the July 21 BOS meeting.
At that meeting, the supervisors authorized a “resolution of displeasure” to be sent to each member of the MCAA Board of Directors, requested the county attorney’s office investigate possible violations of the Arizona Open Meeting Law by MCAA directors and asked the Arizona Legislature’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee to audit the authority’s financial statements, the MCAA’s purchase of the fee-based properties near the airport and “the alleged embezzlement of other criminal activity” by past or present airport employees “to determine any deficiencies in financial controls by MCAA and recommendations to correct possible deficiencies.”
“This all started … looking at some vacant land around the airport that was being underutilized and if there was a way we could turn that land into more productive use, possibly back to the county for the purpose of selling it and using the proceeds of that land to pay for some of the capital improvement needs we have as a county,” Lettman said at the July 21 BOS meeting.
What the county found at that time was an airport authority seemingly reluctant to share information and a long-term lease that, if enforced, gives the county few options.
The city’s involvement is as an interested observer, at least at this point.
“The airport is not governed or controlled in any way by the City of Bullhead City,” City Manager Toby Cotter wrote in a council communication. “However, the airport has significant impacts for the business community and city.”
The airport-controlled commercial corridor east of Highway 95 and west of the actual airport site is a big contributor to the city with Home Depot, Sam’s Club and other businesses generating local sales tax revenue. Those businesses generally own their buildings but lease the land from the airport authority, which in turn uses those proceeds to fund operation of the airport.
Following the public portion of the special meeting, the city council will go into executive session to discuss three legal matters: one involving Chaparral Golf Course, one involving possible adverse water transaction with Bermuda Water Co. and one involving an update on the city’s food-sharing ordinance and the “matter of Thornton v. City.”
Norma Thornton was cited in March of 2022 for distributing food at Bullhead Community Park, in violation of the city’s ordinance aimed to discourage the homeless population from gathering in public spaces. In October of 2022, a complaint was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of then-78-year-old Thornton, alleging the city’s ordinance — and her being ticketed for it — constituted a civil rights violation.
Executive sessions are not open to the public; no legal action can be taken by the council during the executive session.
The council’s regular meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. in the council chamber.
