Thursday, February 19, 2015
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
Two members of the Western Reserve Port Authority board urged caution Wednesday regarding the company proposing daily flights from Youngstown to Chicago.
Port Authority member Martin Loney questioned whether the port authority ought to have reservations about the company Aerodynamics Inc. of Atlanta because of the reservations the U.S. Department of Transportation has expressed in recent weeks.
Fellow board member John Boccieri cautioned that the port authority should not let its “zeal for a success story” in acquiring daily air service cloud its judgment. “We just need to be careful,” Boccieri said.
Dan Dickten, director of aviation at the Youngstown Warren Regional Airport, said the DOT had concerns about ADI’s CEO and president, Scott Beale, but Beale is on the way out, and the DOT expressed no concerns about the safety of the airline itself.
The comments were made at the regular monthly meeting of the board at Squaw Creek Country Club.
Boccieri asked Dickten whether ADI’s failure to “timely report” a fraud Beale committed also reflects on the board of directors of ADI.
Dickten replied that the ADI board of directors also has been replaced, and Bocceri noted that means the board is “unproven.”
John Moliterno, interim director of the port authority, said the process followed by the DOT has “shown us the thoroughness of the DOT. They have gone a lot further than we could ever go as a local airport.
“We always have to be careful. The good thing is, the federal government is very involved in vetting this. We’re not going to jump into something that is going to hurt this airport,” Moliterno said.
The port-authority board authorized Dickten in October to work out the details of ADI’s start of daily flights.
The DOT said late last week it would give ADI 120 days for Beale to sell his ownership while providing further information to the government to show that Beale is no longer involved in operating the company. ADI’s application to start up the Youngstown service will remain in limbo during that process.
The DOT had threatened to rescind ADI’s certificate to operate existing charter flights and deny ADI’s request to start up daily service from Youngstown based on ADI’s failure to show that it had the “managerial competence necessary” for those operations.
The DOT said ADI also didn’t demonstrate the necessary regard for laws and regulations governing those operations. Specifically, the DOT cited the ruling of a jury last year and comments by a federal judge indicating Beale had committed fraud while soliciting $500,000 from a former business partner.
Meanwhile, Boccieri said he plans to recuse himself if the port authority votes to provide $25,000 per year to help fund a committee that will work toward preserving the aircraft and jobs at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, where he serves as squadron commander and reservist. Boccieri received a written opinion from the Ohio Ethics Commission last week — at Boccieri’s request — saying he must withdraw from discussions and votes that “will affect the Air Force’s interests as a tenant” at the airport because of his positions with the port authority and Air Force being in conflict.