Vice chair of Carson City Airport Authority resigns

The vice chair of the Carson City Airport Authority has resigned.

Don Peterson sent his resignation letter to Mayor Bob Crowell two days after a long and acrimonious authority meeting on May 9, when a measure to fire the airport manager failed.

The vote to remove Tim Rowe was voted down 5-2 with Peterson and Chair Karl Hutter casting the two votes in favor.

In his letter, Peterson said Rowe’s review at that meeting “made any further contribution by me futile, and probably distracting to the ongoing business of the Authority.”

Peterson and Hutter requested the review and itemized what they considered to be problems with the manager’s performance, including booking events and changing a security service contract at the airport without authority approval.

But the subsequent discussion, which lasted five hours, focused as much on the actions of the authority and, in particular, Peterson and Hutter, who had met with Rowe and his attorney to discuss his possible dismissal prior to the meeting.

Much of the criticism came from more than a dozen people who spoke in support of Rowe during public comment, but tensions flared between authority members, too.

Peterson, in his resignation letter, said one item in particular deserved to be looked into.

The incident occurred when someone drove a car across the runway as a plane carrying Gov. Brian Sandoval landed.

Rowe was on vacation at the time and investigated it when he returned but didn’t call the police.

“I have further concern for the economic health and safe conduct of the airport, but my efforts to address these have come to naught,” Peterson wrote in the letter.

The seven-member airport authority is appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

Peterson was a citizen-at-large member and will be replaced once the city posts an application notice for the position and the board approves an individual’s appointment.

The authority canceled a meeting Monday because the date, May 23, and day of the week, Wednesday, listed on the agenda notice didn’t match.

Holding the meeting would violated open meeting law, advised the authority’s counsel, Steve Tackes.

The authority is meeting again May 31 in order to meet a deadline for submitting its annual budget.

That meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Carson City Airport terminal.