1 week Ago By Theresa Bourke
BRAINERD — After a request from the Brainerd City Council to take over ownership of the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport, Crow Wing County officials say they do not want to do so. Brainerd City Council members voted 6-1 in May to form a work group with county representatives, if the latter was willing, to discuss ownership options for the future. An email from County Administrator Deborah Erickson, dated Aug.
28, stated the county is not interested in any ownership changes at the airport and would not entertain a request from the city to do so. During a budget session Aug. 22, Commissioner Steve Barrows, who sits on the airport commission, said he did not support the ownership change.
Neither Airport Director Steve Wright nor Brainerd City Council member and airport liaison Kevin Stunek support the change either. The topic of discussion came up after the city requested a reduction in its levy last fall due to double taxation for the airport’s operations. ADVERTISEMENT Both Brainerd and Crow Wing County levy funds for the airport, and because Brainerd residents pay into the county’s levy, they are essentially taxed for the service twice.
Last November, the County Board authorized the increase of its 2024 levy by $9,420, while Brainerd reduced its levy by the same amount. Brainerd accounts for about 6% of Crow Wing County’s tax base, and $9,420 works out to be 6% of the county’s $157,000 levy for the airport. Brainerd’s original 2024 budget included a $155,500 levy for the airport.
When discussing the airport levy during a meeting Tuesday, Sept. 3, council members ultimately voted to table the issue after sending a letter about the issue to the county. The airport commission requested a levy of $225,000 in 2025, which is an increase of $78,920 over 2024 and would impact the city’s overall levy with an increase of about 1.
14%. The city is looking at a preliminary levy increase of about 8.64% for 2025.
The preliminary levy is likely to be set at the Sept. 16 council meeting, and the final levy will be passed in December. “We do have a reserve on hand right now, and so we’re just trying to establish budgets on how to prevent these dips and valleys over time,” Wright told the council’s Personnel and Finance Committee.
“So that’s our only objective is to foresee the future a little bit, not necessarily to solve all of our problems today.” The city has not increased the airport’s levy — holding it steady at $155,500 — since 2009. Stunek said he supported the increase, but Johnson asked if the County Board had agreed to the same level of funding.
City Administrator Nick Broyles said the county had not and, based on his discussions with county staff, commissioners will likely hold the airport levy steady. ADVERTISEMENT In that case, Johnson said he sees no reason for the city to increase theirs and have Brainerd residents fund the airport at a higher level than other county residents. Council member Kara Terry suggested raising the levy to $150,000 to give the airport a little more funding without the full increase.
Stunek noted the city taking an aggressive approach with an increase could push the county to do so as well. Terry made a motion during the committee meeting to set the 2025 preliminary airport levy at $150,000. The measure passed 2-1, with Stunek in agreement, as he said it at least helped the city move forward, and Johnson opposed, committing to his desire to see the levy flat.
During the full council meeting Tuesday, council members also discussed airport ownership and structure. With the county’s rejection of the idea to assume sole ownership of the airport, city staff recommended the council to direct them to work with the county and the airport director to develop recommendations regarding future structure of airport IT, facilities, human resources, finance and legal functional areas; integrate those recommendations into a formal letter for consideration by the council, County Board and airport commission; and exhaust avenues to either provide Brainerd residents relief from an airport levy or, minimally, to ensure they are not double taxed for the airport. In May, Brainerd Human Resources Director Kris Schubert said she would like to see all airport employees become city employees if the airport remains under joint ownership.
Right now, airport employees are overseen by the Airport Commission. The airport has its own personnel policy, meaning their staff do not follow the city’s employee policy manual. Airport staff use the city’s technology system after their own system crashed in 2022, and airport maintenance staff are included in the city’s commercial driver’s license drug testing program.
The city performs the payroll, benefit administration, accounts payable and financial reporting functions for the airport. Airport employees have their own workers compensation and general liability insurance policies, though all of their W2s and payroll-related functions are reported with the city’s federal identification number. Airport employees, however, are not considered city or county employees.
ADVERTISEMENT Schubert said her main concern is the potential for any violation of the city’s technology by airport employees, as they are on the same network as the city, but the city has no disciplinary authority over the employees. At the very least, Schubert said she would advocate for revising the joint powers agreement between the county and city if the airport stays co-owned to ensure there is no gray area for issues like that or anything else that might crop up. The two employees of the city’s IT department oversee 80 network users spread across six different locations, plus field/mobile and remote work.
While the city’s IT department has the capacity to provide the seven airport staff members with secure and reliable use of the network, the airport needs various complex projects completed that will require hundreds of hours of labor and significant costs to prevent further network outages. The airport network itself is running on ancient hardware, and the configuration is unknown, meaning support options are limited, and more hardware needs to be replaced as soon as possible. The current situation puts tenants, governmental agencies and travelers at risk of losing all forms of connectivity potentially for days or even weeks if something fails as it has before.
The city’s IT department does not have the capacity much beyond the basic services provided to the airport right now. The large projects will have to be outsourced to either private technology companies, though they could likely be done under the county’s IT department. Council member Jeff Czeczok said the biggest issue for him is the levy, as the airport is an asset to the entire region — not just Brainerd or even Crow Wing County.
The county taking over the entire or at least the majority of the levy, Czeczok said, would give relief to Brainerd taxpayers. The whole point is transferring ownership to the county, he added, so Brainerd would not have to levy at all for the airport. Czeczok said he’d be in favor of first sending the county a letter addressing the levy first and waiting on the other items — like IT, HR and legal — that are less pressing concerns.
Terry said she does not see the county agreeing to take over the whole levy this year at this late of a date, and she believes splitting up the other responsibilities is important. Stunek agreed, and Johnson said his priorities are HR, legal and IT. While the levy is expensive, Johnson said the city’s IT director spending three months of time out at the airport is expensive as well.
Johnson added he does not disagree with Czeczok in asking the county to take over the full airport levy. Council member Mike O’Day said it did not hurt to put the question of the levy out there, and Tiffany Stenglein said she also doesn’t see the issue going anywhere this year but would still be in favor of sending a letter. ADVERTISEMENT Johnson made a motion to follow staff’s recommendation of sending a letter regarding the various issues Broyles laid out in his memo to the council.
Czeczok maintained he would like to focus on the levy first and said he’d be voting no. Johnson said it isn’t just about the levy but improving airport operations altogether. The motion passed 6-1, with Czeczok opposed.
Terry then moved to set the preliminary airport levy at $150,000, and Stunek seconded. Czeczok then moved to table the issue until Sept. 16.
That motion passed 4-3, with Czeczok, O’Day, Johnson and Council President Kelly Bevans in favor. THERESA BOURKE may be reached at theresa.bourke@brainerddispatch.
com or 218-855-5860. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.
com/DispatchTheresa ..
