Board of Public Utilities - Regular Meeting

Hello and welcome. Pursuant to the City Council Rules of Procedure and Order of Business Resolution, the members of all boards and commissions and the public are reminded that they must preserve order and decorum throughout the meeting. In that regard, members of the boards and commissions and the public are advised that any delay or disruption in the proceedings or refusal to obey the orders of the board or commission or the presiding officer constitutes a violation of these rules. The City of Riverside is committed to fostering a workplace that provides dignity, respect and civility to our employees, customers and the public they serve. The City of Riverside wishes to make all of its public meetings accessible to the public. Upon request, this agenda will be made available in the appropriate alternative formats to persons with disabilities as required by 42 U.S.C. 12132 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Any person with a disability who requires a modification or accommodation in order to participate in a meeting should direct such request to the city's ADA coordinator at 951-826-5427 at least 72 hours before the meeting, if possible. Good afternoon. We'd like to welcome you to the September 2026 Airport Commission meeting. This meeting is called to order at 3.06 p.m., not 11.08. Let us please stand and join in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. For those of you that I haven't seen since 4th of July, happy 4th of July. Bless America. Roll call, please.

Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Commissioner Del Pino.

Present.

Commissioner Trigueros.

Present.

Commissioner Gibbs. Present. Commissioner Lofthouse.

Present.

Commissioner Davies.

I think I'm present.

Present. Good. And Commissioner Coulson and Commissioner Gamblin. Okay, that is roll call. Thank you.

Awesome, thank you. So to comment on any matters with the jurisdiction of the Airport Commission, you are invited to participate in person or call 669-900-6833 and enter meeting ID 926-9699-1265. Press star 9 to be placed in the queue to speak. Individuals in the queue will be prompted to unmute by pressing star 6 when you're ready to speak. To participate via Zoom, use the following link, which is provided. Select the raise hand function to request to speak. An on-screen message will prompt you to unmute and speak. Individual audience participation is limited to three minutes. With that being said, do we have any comments from members of the public?

We have no callers or any in the public. Thank you.

Okay, well, we will now close public comment and move to items number two and three on the consent calendar, which is the acceptance of the minutes from June 11th Airport Commission meeting, as well as the excused absent report.

I'll make a motion to accept the consent calendar items.

Second.

Thank you for that. We'll do an all-around vote. Commissioner Del Pino?

Accept.

Commissioner Tregaro?

Except.

Commissioner Gibbs? Yes. Commissioner Lofthouse? Yes. And Commissioner Davies? Yes. It passes unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now move on to the discussion calendar. Before we just jump into discussion, we must take public comment. The public is invited to participate by calling 669-900-6833, enter meeting ID 926-9699-1265 to comment on these items. To participate via Zoom, select the raise hand function. Can I ask, do we have any comments from the public?

No public comment.

Okay, we will now close public comment and move to discussions or questions from the Commission regarding item number four, which would be our unexcused absent report. Do we have a motion to excuse or unexcused?

I'll make a motion to have it as an excused absence.

I would like to second the motion.

Okay, all in favor to excuse Commissioner Del Pino?

Accept.

Commissioner Trigueros? Yes. Commissioner Gibbs? Yes. Commissioner Lofthouse? Yes. And Commissioner Davies?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you. We will now move on to item number five on the discussion calendar, which is the September 2026 Airport Manager's Report.

