Jay Honeck, you've just been down this road with YOUR council. Anything to
add?

Well, not *quite* the same train of events happened out here in Corn
Country.

Our City Council (through the City Manager) was trying to
disenfranchise our independent airport commission, under the guise of
"helping the airport."

We saw through those smoke and mirrors right away. Anyone with a
brain stem realized instantly that the ONLY thing protecting our (too
close to town) airport from development was an independent commission,
made up of people dedicated to the future of the airport. The first
step toward closing the airport HAD to be the removal of this obstacle,
and we determined to stop them at that point.

So we organized a grass roots effort to "convince" the City Council of
the folly of their plans. (In truth, I don't think they had thought it
through, and I believe that they were just following the city manager's
lead.)

Step One was forming the "Friends of Iowa City Airport" advocacy group.
Primarily an email list of supporters, this group -- over 170 strong
-- was able to exert enormous pressure at the most critical times, both
"in-person" and through letter writing.

Step Two was to attend every Airport Commission and City Council
meeting. Most of our civil servants are used to working in relative
privacy (cable TV notwithstanding), and when a bunch of guys wearing
AOPA hats suddenly started showing up at meetings, they took notice.

Step Three was to find a champion. We found (or he found us?) a very
eloquent guy on the airport commission (who happened to be a rising
star at the University -- the 600 pound gorilla around Iowa City) who
was able to articulate the reasons behind maintaining an independent
airport commission to our city council members. This was critical,
since no one had ever bothered to explain any of the arcane
machinations of an airport to these folks -- most of whom were much
more interested in Iowa City's "historic preservation" or declaring
Iowa City to be a "nuclear-free zone"...

All three of these steps need to be followed by your group, pronto.
This needs to be highlighted in the newspapers, covered by local radio,
and brought up to AOPA. Make noise!

We were able to save our airport commission (at least, until the
monster arises from the dead yet again -- you never REALLY beat these
things) by using these time-honored techniques.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"