20210415_W-Woodward_RDUAA

From: H. C. Woodv
To: Charles Roe ; Snow. Chris; Emerson Barker; Ernestine Durham.; George Matthis; George R. Hess; Grea Hoit;
H.C. Woody Woodward; Mallory Martin ; Mark Schwegel; Robert Finch; Robert Hinson; Robin Hammond
Cc: Wrenn, Brian L; Patterson, Dwayne; Delli-Gatti, Dionne
Subject: [External]
Date: Thursday, April 15, 2021 1:31:39 PM
Attachments: RDUAA rebuttal to Thompon"s comments re only serve RDU 202103 27 signed.pdf
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Folks:
I want to share this with you in regards to the comments that RDUAA appointed Board Member
Dickie Thompson made at their the March 18th
2021 meeting. Then some 3 weeks later RDU Police Force shows up IN FORCE to protect 286 from
Mountain Bikers. All the while they are losing $10,000.00 of dollars closing their satellite parking lots
since the number of airline passengers is down.
Thanks Woody
H.C. Woody Woodward
OSAPAC
NCOBS & NOSTOS Veterans Programs
10304 Whitestone Road
Raleigh, N.C. 27615
919-803-6856
nettybuzz- (@nc.rr.com

March 27, 2021
To: Wake County Commissioners
Durham County Commissioners
Durham City Council
Raleigh City Council
Morrisville Town Council
Cary Town Council
Apex Town Council
Senator Wiley Nickel
Honorable Roy Cooper, Governor
Darryl Childers, Office of the Governor Roy Cooper
Ken Eudy, Office of the Governor Roy Cooper
RE: Comments made at the March 18, 2021 RDUAA monthly meeting
Greetings,
I attended the Raleigh Durham Airport Authority (RDUAA) regular monthly meeting on Thursday,
March 18, 2021. This meeting was the first attended by the two new board members recently
appointed by Durham City. Towards the end of the meeting, as normally happens, each board
member is given an opportunity to make comments. On this day, Dickie Thompson, who was
appointed to the RDUAA by the City of Raleigh in February 2012, said the following:
"It's a great deal of responsibility [to be on the RDUAA] and the decisions we make in our
Board meetings and our Committee meetings affect a great number of people that come
through our area every day. And, you know our forefathers were very wise, I think, when they
set up the Charter for the Raleigh -Durham Airport, in the fact that we have four owners and
two representatives from each owner. Each member is appointed by elected officials. BUT,
once you become a member of the RDU Board, you no longer represent that individual body
that ... appointed you to it. You now represent the RDU Authority. And, the decisions that
you make, are made on the best interest of the airport itself... I urge you to, in making
decisions for RDU, put RDU first in making these decisions and not base your decisions on the
number of emails that you receive from individuals or people that are in special interest
groups, or even elected officials...."
Mr. Thompson's words are very concerning. The Raleigh -Durham Airport is NOT a private airport.
It is NOT a private business. The Raleigh -Durham Airport is a public airport owned by 4 public
entities sitting in the midst of a metropolitan area with many surrounding public communities,
all of which are greatly affected by the decisions of this public entity. Public money, taxpay
money helps support this airport. Mr. Thompson's words indicate that he feels that the RDUAA
is totally independent of any of the owners and any of the surrounding communities. He is saying
that all decisions can and should ignore the needs and concerns of the airport owners and the
NLew, Public Comment 27/Mar/2021 Page 1 of 4

surrounding communities. Private businesses may be able to operate independent of the public,
but public entities must at least be considerate of the public that they serve, the taxpayer money
that they use, and any decision that will leave the local taxpayer funding the cost of fixing up or
cleaning up issues resulting from their decisions.
As I did not want to jump to conclusions about the truthfulness of Mr. Thompson's statement, I
did some research as to what the RDUAA is and what role it has.
I reviewed the 1939 Enabling Legislation (that ultimately created the RDUAA) and amendments
and did not find any direct statement that said that the RDUAA was to operate totally
independent of the owners or the surrounding communities. The Enabling Legislation indicates
the four owners are to "jointly" establish and maintain the airport. It also says "Said cities and
counties shall each hold and be vested with an undivided interest in and to lands so acquired,
owned, controlled ..." Vested means to have a legal right to or interest in. The Enabling
Legislation indicates the airport and lands are "occupied for a public purpose." These words and
concepts contradict Mr. Thompson's statement.
The RDU website indicates that "The Raleigh -Durham Airport Authority Board governs Raleigh -
Durham International Airport. The cities of Durham and Raleigh along with Durham and Wake
counties each appoint two members to the board. The Airport Authority is a local government
responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of RDU."
So, the RDUAA is both a "board" and a "local government."
Per an internet search, I found a generic description of a "board" and then followed the logic:
• The board of directors is elected to represent shareholders' interests. The board's key
purpose "is to ensure the company's prosperity by collectively directing the company's
affairs, while meeting the appropriate interests of its shareholders and relevant
ct�kahnlrlarc "
• So, shareholder and stakeholder interests are important and are something that should
be considered.
• Shareholders are any person, company, or institution that is part owner of an entity.
• Stakeholders are individuals or groups with an interest or incentive in a venture's success
or failure.
• For the RDU Airport, the shareholders would be the owners (Cities of Raleigh and Durham
and Counties of Wake and Durham) and stakeholders are the surrounding communities.
• Thus, the RDUAA should consider the needs of these groups and not make decisions
totally independent of them.
• If you don't agree with this assessment, then please explain to me and the public who
does the RDUAA serve if they are not serving the public? Special interests? Private
business? You may say they serve the "flying public", but doesn't that include the local
community as we a good portion of the business at the airport?
NLew, Public Comment 27/Mar/2021 Page 2 of 4