Good afternoon, commissioners. It's nice to see everyone on this warm afternoon in early September. I'm excited to present to you some highlights from the airport, including my July. So I'll have some pictures to share. The operational activity report is always something that we're keeping an eye on. And as I've shared before, numbers are somewhat down from last year. Overall, not drastically down, but they are down somewhat. So the January through July period is what we're reporting on today. 2026 was 77,992 operations for that January through July time period. And compared to the previous 2025, the previous year for that same time period of 78,397, which is about a half percent decline. Overall, not significant, but a decline nonetheless. What's more pronounced is comparing the July 2026 to July 2025. That was a 7.4% decline. Still close to 11,000 operations for the month of July. And with that, we averaged around 347 operations per day in July, but we've been upwards of 550 operations in a month before July. So there's a number of factors, heat, as well as, for example, CBU students were on summer vacation in July, so there was not a whole lot of CBU flight activity. There was some, obviously, but not the extent that we would see, for example, this time of the year where students are back and flight training has begun in earnest. So summers are typically a bit of an outlier, I would like to think, anyways. But nonetheless, we continue to keep tabs on this. Overall, I think we'll have another strong year, but we still have a few months to go in 2026. So we'll be able to continue to report on that each month. As far as the financial activity, I have two reports. We're looking at full year financial activity on this first slide. So we're on a July 1st through June 30th fiscal year in the city of Riverside and the airport is as well. You'll notice that we had an operating budget of around $2.2 million. Give or take on the expenditure side and the revenue side, we were at about $2.2 million. Our actual expenditures were about 23% below budget. There's a reason for that. We still have some unencumbered funds that are not posted yet. Finance did not close out the year exactly on June 30th. They tend to take a few weeks afterwards to do that. So I think that number will change if we go back and look at how those expenditures have posted by the time I put this presentation together. That's the data that we had. Nonetheless, we're still down from our budget and expenditures, and that's kind of by design and how I operate the airport and manage our budget. A lot of smaller projects can be performed in-house with our crews, which can save us money versus contracting out that work. So that's one way which we have saved some money on the expenditure side. As far as the revenue side, we're very strong. We finished the year very strong at about $2.5 million. So we were about 11.6% above budget on the revenue side. I give credit to Jennifer Lazor, our administrative analyst. She has been very diligent with tracking down past due invoices that have kind of fallen through the cracks, and sometimes it's through no fault of the tenant, for example. They thought they were on auto pay and maybe the credit card expired or something to that effect. It typically has been some relatively minor things that may create a situation where we are due some past due amounts, and she's been diligent in collecting on those, which has been excellent to our bottom line on the revenue side. We continue to explore some innovative revenue sources. For example, the Mannheim auto auction utilizing the west side, our 18 acres on the west side, that was not budgeted for at the beginning of the fiscal year. So that was found, I guess, newly found revenues that we had not budgeted for. And that has helped as well. So overall, we had a strong finish to the fiscal year. I am... And as she will attest, as Jennifer will attest, I spend money where it needs to be spent, clearly. But we also are watching our expenditures just so that we can ensure that we have sufficient resources to carry us through the entire year. We're just a couple of months into the new fiscal year, so I'll be reporting on that next month, and we'll give you an idea of where we stand. But overall, we're pleased with where we ended the year. Just looking at a one month for the new fiscal, so this is July 1st through July 31st, so just the first month of the new fiscal year. You can see we're more even across the board, if you will. Expenditures actual of $170,935.33, which is 7.4% of the yearly budget on the expenditure side. and $199,988.65, which is 8.4% on the revenue side. If we were completely on budget just with that one month completed, we should be at 8.3%. So you can see we're very close to being where we need to be, but still slightly below on the expenditure side, which again is really by design. But anyways, just wanted to share that first full month of our fiscal year. Highlights for the airport July 4th and actually Gary Stark from commemorative Air Force presented highlights of the America's 250th birthday bash to City Council Not too long ago. It was very well received event very well attended parachute Jumps with with the D-Day doll and and aircraft rides and it was a great day and a great crowd so kudos to Gary Stark specifically and commemorative Air Force and really everyone that was part of this planning for this event it was well done and well received by the community so I firmly believe anytime we can get the community out to the airport to experience the airport and aviation and leave with a good feeling is a positive for the airport is positive for the community in the city of Riverside so I was happy to make that happen. So again, thank you to Commemorative for making that happen. We continue to host companies from really around the world at our airport. Community Economic Development Department with the city is very active. at recruiting companies from really all places around the globe to invest in the city of Riverside and maybe even build headquarters here in the city. So the airport hosted a company from Finland, Carbon Free Technologies. They're a Finnish climate tech company, kind of our focus on green tech. And their carbon reduced products offer potentially benefits to the airport and certainly roadways. They have a... a pavement recycling method that is a very green way to pave. They help the concrete industry make new concrete using 100% recycled concrete from demolished buildings, so a pretty innovative way. And just hosting them at the airport introduces them to our staff as well as our airport facilities. So we continue discussions with them. And thank you to Community Economic Development for making that happen. But always happy to host some companies from around the globe at our Riverside Airport. So I had the pleasure, as a number of Riverside tenants did, at attending AirVenture, EAA, Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in July. This is a highlight of my year. I drove 10,000 miles during the month of July, going back to see family in Mississippi and Tennessee, taking my son to camp in North Carolina, driving up to Wisconsin and back, and back to California. A lot of driving in July, but the highlight was EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh. Another record this year, they had 734,000 attendees. I'm not quite sure how that even occurs, but I can tell you it was wall-to-wall people, especially on that Wednesday. So they have a night air show on Wednesday night and Saturday night, and that Wednesday it was extremely busy. You could just... see that it was going to be a very, very busy day and actually another record year. The photo here is a fireworks show, the drone show, the flag in the background, that's those drones creating the flag there. So they have a wonderful drone show and a fireworks show as part of their night. air show, but 10,000 plus aircraft, 6,000 volunteers, 1,000 plus exhibitors. I brought my trusty map of Oshkosh grounds, so if anybody would like to see this, I'm happy to share it with you, but had a really good time up there and made connections with a lot of other airports as well as Riverside tenants who were there. California Baptist University as well as Avtec exams were actually exhibiting at Oshkosh this year, so I got to spend some time with them, and it was great to see some familiar faces at AirVenture. So these are some photos from Boeing Plaza, which is kind of the center of a lot of the static aircraft, military aircraft, as well as commercial aircraft that fly in, and it's just fun to see all of that. A lot of youth. The youth actually are admitted free into Oshkosh Adventure. I think it's younger than age 18, 18 and younger maybe, or younger than 18. So they embrace the youth of today to try to introduce them Yeah, just make them aware of different pathways and opportunities at Oshkosh. So just some photos from my touring the grounds. When you're at Oshkosh, you're regularly walking five to seven miles per day without really knowing you're doing that, just by virtue of the things that are available to look at. They had a C5, which was really cool to walk through. And, yeah, there we are just kind of getting ready to go inside. But had a great time. The weather initially, I'll be honest, the first couple of days, very smoky, the Canadian wildfires. Very hazy. I drove through downtown Chicago, and you could not even really see the skyline of Chicago. I'm like, wow, okay, this is crazy. This is really a hazy day due to the smoke and actually I think the first day or so at Oshkosh was IFR on the field due to the smoke. That's the only reason. It was a beautiful day otherwise. Eventually it cleared and it was a great week. Temperatures were great so it was fun to be a part of that. The International Economic Development Council has awarded our Aerospace Community Expo from this past spring a silver award in the special event category, which is a recognition of all of the dedication, creativity, teamwork that was involved in planning for and putting this event together. So certainly just recognize our aviation legacy. and the community engagement piece of the expo. So that was exciting to be recognized by the International Economic Development Council in that regard. We have a couple of upcoming city council actions. CAVU, which is one of our maintenance providers on the field, their five-year lease will be going before council. And on October 6th, I will be presenting in a public hearing at City Council rates and charges updates for the airport. One of the main changes we're introducing is a rental fee for the use of our terminal. We've had a number of events scheduled at the airport, which is great, and we like to host those events. But it has required administrative time and staff time, cleanup and some other aspects of those events. So we're trying to recoup some of the expense related to that. And then, of course, we're also looking forward to installing our new airport marquee. So we're going to make advertising spots available on the airport marquee for any tenants or really any business in Riverside. which should be affordably priced, but also just help us kind of supplement the cost of that. The marquee is around $80,000 to design and install. So that's really what that is. But due to changes in rates and charges, it does go to city council, and I will be presenting that on October 6th. And a recommendation is that the airport commission receive this September 2026 report, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Dr. Proctor. Just before we jump into discussion, we must take public comment. So the public is invited to participate by calling 669-900-6833 and enter meeting ID 92696991265 to comment on these items. To participate via Zoom, select the raise hand function. Do we have any comments from the public?

