Klamath Falls, OR— Setting history straight on the Japanese Interment camp (Part Four)
The question again arises, "Why wasn't the next upcoming meeting at the time the article Tulelake council approves first step to sell land underlying airport Jul 12, 2018 was written not stated as Tuesday, July 17, 2018, instead of referred to as Tuesday, July 31, 2018 by LEE JUILLERAT?
Below is the Agenda and Minutes for the Tuesday, July 17, 2018 @5:30 PM for the City Council Meeting in the Tulelake City Hall Council Chambers. Located at 591 Main Street, Tulelake, CA., 96134.
From Agenda Tuesday, July 17, 2018 @5:30 PM
12. PUBLIC MEETING: To consider an ordinance approving the proposed sale of the fee interest in the land underlying the Tulelake Municipal Airport, located in Modoc County. APNs: 005-210-009 and 005-220-020. Discussion/Action. (Mayor Ebinger)
13. Second reading with any possible corrections, of Ordinance No. 2018-16-01, "An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Tulelake, California, authorizing the sale of land underlying Tulelake Municipal Airport to the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma" Discussion/Action (City Clerk/City Hall Administrator)
14. Approval of Ordinance No. 2018-16-01, "An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Tulelake, California, authorizing the sale of land underlying Tulelake Municipal Airport to the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma" Discussion/Action (Mayor Ebinger)
From Minutes Tuesday, July 17, 2018 @5:30 PM
PUBLIC MEETING: TO CONSIDER APPROVING THE PROPOSED SAE OF THE FEE INTEREST IN THE LAND UNDERLYING THE TULELAKE MUNICAPAL AIRPORT, LOCTED IN THE COUNTY OF MODOC, APNs:005-210-009 AND 005-220-020
SECOND READING WITH ANY POSSIBLE CORRECTIONS, OF ORDINANCE NO. 2018-16-01,"AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF TULELAKE, CLIFORNAI, AUTHORIZING THE SALE OF THE LAND UNDERLYING TULELAKE MUNICAPAL AIRPORT TO THE MODOC TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA".
APPROVAL OF ORDINANCE NO. 2018-16-01, "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF TULELAKE, CLIFORNAI, AUTHORIZING THE SALE OF THE LAND UNDERLYING TULELAKE MUNICAPAL AIRPORT TO THE MODOC TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA".
Mayor Ebinger tabled the above three items for the July 31, 2018 meeting. It was seconded by Council Member Velador. Motion carried. (Motion 18-125)
30. The Committee telephoned and sent the City a request form on July 25 asking to be placed
on the July 31 Agenda to present and discuss its offer to purchase the airport. However, the Committee’s
request to be included on the 4:15 PM Agenda was described as “not … appropriate” by the City Hall
Administrator, Jenny Coelho, who explained that the City would not discuss the airport sale before the
5:30 meeting. Her emailed response to the Committee is quoted below with emphasis added:
“It will not be necessary or appropriate to separately agendize your proposal for that sale. You will have opportunity to speak in the hearing. If you have a proposal to present, you may wish to submit it in writing to our attorney, Mr. Colanuono, in advance of the meeting to ensure the Council and its legal counsel are able to review it fully.
“There will be a special meeting at 4:15 pm before the regular meeting at 5:30 pm for which the possible sale is noticed. If so, that meeting will be limited to a closed session. While public comment before the closed session will of course be welcome no public discussion of the airport sale by the City Council will be appropriate earlier than the time of which the City has given published notice of 5:30 pm.”
31. The 4:15 PM Agenda contained an item 5: “Conference with Real Property Negotiator(s) for the possible transfer of the Tulelake Airport.” The negotiating parties were listed as “Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma; Tule Lake Committee; County of Modoc.” The administrator’s communication chilled the Committee from participating in this closed meeting where the City Council was to discuss the “terms and price” of the airport sale.
32. The public meeting to consider the proposed Ordinance for sale to the Tribe took place at 5:30 PM on July 31, 2018. The Mayor announced a 3-minute time limit for speakers.
33. Mr. Colantuono, as negotiator for the City, gave what he called “in effect a staff report.” He outlined some terms of the City’s fee ownership, except that he never mentioned the site’s historic importance. Instead, he minimized the site as a “piece of dirt under an airport.” He outlined the Tribe’s $17,500 offer, characterized it as “the terms that’ve been negotiated with the Tribe,” and compared the terms offered by the Committee and by the County. He defended the low dollar amount as being enough to pay his own fee to “close this deal,” and said that if the City made “a nickel on that transaction” the amount would go “back into the airport” since “anything we make off of Uncle Sam’s investment has to be used for airport use.”
