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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07 07 1989 Airport suit filed14irport sup bd FAA staff prefer compromise By George Ricker A Sebastian resident has filed suit against the Sebastian City Council in an attempt to force the council to pass the ordinance mandated by the airportreferendum, which was approved by Sebastian voters on March 14. Attorney Burney Carter filed the suit last Friday in the 19th Judicial Circuit Court on behalf of Burt Snell, an airport advocate who opposed the charter amendment re- quiring the ordinances. He also is one of the leaders of a group sponsoring a drive to disincorporate the city of Se- l.. bastian. When the voters approved the charter amendment on March 14, the City Council was mandated to pass an ordinance imposing a noise limit of 65 dBA and fees of $5 per operation on users of the airport. The ordinance was required by the 1 referendum to have been adopted within 90 days of its passage. On April 20, the city engaged the Washington, D.C., law firm of Cutler & Stanfield to draft the ordinance, implementing the provisions of the Bob Eiseng charter amendment. Eliot 2'utler, one of the pavriers in the law firm, had assisted Citizen's Airport Watch (CAW) in drafting the language of the referendum. At a special meeting on June 7, Cutler presented the final draft of the ordinance to the Sebastian City Council. In addition, he submitted a proposed "standstill" agree- ment with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to the council. The terms of the agreement provided that the city would withhold final adoption of the ordinance and would, instead, enter into negotiations with the FAA in order to attempt to reach an accommodation between those who use the airport and the residents who are disturbed by the noise from the airport. As part of the agreement, the FAA agreed to fund up to 90 percent of the cost of a study, which may cost as much as $200,000, to provide the data needed to support the agreement to be fashioned. Present at the June 7 meeting was 4:44; Bob Eisengrein, a senior attorney in the office of the chief counsel of the FAA. Saying the FAA's chief objection was to the noise limit imposed by the ordinance, Eisengrein advised the City Council the FAA would institute procedures to revert own- ership of the airport property back to the federal government, if the city adopted the ordinance. He suggested the "standstill" agreement provided the city with a viable alternative and offered the possibility of a workable compro- Bin mise being reached. At a June 12 special meeting, the City Council held a public hearing on the ordinance that had been drafted by Cutler, but voted to defer final passage of the ordinance and to abide by the terms of the "stand- still" agreement instead. Councilmen Lloyd Rondeau and Frank Oberbe cck voted against the motion to defer passage of the ordinance. Mayor Richard Votapka, Vice Mayor Robert McCarthy and Councilman Robert McCollum voted for it. See Lawsuit Page 5-A Sebastian Sun Week of July 7,1989 Pg. b-A Lawsuit (from 1-A) — Both Oberbeck and Rondeau ar- gued the City Council had no choice but follow the will of the voters who had approved the referendum. Rondeau, a member of the CAW, had won election at the same time the charter amendment was passed and had campaigned on its behalf. Oberbeck, who was elected at the same time, had campaigned against the amendment. Two of the three council members who voted to defer final action on the ordinance campaigned actively for passage of the referendum: McCol- lum, a member of CAW, also won election at the same time the referen- dum passed. McCarthy, who is not up for re -erection until next year, cham- pioned the referendum as well. Votapka opposed the referendum, but voted for the agreement with the FAA, explaining he thought it was preferable to entering into litigation that would be costly and time-con- suming. If Snell's petition is successful, the City Council .will be required to pass the ordinance. The question then becomes, "What will the FAA do?" Eisengrein said Wednesday, "The FAA, since June 12, has been of the opinion that the agreement in prin- ciple between the FAA and the city of Sebastian serves the interests of citi- zens for and against the airport. "The FAA, therefore, opposes any effort that would alter the agreement and put the FAA into an enforcement posture that it feels is no longer needed." Eisengrein said if Snell's lawsuit is successful, the FAA would work with the City Council and City Attorney Charles Nash to see whether a com- promise could be reached. He stated the FAA will attempt to find a solution that is the "least objec- tionable" to all of the parties con- cerned. . A situation in which the FAA was forced to revert the airport, he added, would not provide a satisfactory reso- lution of the problem. The precise nature of any such negotiations between the city and the FAA still must be worked out, Eisen- grein noted. On the question of whether the city could pay the cost of litigation arising out of Snell's lawsuit with money from the airport enterprise fund, Eis- engrein referred to his remarks in a previous interview. In that interview, which appeared in the Sebastian Sun on May 5, Eisen- grein said there was no question in his mind the city could not use money from the enterprise fund to defend itself in litigation, if it were sued for violating federal law. He declined to comment further on the matter. Nash said the question was an ac- counting question and would have to be resolved by the city manager or the City Council. "This really isn't an airport issue," he stated, "although the airport is involved in it." Nash said he is fully aware of Snell's lawsuit, but as far as he knows, no one in the city government has been served with anything yet. "Normally, in these type actions, the judge issues an order to show cause," Nash explained. He said such an order would be served on the members of the City Council, and it might be several weeks before it is issued. It would require the members of the City Council to "show cause" why the writ Snell is seeking should not be issued. Nash said he may not wait for that to happen. "I may be filing a motion next week. I think there may be grounds to have the suit dismissed from a proce- dural standpoint," he explained. He added that he still is researching the matter. Beyond that, Nash said he thinks the City Council's position is defen- sible from several standpoints. "On the surface, one of the strong- est defenses is that the charter amend - went is defective in requiring the City Council to pass an ordinance without doing the necessary homework, with- out conducting the proper studies. I feel the 90-day requirement was inap- propriate," he said. Concerning the cost of such litiga- tion; Nash said it is impossible to put a firm price tag on it, although he indicated such actions are not usually too expensive, compared to other types of litigation. If the city has to go into court to defend itself, Nash said he estimated the cost would be between $10,000 and $20,000 "at the worst." Clearly, if Snell's lawsuit is suc- cessful, the City Council will be re- quired to pass the ordinance. Attor- neys on all sides of the issue, including Cutler and Nash, have agreed that is the case. What is not so clear is just how the FAA will respond to an effort to force its hand. Although he said in the May 5 inter- view that if the city insisted on passing the ordinance, Sebastian might be the first airport in the nation to be re- verted. Eisengrein indicated strong opposition to any effort to force the FAA to take such draconian meas- ures. "We are not in the business of reverting airports," he said Wednes- day.