We do not.

Okay.

So we will now close public comment and move to discussions or questions from the commission regarding the manager's report.

I just had two questions. Thank you for that always very detailed report. My first question was the reduction in operations. Do you think that has anything to do with the reduction in pattern ops? I understand that pattern, they reduce pattern to, I think it's three aircraft in the pattern. And I don't know if that's still ongoing, but I have noticed people have been, you know, the air traffic controller said, you know, negative pattern is full. Pattern is full.

Mm-hmm. I think that may have some impact. I know there's been staffing challenges at the control tower. They get fully staffed, and then it drops one, and then they try to get back up. And so I think some of the staffing challenges, and this is nothing unique to Riverside Airport. There's air traffic controller shortage nationwide. But I think just the staffing and the workload does impact the number of aircraft, for example, that they can handle at any one time. So I think that may be part of it. I don't know to what degree, but, yes, I do agree that that's certainly an aspect that we're looking at. And I do work with our tower manager closely at supporting them any way we can, but also encouraging just continued efforts to hire additional controllers so that we're fully staffed. But, yeah, that's a great point.

No, and they continue to do a phenomenal job. For sure. Yeah, they're amazing. And my second question was about funding. I know as an enterprise fund, you do operate as an enterprise fund. At the end of the year, does any of that have to go to the general fund or it all stays here?

All stays here. Great. Great question. That has actually been asked before by someone else in the city. And we have a grant assurance that prohibits revenue diversion. So it actually is illegal for that money to go back to the general fund. So it has to stay at the airport. And it's kind of a carryover in the sense, but it goes into a working capital account. So it's not part of that next year's budget, but it is in our account, kind of a rainy day account, you could call it. So yes, we keep any surpluses for future projects. And we would have to go to council if we wanted to use any of those working capital funds. For example, if there was $200,000 in there and we wanted to do some ramp paving or whatever the case may be, we'd have to go to council to kind of transfer that money back to a usable account, if you will. But it is still there, and we do retain it and don't transfer it anywhere beyond the airport. Great. Thank you. Good question. Thank you.

Dr. Prather, I did miss a meeting since I saw you last, so maybe you covered this. I know that a couple of meetings ago we spent quite a bit of time on improvements, repairs. The thing that's coming to my mind is the erosion taxiways and some runways, I recall, I think in the threshold area. Have you updated us on that, or is there a plan to have a formal update on that? If you could just speak to that a little.