34. A rough transcription of the negotiator’s remarks is:
Good evening everyone. Michael Colantuono, I’m a local government lawyer, and the town has hired me to assist with this transaction, and so I’m giving what’s in effect a staff report on this item. The town owns the land under the airport, because at the end of World War II the federal government gave it to the town conditioned that it used for an airport. And the title that the town holds provides that if it ever stops being an airport, the land goes back to Uncle Sam. The County of Modoc is the sponsor of the airport, that’s a status under the FAA’s rules, you need a Mother May I from the FAA to be a sponsor, and they are also the grant recipient with respect to the airport, which means they signed a contract by which they get to spend money from the FAA grant funds. You fly, you see that little $3 charge on your airline ticket. That money goes into a fund to maintain airports. That fund generates grants for all airports including airports like this one. So the County’s a grant recipient. That’s also a regulatory category with some obligations to Uncle Sam. The town is neither of those things. They just own the dirt. They have leased the dirt to the County of Modoc; the County of Modoc is the airport sponsor, is the grant recipient, and it has subleased the field to a fixed base operator, FBO, Macy’s Flying Services, which provides the economic activity that’s actually using the airport. The airport is now on a lease that has another 24 years to go. Nobody can disturb that lease; the County’s rights are good for another 24 years. Macy’s has a sublease under that agreement. Nobody can disturb those rights. Those rights remain as well. The question is whether the town continues in this role of being the nominal owner of the piece of dirt under an airport that so far has gotten them sued a couple of times. So the transaction is proposed to sell that land to the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma for $17,500. And people wonder, why that price, why so little, what’s that about. That’s basically my fees; it’s covering the cost to close this deal so that the city can get out from under the burden of owning that land at no cost. If we made as a community a nickel on that transaction we’d be required to put the money back into the airport. We got the land from Uncle Sam for use as an airport, anything we make off of Uncle Sam’s investment has to be used for airport use. So there’s no way for the town to sell it for more and to make more money for the community’s general fund. One of the conditions of this sale if the town approves it, it’s up to the City Council, is that the Modoc Tribe has to get the FAA’s consent to the transaction, or has to prove to the city attorney’s satisfaction that that’s not required. That clause that says the City Attorney might decide it’s not required is really about if the FAA refuses to exercise their jurisdiction, if they say you’re not a grant sponsor, you’re not an airport sponsor, you’re not a grant recipient, and we don’t have any relationship with you, and we’re not going to do a Mother May I for you. Then we’re not going to get a Mother May I from them and the transaction can conclude. But unless they say that, we need their approval for the transaction and if we don’t get it, the deal doesn’t close on the terms that are in front of the Council for tonight. It has to be used as an airport, under this deal and the underlying fee, and if that cease to happen Uncle Sam gets the land back and will have to figure out what to use with it, and importantly to the community, another aspect of the agreement is that if the Modoc Tribe takes the land they have to defend and pay the lawyers for any lawsuits that the City might be involved in with respect to the airport going forward. After we released the agenda showing this transaction, we received two other offers, one from the Tule Lake Committee, which is essentially the same the same terms as the tribe with two differences, one is it’s $40,000, the other says no promise to indemnify but there is a promise to dismiss us from the existing lawsuit, which you might view as effectively the same thing. And we have an oral offer that’s not been reduced to writing, from the County of Modoc, to match the terms that’ve been negotiated with the Tribe. We met in closed session earlier this evening, I provided a little bit of legal advice to the City Council about all three of those proposals, no action was taken because any action will be taken in open session after the Council hears from the public tonight. And with that, Mr. Mayor, Council members, that’s all I have for you unless you have questions for me.
By LEE JUILLERAT For the Herald and news Aug 2, 2018
TULELAKE — The sale of land under the Tulelake Airport to the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma was unanimously approved by the Tulelake City Council late Tuesday afternoon. "I'd like to welcome the Modocs from Oklahoma," councilman Richard Marcillac said to the Modoc delegation after the vote.
The council never publicly discussed purchase offers from Modoc County and the Tule Lake Committee. Modoc County, which owns the airport and has a strong financial interest is seeing it used as an airport, offered to equal the Modoc bid of $17,500.
At a special meeting held before the regular meeting, the council met for a half-hour in a closed executive session to confer with attorney Michael Colantuono about the three offers. The offers from Modoc County and the Tule Lake Committee came after the council approved the first reading of the ordinance agreeing to sell the land to the Modoc Tribe in early July.
Related Links: 1. Setting history straight on the Japanese Interment camp
3. Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma agreed to purchase Tulelake Airport from the City of Tulelake at a set price
4. Tule Lake Committee wants to protect a latrine that no longer exist (Part One) UPDATED
5. Tule Lake Committee restraining order DENIED without prejudice to renewal
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