Abrupt ending of meeting to approve Airport Capital Plan
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Earlier this month the 2025-2029 Capital Program Plan for the Albany County Airport was submitted for legislative action. NEWS10 had a crew at the meeting that turned contentious and ended abruptly.
“I want to make it very clear before we start, we are only entertaining questions related to the Capital Plan and that is it,” said Chairwoman Alison McLean Lane, Albany County Legislator for the 14th District.
Albany County Legislators gathered to approve a $283 million Capital Plan. But things quickly skidded off the runway when legislators demanded answers over the controversial move to push airport's current and popular CEO, Phil Calderone out of his job. The chairwoman said, it's not their concern. “Enabling legislation through the state of New York specifically limits us to basically two areas. And that is to approve Capital Plans and funding. And that's it. We have no ability to involve ourselves in their governance, we appoint a board that is within our purview and then that is it,” stated McLean Lane.
However, some lawmakers disagree. “The current CEO, whose contract was mysteriously and inexplicably not extended after doing a great job of five years, should be there to oversee this next Capital Plan for the next five years,” said Jennifer Whalen, Albany County Legislator for the 21st District.
“We are becoming the laughingstock of the Capital Region because we are trying to fire the most successful Airport Manager in the state of New York,” said Albany County Legislator for the 23rd District.
They say the airport has never been in a better position and Calderone should stay. “He redid the master plan for the airport that hadn't been done in 30 years. He got the highest safety record in the country for our airport. Federal and state grant money has been pouring in because of his leadership,” said Whalen.
In a letter to the Airport Authority Board, 16 Albany County Legislators asked for Calderone to stay, and the airport to renew his contract. “If we got that number up to 20 by the time reappointments take place, maybe some people shouldn't come back,” said Burgdorf.
The airport board responded, saying they reached out to Calderone and offered a “temporary extension of his tenure to allow him to continue to play a role in the completion of the expansion project.” An offer they say, he “flat out” rejected. So, the board is continuing to proceed with its national search for the Airport Authority Board’s next CEO.
But County Legislator Whalen is saying not so fast, “I'm going to look into referring all of this to the Inspector General and they can take a look at it and I'm also going to have my own meeting.”
If the point of tonight's meeting was to tamp down this controversy, it did not work as planned. “This meeting is absolute bull crap. It was a cover-up. It was a quiet down and they just don't want to discuss the issues at hand,” exclaimed Burdorf.