Sure, thank you. I can update right now. We just last week had a 90% design meeting for what we're calling the Drainage Improvement Project or the Erosion Control Project on the north side of 927. They're very close to getting to 100% design. I have not yet heard from the FAA on my two grant applications. I submitted a $1.8 million FAA grant application to fund the north side erosion control project. and also a $100,000 grant application for the design of the Runway 9 PAPI replacement. The Runway 9 PAPIs have been out of service now for over two years. They had significant water intrusion. We developed a project that has completed where we installed concrete drainage channels over there to channel any water away from the PAPIs, but the damage is already really been done, and they've outlived their useful life. So the FAA is running a little behind, but I'm hoping and I've heard maybe by the middle of this month, which is like a week away, that we'll hear about our FAA grant applications. We're in close communication with our airport district office over in L.A., So if we're successful in securing a grant for both of those projects, they'll proceed this next cycle, which going out for bid later this year, early next. But the erosion project is almost complete design, 100% design. So yeah, we're moving forward with that. The other project I'll give a little update on is our master plan. Master plan update, we're anticipating probably Probably late spring of next year, that'll be completed. So they've been making significant progress. They already have 20-year projections. We did have a conversation with airport district office FAA. They had some questions and concerns about the projections compared to the TAF, the Terminal Area Forecast that's produced by the FAA. So we're going back and making some revisions to that. Not we, but the consultant. So master plan update is proceeding as expected. Our economic development plan and economic impact study, two other projects that are kind of continuing simultaneously. We hope to have the economic impact study complete probably sometime October, early November. They have already shared some tentative, well, not tentative, some numbers based on their analysis. And this was actually shared with city leadership, but has not been officially produced yet in the final report. But suffice it to say, the consultants determined that our airport has an annual economic impact of $130.8 million annually. So that's pretty significant. uh so we were pleased to hear about that but the final report has not yet been produced and then the economic development plan is really just looking at all of our airport property and uses best uses of that airport property and providing recommendations with regard to that so those projects are moving forward the airport marquee is in the design phase right now and i'd like to think that will be installed maybe by the end of the year if not early 2027, but we're really excited to get a brand new airport marquee installed. Think of some other projects that we're working on. We do not have any ramp paving projects in the works right now. However, we are scheduling for our contractor to come back out and finish the taxiway alpha rehab project. The slurry seal coat and the markings, that's all completed, but we're getting some new airfield signs. about 12 new airfield signs along taxiway alpha and those are i believe scheduled mid-september uh which may take a couple of weeks to finish that we're going to do rolling closures on taxiway alpha that'll be coordinated with control tower and then that project will be complete that's fa funded project so um yeah so we we're we have a actually a lot going on for our small staff I like to think that we keep a lot of plates spinning, right? Try not to let any plates stop spinning. We have to touch each of them daily to kind of move them forward. There's processes in place, obviously, going to city council and getting approvals. We're actually going to be... repaving the staff parking lot just adjacent to the terminal. It's only an 8,000 square foot lot, but it's in terrible shape. I know we have pavement airport wide that needs to be replaced, but that's doable with our current finances without any FAA grants necessary for that. So we're very close to getting that project kicked off. But yeah, continuing to explore ways to improve the airport and uh we're excited that that roofs were replaced on the par flight hangar as well as the terminal with the rainy season that's potentially forecast uh for this winter uh we will no longer have uh dozens of five gallon buckets in the terminal building catching uh leaks so we're excited about that but um we have some other things that we're working on as well but those are some updates on some projects that are thank you that's helpful um

And a quick follow-up to that, and I'm not asking for an answer to this now, but if we could get sometime in the near future an update on, I know that you've put some effort into a, I'll call it a major tenant, somebody in industry or something in aviation-related industry. I know that there's been discussions, but if you could just give us an update on that sometime, doesn't have to be now, I would just request that.

