City Council & COSADC Joint Meeting 1-19-21

[0:00:00] agenda city council joint meeting with kosa dc this is the 19th of january 2021 and we are calling this meeting to order at 8 30 a.m we have a quorum with our city council members all present and guy would you verify that all you have a quorum with cosa dc yes ma'am we do have a quorum with cosa dc thank you thank you very much with that we will open up public comment um at this point we would ask that if it is not um an item that is pertaining to the special agenda that you would wait and do your public comment relative to these regular city council meeting with that i will go ahead and read the rules public comment issues or concerns not on the regular agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the ds days begin by stating their name and address or single member district and limit remarks to less than three minutes with that we will go into our joint meeting agenda item a is discussion and possible action on business prospect and economic development regarding san angelo regional airport mathis field and today we have guy andrews here with a presentation thank you guy thank you mayor city council guy andrews director of economic development with the city of san angelo development corporation we've heard this often before trains planes and automobiles that's been our mantra for the past several years and before we get into today's action and that sort of thing i just wanted to briefly review some things that have happened in regard to trains

[0:02:04] we have a rail port that's under development and if you've been out there lately you see the progress that's being made just to orient you this map actually is not oriented towards that at the top of the picture would be fm 2105 at the bottom framing our rail port is 50th street this is a picture made we had a little opening there's a sign out at the site now at the rail port so we're making great progress this photo is of our uh owner operator shad weissner that is out on the little skid there doing some clearing out at the rail port but it's going great guns we have uh lots of prospects for that park that we're working on so just wanted to review that with you this port is on the south orient rail line that runs from coleman junction or coleman texas it's actually san angelo junction all the way down to the port of presidio so we're strategically placed on that the south orient railroad is actually operated by texas pacifico which is headquartered here in san angelo so it gives us lots of opportunity for development and then once you get down to presidio you then have access to the rail lines in mexico so we're very excited about that particular project at automobiles this past year we completed a i27 study our segment leader for that was mayor gunter thank you very much this is the most progress that's been made to porch the planes in 25-year history txdot did a study with all of the members along that corridor so that's going well as well i it is part of the plains of plains

[0:04:05] corridor that runs all the way from laredo texas to alberta canada actually goes on down to the port of mazatlan so we have access to that we also been working on the i-14 gulf coast strategic highway that one day in the future will intersect with i-27 in san angelo which will be a major economic boom in the future so now let's talk about planes well san angelo is blessed to have american eagle air service at dfw international they're very important business partner however many businesses and individuals have requested direct air service to houston international airport san angelo has made efforts for a number of years to secure direct flights to george bush intercontinental port houston and while san angelo has been on a couple of airline short lists for potential air service we've been unable to reach the top of the list for a variety of reasons now that has changed and we have an opportunity for direct air service to houston under the leadership of merrick gunter a group that included her our city manager mr daniel valenzuela airport manager jerry jeremy valgardson and myself made a trip to saint george utah to meet with skywest airlines i know jeremy had already had relationships established with him as a result of previous experience he had in cedar city utah and that really enhanced our ability to meet with their upper level management after a very amiable meeting skywest confirmed that they're very interested in providing their service to san angelo

[0:06:07] regional airport to george bush international sky os stated that it would require an agreement with the same basic terms as previous agreements with other texas airports texas sky west airlines expressed that they would consider establishing corporate headquarters facilities from which to operate daily scheduled air service from san angelo regional airport to george bush intercontinental airport and so here are the terms of the agreement the agreement would be for approximately a two-year period with the actual start date to be dependent on the time it takes to establish a new station in san angelo we anticipate that to be sometime in april sky west and the city of san angelo development corporation would negotiate a revenue guarantee agreement not to exceed one million dollars for sky west to operate a regional carrier for daily schedule service between citadel regional airport in international airport effective using 50 passenger regional jets now that million dollars is actually a million dollars that's earmarked and sky west would be reimbursed by the city of san angelo development corporation for flights in the previous quarter that did not meet the passenger revenue requirements to cover current fuel and non-fuel hourly costs to operate the aircraft on that route and these incentives are used to offset the airline's startup costs for entering into the new market the city of san diego development corporated corporation via an amendment to the coast of dc san angelo chamber of commerce professional services agreement will provide two hundred thousand dollars in advertising and marketing direct support during the course of the agreement

[0:08:10] and then the last term is that the city of san angelo would weigh rental fees and landing fees at the san angelo regional airport during the agreement period and again these are used to offset the airline's startup costs of entering into a new market we do plan to apply for a small community air services development program grant at the end of this month we're collecting support letters for that now if we were to receive that grant the monies would be used to reimburse cosa dc and so i would be glad to answer any questions that you may have guy if you would explain the million dollars because the reality is it's there if in fact they don't meet their passenger load so it is to help take care of any red ink should there be any but if in fact san angelo supports the new airline service to houston and they are profitable then it would cost us the none of that million dollars would be tapped into so it is not a million dollar gift to the airline but it is a cost of operation should we not meet the passenger load absolutely that's exactly how that works it might be that we never spend any money if we really support this and keep those loads up for the revenue but the the guarantee is out there to ensure that they help or that their revenue exceed exceeds the cost of that startup service here at san angelo and i just and i will say this on many occasions concerning this san angelo citizens have asked over and over again that we find a way to get an airline here to provide service to houston we have

