15. FIRE THE WHOLE DAMN COMMISSION!

When I arrived in Melbourne, Florida in early 1960 its now-City- owned huge World War II surplus Naval Air Station was being administered by an independent City Airport Commission. That body had been created, by ordinance, by the City Council, as a way to get what was perceived as "a white elephant" off the back of the City Commission.

Domination. The Airport Commission consisted predominately of downtown merchants, who, in turn, were dominated by the strong-willed local GMC auto/truck dealer, whose dealership was situate on U.S. 1, several miles east of the Airport.

All Commission members were pilots or had served in a flying role during World War II. They were dedicated to aviation but their views of a publicly-owned and operated Airport would soon prove to be re- markably antideluvian and jurassic.

Fire the Airport Manager. In another Tale in this book the story is related of how the Melbourne Airport Board had hired an Airport Manager, who simply "wasn't working out", in their words. They didn't have either the guts or courage to fire him, pleading to each of the City Commission and to me to get rid of the guy so that they could appoint a new Manager. I refused, thus resulting in a stalemate of several months duration in Airport matters. But, finally, I agreed to fire the Airport Manager, substituting temporarily my Administrative Assistant in his stead.

The Airport consisted of four 5,500 foot asphalt runways, connected by an elaborate system of taxiways and a huge ramp in front of the several hangars.

Scene of Much Activity. There was much activity on the Airport, due to the rapid build-up of space-related businesses in the entire Cape Canaveral area. Every building, and even the WW II bomb storage bunkers, were rented to this wide variety of organizations. A small but burgeoning private college -- Florida Institute of Technology -- rented a two story former classroom building. Radiation, Inc., a rapidly growing space electronics company, maintained its engineering, headquarters and manufacturing operations in a variety of these WW II surplus buildings on Airport property. Airport tenants were literally a "Who's Who" of aerospace, and remains so today.

An occupant of the largest flight line hangar converted North American Navion single engine private aircraft into light twins, two flight schools occupied smaller facilities, and other electronics, mechanical and related businesses were crammed into every available square foot of covered space. The Melbourne Municipal Airport was a very busy place.

Lots of Vacant Land. The Airport also consisted of several thousand acres of land which was not directly used for airport operations, which land was clearly outside the required clear zones at the ends of each runway. But the main north-south access road to the Airport, Babcock Boulevard, was becoming busier and busier, obviously rapidly becoming the preferred route from town north to Patrick Air Force Base and the Cape facilities. About a mile frontage of the west side of Babcock was owned by the Airport. Anyone driving by could easily ob- serve that large pieces of Airport land between runway ends obviously were not needed for clear zones or Airport purposes -- that the land could be declared surplus.

Federal Aviation Agency (the pre-DOT FAA then was an independent agency) rules permitted such clearly "surplus" lands to be so declared and sold, with FAA prior approval. But those rules also required that the money realized from such sales was to be deposited into the Airport Enterprise Fund and restricted to use for Airport purposes.

A "Little Man" Shows Up. About three months after I arrived in Melbourne a small swarthy man showed up in my office one day, complaining that his offer of $900,000 to buy 75 acres of surplus Airport land fronting on Babcock Avenue had last night been "summarily rejected" by the Airport Commission. He was insulted.

To him the Commission didn't seem to care that he planned to build the largest shopping mall in Florida on the site. He knew well the FAA's rules and procedures, and had no trouble with them. He also stated that he figured that Airport Commission members were "protecting" the downtown merchants from the new competition which a large multi-tenant shopping mall would bring.

He told me that Montgomery Ward & Company, then of Chicago, would be one of the anchor tenants, which occupancy contract already had been signed, contingent on his delivering the property at this location and constructing the center.