Sure. Thank you for that, and I can speak to that today just to provide an update. There's not been a great deal of movement in that regard. We continue to reach out to various eVTOL manufacturers that, honestly, they are – It is such a dynamic space right now that many of them, other than Archer with regard to Hawthorne Airport, many of them are not ready to commit totally to any one thing quite yet. We also continue to be available to receive unsolicited offers for development of the west side and even the north side, for that matter, of the airport, the vacant land that we have available for aeronautical use, which is in our – airport layout plan. Those will eventually be developed for aeronautical use, mainly hangars and that sort of thing. So I understand that there may be another unsolicited offer in the works for development of the west side. I have not received anything yet. But in any event, we continue to be receptive to possibilities with regard to continuing to develop the airport. We are short of hangars. We have a hangar wait list of, I believe, 30 individuals, and it continues to grow. And as we see, Santa Monica will be closing in the near future, and other airports that I learned recently that Van Nuys Airport is now charging landing fees, $15 landing fee. I had a tenant ask me, do I have plans to implement a landing fee? And I explained that no, I did not. I don't think it's appropriate for a GA airport to charge landing fees. And I don't know that that necessarily encourages the growth of GA. So I have no plans to do that. But there are some airports that are exploring those types of options to fund maybe continued operations or maintenance or I'm not sure what. So we're trying to develop areas that we have available for development, which I think would actually generate significantly more revenues and also be positively impactful for people that need hangers and hopefully work our hanger wait list down to an appropriate level. But in any event, so there's a little update on that. I have not heard from any eVTOL manufacturers recently. I did attend Verticon last year. I'll be attending Verticon in the spring. It's actually going to be in Anaheim. which is very close for all each of us to attend i'll have to verify the dates i believe march time frame but that's typically where i meet a number of eVTOL manufacturers and kind of the advanced air mobility space which i would love to have that type of operator at our airport with LA Olympics coming up in 2028. They're starting to be more attention paid to this area, this region, if you will. And I've actually talked to potential developers about building in some charging infrastructure for eVTOL aircraft on the west side. Is it premature? Potentially, but it's always best to lay that groundwork and that infrastructure as things are being developed to potentially support that type of operation in the future. So we continue to explore partnerships, but no real news on that front right now.

Thank you. Let us know how we can be helpful.

Indeed. Thank you.

Is it me? Thank you. Thank you for your report, Dr. Prather. So the question I have, and it may have already been answered before I got here, the Mannheim income, is it month to month or do they have a lease?

It is month to month. We do have a ground lease with them, but it's month to month. And that was really the only option for me to get that approved by the FAA because that west side, as well as the north side that Mannheim occupies, is actually designated for aeronautical use. Right. So we can't enter into any long-term that's not aeronautical use. So, yeah, it's a month-to-month operation. So if we were to get a developer that is selected and they would come in and develop hangars, for example, then we would give Mannheim 30 days notice.

So do we need to worry that the city will see that income as part of the budget and give the airport less budget money because that's incoming?

So that's a good question. The airport receives no budget money from the city at all.

Oh, we operate on our own income?

Yes, indeed. Oh, I understand. Got it. That's kind of a, there's some expectation that, oh, well, we are subsidized. That's kind of the word I think that I see at airports. Maybe some subsidizing from the city, but that's not the case. We are, as an enterprise fund, we don't, have to share revenues but at the same time we don't receive assistance and that it's you know two sides of the same coin i guess but um so any any revenues we generate whether mannheim and and you know to be to be fair they've been an excellent tenant uh we're generating a significant source of revenue from them and they're occupying land that's not being used for anything else which is which is a win-win but they've been a great partner And any additional revenues we generate, whether it's from development of hangers or whatever it might be, we maintain that at the airport, and we need that because we have a $2.2 or so million budget, and that's operations and maintenance, and that's not capital projects. That does not include any capital projects. So when we talk about ramp paving and we talk about other types of projects, we have to fund that somewhere from something, And occasionally we have additional funds that accrue when we are a little bit above budget that we can use, for example, to renovate the first floor restrooms and the terminal. That was a $150,000 project. Actually, it was $150,000. It turned into a $200,000 project with all the drain lines that had to be replaced and whatnot. And that was not funded at all from the city. We funded that ourselves. And it wasn't really budgeted per se in our operating budget. It was more of a capital type expenditure. FAA is not going to help you pay for a bathroom. So you have to do that on your own. But no, it's a great question. So yeah, we're kind of... We're on our own, which is a good thing. It's a positive thing. And honestly, we haven't needed subsidies from the city, which is great as well. So we're a healthy enterprise, and we are pretty diligent at maintaining that financial health. But thank you.

Thank you.

Dr. Proctor, as always, thank you so much. I do have a couple questions as, you know, I work in finance, so that's where my brain goes. And I love, shout out to your team as well. I love the information and how thorough you guys are. You guys are doing a great job. Thank you. Kind of piggybacking off that last question. thinking you know the airport is doing fine financially so I'm not asking this as a concern I'm just thinking outside or like ahead right in terms of your management and oversight of the airport what what would be the highest concern in terms of you know getting to a place where let's say the airport is operating at a loss and what I mean by that would it be would it be specifically like losing a tenant like Mannheim would that create a bigger loss or Or would it be more of like an unforeseen major expense that would bring financial ruin? Does that question make sense?