Per an internet search, I found the following about local government:
• Local Government is the system of locally elected members representing their
communities and making decisions on their behalf...
• Local governments are part of larger communities. In this role, council members should
advocate for the interests of their local community to other local governments and
communities. Along those lines, effective council members are responsible partners in
government when they also take the needs of neighboring communities into account,
• Local governments were designed with the purpose of creating order in ways that serve
the general public democratically.
• Effective local governments provide overall quality of life for the people who reside in
their communities.
• Local government serves a two -fold purpose. The first purpose is the administrative
purpose of supplying goods and services; the other purpose is to represent and involve
citizens in determining specific local public needs and how these local needs can be met.
As you can imagine, there is quite a bit more on the internet about what a local government is.
Everything that I read included some wording that says that the local government represents the
people and considers the needs of the people and the surrounding communities. The local
government does not act in a vacuum, separate from the people.
Essentially, by being either a "board" or a "local government", the RDUAA should be making
decisions on behalf of the airport, but in consideration of the needs of, concerns of, and effects
on the local communities, both the owning communities and the neighboring communities.
Per the Preamble to the 27/Aug/1991 RDU Ethics Policy, STATEMENT OF ETHICAL PRINCIPLES BY
THE RALEIGH-DURHAM AIRPORT AUTHORITY, "The proper operation of democratic government
requires that public officials and employees be independent, impartial and responsible to the
people..." and "...that the public have confidence in the integrity of its government." Being
"responsible to the people" means to consider the needs of, concerns of, and effects on the
owners and/or surrounding communities. If the RDUAA is permitted to operate in a vacuum
without being "responsible to the people," then there will be very little to no public confidence
in the integrity of the RDUAA.
From comments made by several other members of the RDUAA, I do feel that there is willingness
to engage the public and consider the needs of, concerns of, and effects on the owners and
surrounding communities. I am very thankful for those voices. I hope that Mr. Thompson's voice
is not allowed to overshadow the voices that do conjure confidence in the governing body of our
local public airport.
As I have said in several public comments, I am a frequent traveler, having earned lifetime
frequent traveler status with airlines and hotel chains. I very much want my home base airport
to be a great one. But I also want my hometown to be a great one. The relationship between
the airport and the community should be a two-way street, a symbiotic relationship. This airport
should be part of a community that is great to fly out of and it should also be a part of the
community that creates a place where people want to come visit and live. The only way the
airport can do that is to consider the needs of the surrounding community, especially its biggest
neighbor, Umstead State Park.
NLew, Public Comment 27/Mar/2021 Page 3 of 4

In the past decade, the airport has become so narrowly focused on being independent of the
owning governments and becoming a "world class airport" that they have become indifferent to
public opinion, the greater needs of the community it serves, and the will of its owning
governments. It is this mindset that propels RDU to essentially cannibalize a small,
environmentally important tract of land that is remote to the actual airport but adjacent to
Umstead State Park without consulting either the public, the owning governments, or the
neighboring state park (which existed prior to the airport). Destruction of this uniquely located
forest tract critically needed for environmental and recreation reasons for a mere fraction of a
percent of the airport's projected needs is not just bad public policy, it is an indifferent disregard
of the greater needs of the community it serves.
This mindset also propels RDU to attempt to erect an unnecessary large, barbed wire fence along
the border of Umstead State Park and other remote, surplus land that they manage (but do not
own) — land that is part of a wildlife corridor and adjacent to a highly used recreation corridor
that benefit residents and visitors.
The decisions made by the RDUAA and the RDU staff should not be made in a bubble that
contains just the airport. The decisions made by the RDUAA and RDU staff should consider the
needs of and effects on the owners and the surrounding communities. We have to live together
as neighbors. The public highly values both our public airport and the neighboring state park.
This coexistence is such an important concept that even The Regional Transportation Alliance
(RTA) RDU Airport Infrastructure Development (AID) Task Force (which was created by RDU) cited
this as a finding in their January 17, 2020 report: "RDU may not be a natural partner with
Umstead, but it needs to become one..." The RTA recommended that "RDU should revisit the
entire 2040 master plan given the reality of an adjacent, beloved state park."
https://Ietsgetmoving.org/priorities/rdu-funding/
Thank you for taking the time to read this public comment and thank you for ensuring that we
not only have a great public airport, but that we also have a great place to live which includes
protecting Umstead State Park from an unnecessary/unneeded quarry and a fence.
Sincerely,
Natalie Lew
Cc: Dr. Jean Spooner, Chair, The Umstead Coalition
Cynthia Satterfield, Deputy Director / Acting State Director, Sierra Club
Blake Fleming, Lead Organizer, Sierra Club
Cassie Gavin, Senior Director of Government Relations, Sierra Club
Rosa Hodge-Mustafa, Organizer, Sierra Club
Hwa Huang, Group Chair, Capital Group of NC Sierra Club
NI-ew, Public Comment 27/Mar/2021 Page 4 of 4