"Do Something". He requested that I "do something". I told him of the independence of the Commission. He proffered me his card, which read simply:

Edward J. DeBartolo

Real Estate and Shopping Center Development

Youngstown, Ohio

I had never heard of the man and, typically of City government, which was always getting strange too-good-to-be-true offers from unknowns and wannabe's, I doubted his story. So, without further conversation and in his presence, I dialed Chicago telephone information and got the general number for Montgomery Ward. Amazingly, on getting that switchboard and relating my basic story, I was routed immediately to the Real Estate Department.

Establishing Legitimacy. I stated my request to the lady who answered the telephone at Ward's and was instantly put through to the Vice President/Real Estate, who identified himself as such. I inquired as to the legitimacy of the DeBartolo story and his claim of having a signed contingency contract. The latter was immediately confirmed. The guy was both legitimate and, according to the Montgomery Ward VP, one of their largest mall and free-standing store project developers.

With that I promised DeBartolo that I would see what I could do and would be back in touch with him within two weeks.

After DeBartolo departed my office I summoned Ken Allen, the Acting Airport Manager, into my office and we consulted the Airport "Master Plan", determining that, in fact, the 75 desired acres were considered as unneeded surplus land.

Who's Working For Who Here? Allen was my Administrative Assistant, and had been assigned as Acting Airport Manager after I had agreed to fire his predecessor. But the Airport Commission still was in command, my having merely "loaned" them Allen. The City ordinance creating and empowering the Melbourne Airport Commission stood in the way of our accomplishing many things which Ken and I had envisioned for the Melbourne Municipal Airport. Including getting at its money.

We both had aspirations for the Melbourne Airport, since it was only 25 miles from the Space Center and less than 15 from Patrick Air Force base, then the locus of all Air Force and NASA command activities. But we also had learned that the FAA had determined that Or- lando was to be the major entry airport for the Cape, rather than Melbourne. We were insulted. The Airport Commission didn't seem to care, their primary interest being as landlords and keeping the airspace clear for their personal use.

Three Quick Applications. With the information which we had secured from DeBartolo, Ken and I embarked on a three pronged program to retrieve control over and to expand the Melbourne Airport.

Ken filed a formal application to the FAA for permission to sell the 75 acre "DeBartolo Tract". He also filed an application with the FAA for its usual 90% grant with which to complete the engineering and to construct a 6,500 foot runway extension to the 5,500 foot main east-west runway, a parallel taxi-way, to beef up and expand the passenger ramp, and with which to build a modest new Terminal Building. The grant request totalled around $800,000.

I approached the City Commissioners, one-by-one, relating to them the DeBartolo incident and requesting that they repeal the Airport Commission ordinance and literally abolish the Commission. That action was the only way in which the shopping center could be built and the Airport expanded with the resultant monies. Such repeal automatically would make the Airport a City department, subject to the control of the City Manager and the City Commission, through a City Manager-appointed Airport Manager.

Simply put, I requested the City Commission to fire the whole damn Airport Commission! And NOW!

Three Quick Actions. The City Council repealed the ordinance at its next meeting. They had to suspend their rules to do so, but they did and the two votes were taken at the same meeting and the "emergency ordinance" went into effect instantly. Whether the City Commission Members had consulted with or even informed the Airport Commissioners I didn't know. But one reaction to the Commission's action was quick in coming.

The extremely strong-willed and dominating Airport Commission Chair, Wally Fordyce, the local GMC dealer, suddenly sold out and moved to his "summer home" in the mountains of North Carolina. He just disappeared, literally overnight. An immediate past Indianapolis 500 race winner replaced him as the owner of the dealership, where he remains today.

Mixed Results From the FAA. The FAA immediately -- within one week -- approved the land sale. A couple of weeks later we received our Airport expansion application back from the FAA, with a rejection letter. We now had it in writing that the FAA viewed Orlando as the primary commercial airport of the Cape Canaveral Space Complex. Melbourne had no role to play in that game -- or so the FAA said.