It does make sense. Yeah, losing Mannheim would be a loss to the bottom line for sure. The... And it does tend to be the large tenants, kind of the commercial tenants I might refer to them as. Individual tenants, I mean, it ebbs and flows daily. We'll receive a 30-day notice from a tenant that has decided to stop flying or move out of state or whatever. And we have close to 200 hangers, 160 or so hangers. one or two of those. As soon as one becomes available, Mike is very successful at getting that leased again within a month's time. So there's really no loss there. But our commercial tenants, we are doing our best to partner with them. I'll just share one with you in particular. PSET, our public safety engagement team, they will be relocating from their leased office space area to another facility within the city. And they've notified us that October 31st will be their last day. So we're already speaking to one of our existing tenants about potentially leasing that space because they're looking at growing. So On the one hand, oh, we're going to lose that. But on the other hand, there's demand there that comes right behind that. So Mannheim has been such a great partner with us. They need additional space. If I had more space for Mannheim, they would take it. I mean, that's how beautiful our partnership is with Mannheim. We actually had a fantastic tour of the Mannheim facility, Office Central, I guess probably two months or so ago. It's really quite an operation if you've never seen it. They have auctions every Tuesday and a Highline auction every other Thursday. Every Tuesday, they're moving 2,000 cars every Tuesday through that auction house. I mean, it is... At this location. And they have nationwide locations, exactly. Yes, that's a great point. Just at this location here in Riverside. It's an extremely busy operation, and they have thousands of cars, and they need additional space. So if I can accommodate them, I certainly will, but we're starting to kind of run out of room where we can actually have vehicles parked. You can't really do it in a runway protection zone, and there's other areas that you can't, but... It's hard to say. FAA funding, honestly, is the big unknown each year. And it's not airport district office. It's federal level with just federal budgeting and what money might be available for grant-funded capital projects. Capital projects, that's where we're weak currently. I just can't seem to generate quite enough revenues or even surplus to really fund capital projects that are needed. Just to repave our public parking lot, we're looking at probably $4 million to $5 million. I don't even know where I would get that degree of resources, anywhere near on the horizon. So it's a challenge. That's probably the greatest challenge. The airport itself has a significant amount of— just capital needs um and tenants see this and uh we're doing the best we can to to to to apply for fa grants uh but again there's always so much money uh available for that we're as a non-primary uh airport we're only entitled to 150 000 annually from the faa and 150 000 doesn't even doesn't even begin to um that fixes a toilet it's it's yeah it's it's it's minimal So there, you know, we do have a great partnership with the FAA airport district office and they do try to find additional funds for us. But that's a big unknown right now. So but but I'll just add that, you know, because of our strong financial condition and and really our proactive. uh... uh... nature with which we collect on past two accounts and we control expenditures uh... we've been successful at generating surplus here from past couple years think will continue to do that i mean uh... we have for example a hanger that needs repair uh... uh... one of our aircraft hangers the the door And we get a quote from a vendor to do that repair, but we've been assured by one of our staff that, no, we can do that in-house, and that alone will save us $1,500. So those little things, but they add up, right? So as we have more highly skilled employees and are able to perform those types of projects in-house, we continue to kind of close the gap, if you will, of any potential shortfalls or any potential concerns to that.

That leads to another question I have, but to tie back to the first one, just the reason I ask, thank you, by the way, the reason I ask is just to kind of solidify for us and for anybody who is interested in listening, is that the airport is in a good financial condition. And in my business, we talk about diversification and stuff all the time. So someone might be concerned like, well, there's a major constituent like Mannheim that accounts for most of the revenue, or not most, but a lot of the revenue for the airport. But as you said, right, they're not looking to reduce. They're looking to increase. They have more need. Right. And even individual tenants, there's a desire and a need. So the airport has demand. It's fine. And I'm sure that the master plan economic impact will speak to that more. For sure. Thank you. Thank you. The second question leading to what you were saying about kind of keeping things in-house. So the type of projects that you need to do, you mentioned one of them like the pavement of the parking lot, right? That's a big capital project. But would you say that the amount of projects that you have left, are these things that are going to be too big for keeping things in-house? Or do you think that, like you said, the more talent that you hire, that the airport can continue to, year after year, kind of reduce costs that way?

So that's a great question, and it requires a bit of a detailed answer. For example, paving we can't do in-house. We do have resources in the city, like our public works department, and we do reach out to them, but we also obtain quotes from vendors, from contractors, so this particular project will be contracted out. It really comes down to equipment and whether we have available equipment. We are able to utilize bucket trucks and scissor lifts and those sort of things that the city has available. We schedule those, and so we're able to bring over equipment that we don't currently have. But that's probably the one... challenge, I guess, for doing projects in-house. A lot of the projects we've been doing in-house are relatively, you might consider, minor for an airport. Framing up a wall, you know, repairing or replacing drywall, taking care of any plumbing issues. It's easy to call a plumber, contractor, to come in and take care of that for you. But they'll overcharge. It's expensive, right? Yes. So we've been able to do more of that in-house. Now, granted, we did have a plumbing issue in our men's restroom downstairs recently. And we tried multiple times over several days to snake the line in-house and try to fix that. And we were unsuccessful. So I know and we know it's time to call somebody, right? Because then it starts to impact customer service and availability of restrooms. And you can't just drag this out, right? So we did call a plumbing contractor, and they came in, and we were up and running in no time. So some things may exceed our capabilities. A lot of times it's equipment. But it's a good question. I mean, we can't do everything. We can't pave ramps. We can't... We have painted, and we actually have streets. We repainted the center line on our primary runway, 927, probably, what, six months or so ago, and our streets department through Public Works did that for us. We paid for it, but it was an in-house job in the sense that In-house meaning city of Riverside. When I say in-house, I'm talking airport staff. Yeah, yeah. But it was a city of Riverside job, and it worked out great, and we were able to get some fresh paint on the runway. So some projects can be performed by airport staff. Some city staff and others contract out. It really just depends on the equipment required and kind of the complexity of the project.