[0:10:15] accomplished that and now it's really in the citizens hands to support the airline if you want it if you believe in it if it's something that you strongly supported and and felt we needed to have here we have it but we need to make sure that we support it i believe strongly that the citizens want options not only in destination but in pricing and the more competitive a market is usually the better the pricing so we're giving citizens an opportunity to choose a destination dallas versus houston and also hopefully some pricing options we also believe strongly in this because we believe that mexico will become an important partner in terms of many people wanting to go to houston to fly to mexico and it will be a more direct route than the dallas route so i believe that this opportunity is a win-win for the city of san angelo and the citizens thank you man any other questions that you might have ellie any idea the timing at this point guy it will be sometime in april we're still working out some of the details in it but i would expect sometime in mid to late april most likely more towards the end not the beginning but they will have to start selling tickets so it will be announced pretty shortly when that service will start because they've got to sell tickets and they've got to have a start date so there's lots of coordination that takes place between united express that they're flying under that name united express and so coordination with international airport gate assignments that sort of thing that go into to this agreement in the timing well i have to say mayor and guy and everybody that i'm very excited about this this is um several comments i've gotten about how necessary a second airline is to san

[0:12:18] angelo but my other question is and this may be a jeremy question uh will we have to add tsa staff with the new airlines or no is jeremy here today he is here he's marching forward he's coming forward but you know they work out the flight schedules so there's not conflict on flight schedules between american airlines and united so they work around all of that scheduling to ensure that the staffing issues meet with the flight schedules good morning jeremy valgardson the san angelo airport director um tsa is prepared they're always prepared because we we have chargers throughout the week as well so tsa is really open as long as the airport's open so they have already staffed up they're prepared for it i think lucy you had a question yes guy what and what amount is the grant that you'll be applying for it well we would apply for the full amount that we're guaranteeing in this grant so that's in the works right now do you know what amount will it be a million to a million dollars okay that's great the other part that we need to explain is is that we have applied for that grant in the past but one of the things that prevented us from being able to use it is that the people who when applying for it you want to have an airline that will put in a letter of support for you in that grant application and sky west has agreed to put a letter of support for san angelo in the great grant application we have never had before when we applied for the grant or got the grant an airline that said we're interested so we've gotten the grant before but no airline took a bite and said hey we want to be a part of this this is the first time we've had an airline who supports san angelo supports the additional route and believes strongly that this route will be good for them and will be good for the city of san angelo

[0:14:22] going back to billy on your question in regard to tsa we're hoping to have these schedules so that we don't have both airlines leaving at the same time so that's what we've requested in scheduling and in regard to that so i just wanted to say that i wanted to thank the mayor and daniel and jeremy and ugan for hard work and stay in focus i know that it's been a long time what 12 years since we've had a second airline and i'm so grateful for you guys that y'all stayed focused on this and kept on and kept on till we got that so thank you so much and i'm sure the citizens of san angelo thank you also thank you uh the other thing i want to mention in regard to the scasday grant support letters there are still are some emails out there asking for support and so don't think because of this action today that we don't need that support letter i've gotten 20 already all of our legislators have signed on and a lot of the large employers and that sort of thing so i just want to make one last comment on the planes trains and automobiles because uh from the beginning as mayor we i have strongly supported and created the idea of planes trains and automobiles and the reason behind that is the following in order to be successful in economic development you must have transportation options and so we needed to make sure that we evaluated each of those areas planes trains and automobiles to make sure that we had a strategy and that we were focused on providing those alternatives so that our economic development team had things that they could sell to potential new businesses and potential new customers and by accomplishing this and by accomplishing the rail port and by getting down the road

[0:16:25] on the interstate conversation we are providing the tools that the economic development people need to continue to put san angelo and the skylight in in in light of all companies who have not considered financial before because we didn't have alternatives so it's a big step forward mayor yes sir tommy god just by chance d do you have any idea how many departing flights and returning flights at this point is that a fair question yet or initially there would be uh two departing flights a morning flight to houston one in late afternoon and so that you would be able to make a day trip to houston and that's one of the drawbacks we have currently is it's almost impossible to make a a day trip with the connecting flights and that sort of thing so this will greatly enhance that but we begin with two and we hope we get so much support that they uh decide to address good thank you guy do i have other questions or comments from city council members harry just a real quick comment it's been almost 20 years since we had a second airline in here and this is probably one of the most questions i get from citizens on a regular basis so i want to say thank you to the group that went to utah that did this work on this and i appreciate and i think the citizens will appreciate that we've got a discipli this opportunity here and we'll go forward with this and we'll be successful and it was one of those things that just took a long time to get here thanks i used the wrong word while ago i said skylight i meant spotlight okay we want a spotlight on san angelo couldn't come up with it at the moment pressure's on okay with what harry just said we can't

