S.B. AIRPORT: Reduced role expected for airport figure
The man who had been put in control of nearly every facet of San Bernardino International Airport's development and management could have a diminished role as of Christmas
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The man who had been put in control of nearly every facet of San Bernardino International Airport's development and management could have a diminished role by Christmas.
Scot Spencer, whose home and airport offices were searched in an FBI-led investigation in late September, has until Dec. 23 to hire a nationally recognized airport management firm after the last firm left because it hadn’t been paid. If he doesn’t, he’ll lose his own management contract with the airport.
Also, to avoid legal action, he has about 30 days to hand over ownership of the airport’s passenger terminal, the Million Air building and a partially finished U.S. Customs facility, and other buildings.
A.J. Wilson, interim executive director of the San Bernardino International Airport Authority and the Inland Valley Development Agency, would take over management of the airport temporarily, according to a vote by the authority on Wednesday.
Wilson has led the airport authority and the development agency for a little more than a month. So far, he has spent more time attempting to solve problems related to Spencer’s companies than anything else, he said at Wednesday’s meeting. Every notice sent to one of Spencer’s companies has entered a “black hole of silence,” Wilson said.
Spencer did not attend Wednesday’s meeting and could not be reached for comment.
In the meantime, Spencer’s company, San Bernardino Airport Management, is still at the helm but without the professional airport management firm that it had hired.
Spencer had contracted with AvPorts, a Virginia-based company that manages several airports. AvPorts left San Bernardino on Monday after Spencer didn't pay the company what it was owed, said AvPorts CEO Ozzie Moore by phone.
If Spencer finds another firm that’s either internationally or nationally recognized for its airport management work, that company still would need to be approved by the authority.
Spencer’s companies at the airport have racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, including rent owed to the public agencies as well as taxes owed to the county, state and IRS. A Boeing 727 plane owned by his company was recently impounded by the county tax collector, and he has been evicted from space he rents at the airport.
“It’s all about accountability and being current in your obligations,” said San Bernardino Mayor Patrick Morris when asked about Spencer’s diminished role at the airport. Morris is the president and chair of the airport authority and the IVDA. “It’s critically important that we pay our bills.”
Morris acknowledged that Spencer had been given opportunities to catch up on what he owed or given rent credits in the past, based on the recommendation of the airport’s staff at the time. Morris said it was due to the economic downturn affecting Spencer’s businesses and those of his subtenants.
If Spencer loses control of managing and developing the airport, he still would have a role there. His company manages the fuel farm, and he rents space for his Million Air franchise in the luxury private plane terminal at the airport. He doesn’t owe the airport any rent or fees for those two operations, said Tim Sabo, the agencies’ attorney.
The airport has offered to work with Spencer’s management company to oversee the airport and the company’s employees until Dec. 23, but he doesn’t have to accept the help, Sabo said. If Spencer decides to lay off all of the employees in that time the airport authority could rehire them later, Sabo said.
As part of his development agreements with the airport, Spencer’s companies were granted ownership of the physical improvements made to the buildings. The title would have been transferred to the agencies once work was complete.
That transfer hasn’t happened, though, and work on at least a few buildings has not been completed. He has 30 days to hand over the buildings or risk being taken to court by the agencies, Sabo said.
Spencer arrived in 2003 when he started leasing one of the largest hangars at the airport, the former Norton Air Force Base, and in 2005 became the hangar’s landlord through a master lease with the public agency.
The public agencies overseeing the airport awarded him two agreements in 2007 to build the airport’s passenger terminal and a fixed-base operation for fueling private planes. The agencies sought no other bids. Since then, the cost to develop the airport, including the addition of a three-story U.S. Customs building, grew from $45 million to nearly $150 million.
Two years ago, the agency awarded his San Bernardino Airport Management company the contract to oversee airport operations so long as he partnered with an internationally or nationally recognized airport manager.
Spencer has owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent, and the agency recently gave him three days’ notice to pay or leave the hangar. He didn’t pay. His company with that lease filed for bankruptcy Dec. 7, and the agency plans to file an action with the court to evict him.
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