Anson Stevens-Bollen
The fine is no small matter. Potentially, the Transportation Security Administration could charge the city more than $13,000 a day.
The real hammer, though, is the category downgrade. If the TSA follows through with its recent threats and Santa Fe's airport loses its Category III status, it risks losing the 60-plus-seat jets that American and United Airlines use for commercial flights in and out of the regional airport.
City Councilor Mike Harris doesn't expect that to happen. Nor does Nick Schiavo, the longtime city hand currently acting as airport manager. That is, if Santa Fe's governing body changes city law to ensure it doesn't.
At next Wednesday's City Council meeting, Harris plans to carry a bill that would make a number of changes to Santa Fe's airport ordinance. Harris says the move will modernize language and expectations for airport operations and commercial service that haven't been updated since the mid-1980's.
"There is a lot at stake," Harris tells SFR in a recent phone call. The city has security procedures in place and the TSA is largely happy with those, he explains, adding, "Where we have been behind is on the compliance side."
Since 2016, when the airport received Category III status allowing larger jets, the TSA has been waiting for everything it needs to officially sign off on the security program. The city recently had new body scanners installed at the airport and a new baggage screening machine is in the works.
In late 2009, when the city began anew commercial flights at the airport, it implemented a badge system for the few hundred people who work at or operate out of the facility.
"It's a tight program," says Schiavo, and the requirements are clear and reinforced in many spots at the airport. "It's painted on the ground as you enter: This site is a secure area for commercial flights."
But the city isn't quite to the finish line.
The changes Harris' bill would make to city law give the airport manager (and city manager, who hires for the position) the authority to set out rules and regulations governing the flow of traffic and special zones for parking. They also require an updated set of what the Federal Aviation Administration calls minimum standards for operation. That's things like how much insurance operators have to carry. They also set out the requirement for the airport manager to implement a security program. At the end of each section is language that lets the city fine violators. That seems to be the change the feds want.
A letter written by the TSA's top man in New Mexico and sent to the city earlier this month makes clear the federal government's frustration with Santa Fe's ordinance.
"TSA has leniently awaited the submittal and implementation of a fully compliant [Airport Security Program] detailing exactly how [the Santa Fe airport] is finally meeting its regulatory requirements," writes Jesse Sanchez, the TSA's federal security director for the state.
Sanchez explains that when his agency elevated the airport to a Category III facility, allowing it to handle the regional jets that fly there now, it did so with the understanding that it might take a while for the city to get all of the specific requirements in order. That hasn't happened. All that's required for Santa Fe to meet that standard, though, is a change to city code.
"It is our understanding that these changes to the city code should have been made years ago," writes Sanchez, who adds that the necessary wording "was never submitted by previous airport directors."
Then comes the hammer.
"An airport operator found to be in violation of these regulations may be subject to a civil penalty of up to $13,066 a day/violation and possible revocation of your operational certificate as a Category III airport," Sanchez concludes.
The TSA did not return a request from SFR for comment.
“I knew it had languished,” Harris says of the city’s update to the security program. He’s a little surprised the agency was so blunt, but says he requested the letter from TSA to get an update and doesn’t have an issue with the language. “That ’s okay to put it in there. It’s probably a statement of fact, but in fact, we are getting these things done and we are going to get [city ordinance] put into place and we’re in the process of repairing our relations not only with the TSA but with the FAA.”
Harris initially included language in his proposed bill from Schiavo based on Denver's airport ordinance that would require permits and licenses for anyone operating commercially out of Santa Fe's facility. Some vendors and airport users bristled at that, Harris says, and he planned to meet with the city attorney and staff Friday to consider changes to his bill that would run such requirements through the Airport Advisory Board and the City Council's committee structure before ultimately getting a vote from the governing body.
There's also work to be done in reconstituting the advisory board. Harris expects to be appointed as the council representative to the board—in accordance with a recent change he urged—and there are four more positions that need to be filled. The board hasn't met since February.