[0:18:30] stress more of how important as we put it into the citizens uh hands to help support this when we formed our committee a few years ago when we started seeing the fly local campaign on the on the tv ads to help support this that it was a kind of a catch-22 the pricings uh were not what the citizens wanted to have so that's when we started seeing the the drive over to austin texas to fly out drive over to abilene drive directly to dallas but that also hurt us with american and help hurt us with wanting to draw in another airline so now we have this opportunity so we cannot stress more of how important it is to help support both of these airlines and and the new one to to make sure that we keep the grasp on with this and not let them leave our town for the past 10 years we have had a 50 leakage and what that means is that in the past people have chosen over the past 10 years other other locations to fly out of so when you think about that a 50 leakage that's huge and if we can keep that 50 percent leakage back in san angelo then it's a win-win and we won't have to be concerned about passenger load so let's support it san angelo that was one of the catches that we had when we first tried to draw it in a few years ago was they didn't see the numbers through american and with them not seeing the numbers through american any other airline did not want to risk it to come here so now we have this and we're showing the numbers we're being more competitive so fly local erica lara from the uh kosovo dc board would like to make a comment sure erica you're on hi there i just had a real quick question i know that guy you had

[0:20:32] addressed this in a meeting that we had i think last month but what about it now especially with covet and everything is making it advantageous for this particular airline to finally come into san angelo i can talk to that a minute erica one of the things that people are finding is that the business load factor has diminished greatly on major airlines what the airlines are seeing is that people are wanting shorter routes smaller trips tourism trips and there have been less business trips so the big airlines the big planes are in the big markets are seeing less business travel sky west saw us as a great opportunity for a tourism market and for a business market in both ways and so it in their minds was an opportunity in the industry right now to start supporting shorter routes and that is an industry trend right now shorter routes mayor thank you there are no further questions uh in order to affect this we need to go through some uh approval of a resolution by the kosa dc board i do not see our president online today had oh todd here bill's here todd our president todd coles is not here so bill dental our first vice president will uh come in and come on forward this resolution good morning mayor and council it's a pleasure to be here this morning um and our part in the uh in this process is a is a resolution from the costa dc it's item uh 4b on your agenda and it is

[0:22:38] to consider approving a resolution of the city of san angelo development corporation board of directors authorizing the use of sales and use tax funds in an amount not to exceed 1.2 million dollars to provide an economic development incentive to skywest airlines incorporated approving air services and a revenue guarantee agreement by skywest airlines and approving an amendment to the professional services performance agreement with the san angelo chamber of commerce directing advertising support to skywest airlines per the agreement and mr uh andrews you've already made that presentation correct that's correct okay okay uh good morning costa dc board most of your via zoom this morning and so um [Music] the motion the resolution is before us any questions any additional questions from our board questions yeah any public comment from that 39 i'll call for the vote all in favor on the kosa dc board say i'm sorry okay i'm sorry got a motion from our uh zoom committee there i'll make a motion this is that's right is there a second second thank you mr puella there's a second now that we have a motion on board we can vote on that all in favor of this motion say aye aye opposed same sign there is none our motion passes thank you i also want to thank the kosa dc board and the leadership of cosa dc for working with us and working with sky west to get this airline approved your support your comments have been tremendous in terms of helping us get this done your leadership is very valuable and i want to thank you for that absolutely thank you very much there's a positive there's a there's a positive vibe between the coast of d.c and the council and we thank you for that appreciate that thank you bill next item we'll turn it back over to

[0:24:44] city council for their resolution thank you very much thank you guy so item c is for the city council to do just as the costa dc board did so i would like a motion if i could for ratifying the resolution of the city of san angelo's development corporation that allocates sales and use tax funds in an amount not to exceed one million two hundred thousand dollars to provide economic development incentives and direct advertising support to skywest airlines incorporated waiving rental and landing fees and declaring a public purpose may i have a motion lane thank you for that motion and the second is i guess from all other members of city council so i think we got six five seconds on that any public comment scene none will take a vote all in favor say aye aye with none opposed the resolution motion passes thank you very much we are now going to [Applause] i am going to ask for a motion for adjournment as we have a small press conference at this point so may i have that motion for german for the special agenda so moved by tom seconded by lane or all right all in favor say aye aye aye motion passes seven zero we are in dc can we get coast of dc forward to do we also need to uh adjourn coastal dc so move uh a motion for german from coastal d.c there's a motion is there a second on that i'll see i get that motion thank you bill all right all those in favor say hi hi all right our motion carries we are adjourned thank you thank you very much the meeting is adjourned we will take let's see it is

[0:26:46] 8 57 so we'll take 15 minutes approximately 15 minutes for a press conference and then we will be back for the regular agenda at approximately 8 20.

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=xGEi8Mc1hgs