PCAA Members Join Mediation Talks, Consider Increase to Legal Budget

Paulding County Airport Authority (PCAA) board members joined talks last week characterized by one attorney that could “in theory” lead to an end to all legal actions surrounding proposed commercialization of Paulding’s airport. Lawsuits have, since 2013, effectively stalled development efforts at Silver Comet Field.
The Paulding County Airport Authority voted to participate in a mediation session designed to include all plaintiffs or defendants in a series of legal actions related to a six-year-old plan to bring commercial passenger service to the facility.
Attorneys Lee Carter and Tom Cable, airport Director Terry Tibbitts, and Chairman Boyd Austin represented the airport authority. Attorney Charles Conerly and post commissioners Todd Pownall and Vernon Collett were representing the Paulding County Board of Commissioners.
Dallas Mayor and PCAA Chairman Boyd Austin commented that they were open to hearing whatever would be discussed and what will happen to it. But Tibbitts said that given the number of participants that “...one could surmise that it would be difficult to make much progress.”
Contacted by phone following the meeting, Tibbitts explained that while the meeting discussions are confidential, the county has still refused to withdraw its legal action against the airport. The PCAA will reconvene this week primarily to vote on a proposed increase of its legal budget from $150,000 during the current fiscal year to $200,000, Tibbitts said. The need for the increase is tied to an appellate court decision requiring a judge to hear evidence is a case previously dismissed by the lower court. Tibbitts said that even the existing budget is more than the PCAA can afford.
“We have appealed to the board of commissioners to eliminate this and they have refused. There is really nothing we can do but continue to defend ourselves in court,” he said. Tibbitts said that there is no set schedule for continued mediation meetings.
“We left without an agreement and without even a specific agreement on a date to meet again,” And Tibbitts said there is no predicting when another meeting might take place. News of some attempt at a resolution of lawsuits over Paulding’s Silver Comet Field came two weeks ago following Commission Chairman Dave Carmichael’s comments regarding the long-term potential cost of conflict council to the county. Pownall, along with Commissioners Crowe, Collett and Davis have effectively opposed the commercialization prospects. Apart from Davis, all three commissioners will seek re-election in the May Primary Election.
A U.S. Department of Justice attorney organized the mediation session after the group of residents filed a lawsuit in 2017 against the Federal Aviation Administration for allowing the airport authority’s plan for construction of a new hangar area. The suit contends that the construction plan is environmentally unsound and connected to the commercial service, which requires it to wait for the environmental study’s completion.
Attorney Peter Steenland represents six Paulding residents who filed the original legal actions to halt the commercialization, including a judge’s 2013 order for an environmental study which has halted or delayed new construction at the airport for over four years while the assessment is brought to completion.
Also invited were attorneys representing Silver Comet Terminal Partners, which contracted with the airport authority in 2012 on a development plan which included recruitment of a passenger airline and the 2013 announcement, which led to residents’ legal actions. Silver Comet Partners has defended itself in court for ending its promise to make airport construction bond payments and sued county commissioners for ending support of the plan which the Partners said made their investment worthless.
The airport authority still supports the application, which keeps it alive because the authority shares responsibility with the county commission for sponsorship of federal grants to Silver Comet Field. Others invited to the session include representatives of the city of Atlanta.
Atlanta bought the Paulding site in the early 1970s for future development of a second area airport but later sold part of it to Paulding County for construction of Silver Comet Field.
The city sued the airport authority in 2017 after saying Paulding officials gave verbal commitments they would not compete against Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport when Paulding bought the land on which Silver Comet Field operates in the mid-2000s.

Paulding County Airport Authority board members joined mediation talks last week focused on legal actions surrounding Paulding’s airport. Airport Director Terry Tibbitts and Chairman Boyd Austin represented the airport authority. (Photos: submitted)