To sum up then, would it be an accurate description to say that you guys have enough level of equipment and talent to keep the lower maintenance stuff in-house? For sure. And it's good? For sure. Awesome. I went to the airport this morning to have breakfast with my wife at the Riverside Airport Cafe, and I noticed that there was a lot of planes there, tie downs. And I remember last time you talked about that, that would be correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe that's like you guys were talking about maybe increasing the rates on that. Was that is that true?

Well, so it depends. We have probably what you saw was the transient area. And the transient area, which if you're in the cafe patio, you look kind of to your left, kind of northwest. Those are aircraft that may just fly in for the used to be $100 hamburger. Now it's probably $200, $300 hamburger. I don't really know. But anyways, they're just flying for lunch and then they fly out. They just come to visit for a couple hours or an hour and then they leave. Those typically don't pay anything unless they stay overnight. And then we have an overnight transient fee, which is pretty minimal. The other aircraft that were tied down potentially were maybe with a flight school, and they do have those on a monthly reservation that they pay for those tie-down fees each month. But generally speaking, we support transient pilots flying in. They're most likely purchasing fuel, so that's a benefit to the FBO and, quite frankly, a benefit to us because we get a fuel flowage fee out of that as well. And it benefits the cafe. They're eating breakfast or they're eating lunch. It benefits our operational accounts because now they're talking to tower and they account for a takeoff. It just flows from there. So we don't want to penalize that or make it difficult for them to do that. We welcome any pilots from any surrounding airports to fly into Riverside and have lunch at the cafe and just see what Riverside's all about and maybe take a visit downtown and that sort of thing.

With that, is there enough space? Would you say there's enough space for the volume?

We generally have enough space, but honestly, occasionally we get a little full at the transient tie-down area, so we could use additional space, but then again, where could we build additional space? They also have the FBO. They can choose to utilize RES Jetport as well. They have ramp space. So there's a couple of options there. But if I could build additional transient tie-down area, I would. But then, of course, we have CBU that expands their footprint and next-gen. So if I have a full ramp, I'm good. It doesn't necessarily matter. Is it transient or flight school? What do we have here? It's just good to see a full ramp for sure. And it's good for the fuel truck when they drive by to see a full ramp as well.

Right on. I have three more questions. We'll do shotgun. Okay. Go free to keep it short if you want because I know we're running out of time. The Finland company visit, are they going to be like – I know it's very early, but I remember one time we had talked about there might be some demolition of old buildings or something at the airport, right, like the old FAA building, I think. Yeah.

So that will not be demolished. That actually, just recently, I did mention this earlier, but Tuesday of this week, the request for proposals for a design build went out on the street to completely renovate that flight service station building. But then, of course, we have potentially the Sears building that will be demolished at some point. But yeah, no demolitions planned for the airport.

Okay, gotcha. I misunderstood that. Planes and treats. Any assistance or anything that we can do to help?

We always welcome assistance. We had a meeting this week with the Riverside Airport Cafe to talk details, as well as with our special events team with the city. The event is October 17th, and I believe it is set to begin... 4 p.m. So it's going to be a very fun evening. We can always use some help. We welcome airport commissioners to attend, participate. We are kind of our home base for airport staff is over our maintenance building. And, yeah, it's always a very busy evening, but we're looking forward to it.

Awesome. You guys have the support that you need. You're good.

We have good support. The three of us will be there, and then we have probably two other staff that will be helping us out. But, again, commissioners, you certainly are, and if you'd like to gain access to our base camp, just let us know and we'll make it happen.

Okay. Last two questions is any updates on the Lyft program for like the schools and aerospace and all that?

Great question. We are in the process of onboarding a brand new fellow, similar to an intern. from CBU. It's a CBU student that will be kind of spearheading and serving as a bit of a research assistant, collaborator, outreach coordinator, and all the above for the LIFT program. The LIFT program has not really had any one person designated to it, so this will be the first iteration of that. And I think this individual will do a fantastic job just helping us brainstorm and kind of plan out the future path of Lyft. As Council Member Robillard has shared before, Lyft is kind of at phase zero right now. So this California fellow will hopefully help us take it to phase one and beyond. Awesome.