Within another week we closed the property deal with DeBartolo and the Airport had its $900,000 in the bank. We immediately employed an engineering firm and proceeded with developing construction plans for the Airport improvements in which the FAA had declined to participate financially. We did, however, follow all FAA planning and contracting requirements, sending them copies of everything we did, just as if the improvement application had been accepted and ultimately approved.

Stealing Five Air Lines. Immediately after construction contracts had been let, Ken Allen, now the full-time Airport Manager, approached each of Eastern, Northeast, Delta, United, National and American Air Lines about utilizing the "New Melbourne Airport." All but American accepted immediately. They knew that the City of Orlando did not yet control McCoy Air Force Base and its long runways and large ramps, had no terminal there, that its downtown airport runways were too short for jet aircraft, which were just coming into service, and that Orlando was by then-existing roads from 50 to nearly 75 miles from the Cape, as opposed to Melbourne's 25 maximum. These airlines knew a good deal when they were presented with one.

The rush project to expand the Melbourne Airport was quickly completed, the WW II air traffic control tower modernized and activated, off-duty Air Traffic Controllers from Patrick Air Force Base hired, and the new Terminal Building completed. Melbourne was on its way!

A "Bunch" of Flights. Within months Melbourne had one stop service to Los Angeles, non-stops to New York and Chicago and, as I recall, more than 90 flights per day to and from cities all over the country. Orlando still was mired in the backwaters of aviation. For, you see, Walt Disney had not yet arrived near Orlando and it remained just an overgrown Central Florida citrus and cow town until he did.

The Melbourne Airport improvements had been financed by the proceeds of the $900,000 DeBartolo land sale, and the Airport Fund had about $100,000 left over from that transaction, after paying for the initial expansion program. So, we soon were able to expand our new Terminal, to accommodate the rapidly growing numbers of passengers cramming into the Melbourne Municipal Airport.

The Space Age Arrives! The Space Age had indeed arrived in Melbourne, and with it all the local economic impact and benefits of spending billions upon billions and billions of public dollars in the Greater Melbourne "Space Coast" area over the next two plus decades.

A Shocker Arrives, by Mail. About two months after the inauguration of the 12,000 foot runway, parallel taxiway, heavy ramp and Terminal Building, and arrival of all the attendant airline flights, a check arrived for the Melbourne Airport one day. It was for nearly $800,000, and was marked as "federal share of Melbourne Airport Improvement Project 60-xxx" (I can't remember the number, and couldn't locate it in my extensive records, either.)

Guilt and poor judgement can be strange things and produce even stranger results. The check literally signified capitulation and recognition from the FAA to the City, at least in my mind and that of Ken Allen. Vindication was ours!

It subsequently took Orlando more than a decade, Disney and the Air Force abandoning McCoy Air Force Base, to catch up to Melbourne.

The Long Term Results. I departed Melbourne shortly after the new airlines were settled in. Ken remained for nearly a decade. He took the now $900,000+ available in the Airport Fund and built a new divided four lane access road from the Melbourne Causeway and U.S. 1 thru the old City Cemetery, into the Airport, expanded the ramp and the Terminal two more times, cut a deal with Harris Corporation, which had acquired Radiation, Inc., to establish their international corporate headquarters on the Airport and, in general, established and filled a first class industrial park adjacent to taxiways, on Airport lands.

A Return, and Satisfaction. I returned to Melbourne in the Summer of 1991 for only the second time since my departure in 1961, the other time having been a flying trip in my Swift private, light airplane in 1966. The entirety of the Airport surplus land had been developed into ultramodern high tech industrial buildings, and the Airport Terminal was again being expanded. In that partial demolition I spotted a corner of the "First" Terminal which had been built while I was there in 1960. There were hundreds of large and individual T hangars along the flight line and, in general, the place was hardly recognizable. The WW II surplus Air Station "look" had totally disappeared, and a highly active industrial Airport with hundreds of large and gorgeous buildings, a huge Terminal, multiple air freight and express buildings, and an enormous parking lot had taken its place.