There was a contentious meeting between the Davenport Airport Commission and the Quad City Air Show. City council held a work session with both parties to help them negotiate a new rental rate, but nothing was accomplished.
The airport commission wants to cancel out the current contract with the Quad City Air Show and negotiate a new one. Currently, the air show pays $9300 in rent and the commission wants to raise it to $25,000. Both sides want the air show to continue and would like to negotiate a reasonable rate. However, the commission wants more financial information from the air show and the air show says they are providing only what the current contract requires them.
“I sent Mr. Hopper’s attorney a letter saying we will negotiate with you, but we need this and this,” says Mike Liebbe with the Davenport Airport Commission, “The response I got was we don’t have to provide and we’re not going to.”
“We would simply like to sit down with the airport commission and negotiate a fair and reasonable rent agreement,” says QC Air Show Attorney Mike Meloy.
The Quad City Air Show is under contract with the Davenport Airport Commission. The contract has 2 components, one part is a 5-year contract that rolls on and there is also a 3-year provision for changing the air show fee. Any change in rent has to be negotiated and certain financial figures handed over.
“Every year we do an I-90, it is certified, audited and signed by a CAP. So, I take offense to what one commissioner said that these numbers just don’t make sense,” says QC Air Show President Ken Hopper.
The airport commission says the numbers provided are not enough and want more information than the contract requires the air show to give.
“All we ask is for more items to better evaluate what the rent should be, we were told no way,” says Liebbe.
Another part of the debate is that air show president Ken Hopper once served on the air port commission until 2009. Hopper worked the commission to set the air show’s lease agreement.
Liebbe adds, “Now if that isn’t self dealing, I don’t know what is. Up until 2009, we didn’t consider that fair market value.”
Hopper says the rent was not fixed and the rate increase is part of another problem.
He adds, “It’s been personal since Mike Liebbe was put on this commission.”
The city pays the rent to the airport through the hotel-motel tax and contributes thousands of dollars to help get the air show get off the ground every year. The airport commission is asking for more money, because they need to pay for a new airport manager and need to raise money.
“It is not a vendetta, it has nothing to do with Mr. Hopper, it has to do with our responsibility to get the most out of the facility,” says Liebbe.
City council decided to have the work session to see if they can help the air show and airport commission find some sort of middle ground. The city attorney says aldermen do not have a say in what the rent will be. If an agreement cannot be reached the matter goes to arbitration. Hopper says the air show will still go on this Labor Day weekend no matter what.