And then lastly, as me being a nerd of keeping track of evitals like you mentioned before, I noticed that there's a lot of – and I say a lot. I mean it could be like four. I'm not talking 20s. But in the past couple of years, right, there's been more activity for testing and things in French Valley than here, right? And I'm just curious what your thoughts, why that is. Is it because of the fact that it's less dense and there's less traffic? Is it because it's county versus city? Or like, you know, my ultimate question is, what do we need to do if we can do anything to attract that type of traffic? business or work here?

So I think what you suggested is probably true. It is a very, well, I'll just share this. When I spoke to the eVTOL manufacturer that we were having discussions with, and I set up a meeting with them and our FAA Flight Standards District Office, the big question was about airspace and airspace availability for flight tests. and it became very clear pretty early on that there's quite congested airspace around Riverside and it would really not be conducive to flight testing when FAA requires those flight tests not to be performed over densely populated areas. It would be difficult to do in and out of Riverside, right? So that's part of it. County versus city, not quite sure. I mean, we have a good rapport with county director of airports. And I think it's more of this airspace availability and less traffic that maybe make it more conducive to that. I will say, however, that I just had a conversation recently with our tower manager. And he is very receptive. to new and innovative technologies to include, we were even considering acquiring a drone, a UAS, to perform perimeter inspections and even airfield inspections from obviously a low altitude. And he was actually receptive to that. We haven't pursued that, but we, so I can't say that it's because the Well, the tower wouldn't allow that, because that's not the case. They're actually very receptive to some innovative technologies. The other thing I'll just add is that we do have significant assets at Riverside Airport, one of which is a rail spur that's connected to the airport, which is a huge benefit because that's pretty unique among airports in Southern California. So some of the eVTOL manufacturers that we've spoken to, they really like that because whether they're bringing in raw materials or shipping out, you know, completed aircraft or other components, they can see the benefits in doing that. So we're receptive. Again, it's a very dynamic space. And as we continue to explore this advanced air mobility, whether it's bringing a manufacturer on to the airport or simply developing the charging infrastructure and the vertiport space where other operators can utilize these aircraft and Riverside will be a stop in the system, if you will. We're open to that idea as well. So we're continuing to explore opportunities in that area.

Awesome. Then my last comment will be, and I'll be quiet, I promise, is that I just read, I think it's August 1st, there was a first flight of a, it's a company called Heart Aerospace. They're based in LA. So if your team wants to write that down, I don't know if you want to get connected with them, but The story is a founder, he started it right around COVID. It's a fairly new company. Design is now made into a prototype and they just flew it for the first time this past month and successfully. And the idea is it's all electric or no, I think it's electric and there's maybe a hybrid engine or something like that. It's not like Archer and Joby where it's transporting people to the airport. This is commercial. This is transporting up to 36 individuals from one city to another. So it's unique. It's special in that case. And the one thing that I always thought about that's great about our airport is... So you're saying it's very congested, but compared to LA, we're outside of that, right? And I know that there's a lot of commuters that commute to San Diego or need to go up north or maybe need to go to Tucson or something, right? So we're like Riverside is right in between the desert, South San Diego going up to Big Bear and then Metropolitan LA on the left, right? So I feel like we have a very unique geographical advantage that I'm not sure other companies are seeing. And, again, I'm talking out of my rear. I don't know anything about this stuff. But I'm just like, you know, I wonder what it would look like for them to see this type of stuff and come out here, right? So just wanted to throw that name of that company out there for you guys in case you guys are interested in reaching out to them. It's very interesting. And I can see a use case for them being, hey, you can only transport 30 people. I'm sure you can find people in this area that will drive to Riverside Airport and say, can you fly me to San Diego for a low cost? Perfect.

For sure. And just to be clear, it's not that we're congested, but densely populated for flight tests. And that was more of an FAA flight test issue. But, yeah, we have room certainly at the airport and could accommodate operations like that. So, no, that's great. We'll definitely look that company up. Thank you.

Appreciate all you guys do. Thank you. I'm done talking. Any other updates, comments?

No, okay.

Well, thank you very much. Move on to the next item. Are there any items for future consideration for agenda? Any of the commissioners, anything you want to talk about or share?

I'm sorry.

Could we consider upgrading the fence if we can get an FAA grant to help that because it's drab and French valleys is so beautiful That beautiful a wrought iron fence Just for clarification we're talking about perimeter fencing Yes

Are you talking about the perimeter fencing along central or, or even all around?

All the way around. As you drive in on Airport Drive, so going up to Gemendi, there's a lot of people that go in there to the flight school, people that come in to the FBO. Who else is over there? CAVU is over there. So it would look pretty for them. And then going where else is there the fence? It's up Airport Drive and comes all the way around. Well, actually, it comes all the way around. So it would also enhance Commemorative Air Force's new updates too. Just a consideration, maybe. Thank you.

Anything else? Okay. Well, I think we can wrap up. This next airport commission meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 8th, 2026 at 3 p.m. But as of now, thank you. This meeting is adjourned at 4.05. Thank you.