Some Tri-Cities Airport Authority state appointees remain unknown

BLOUNTVILLE — Tennessee has five down, two to go. And this is about airports, not football. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally has appointed the immediate past Tri-Cities Airport Authority Chairman, J. Parker Smith of Kingsport, and a new Johnson City member, City Commissioner Whitney Goetz, to the 12-member body. That is according to Adam Kleinheider of McNally's office in an email Monday evening. In addition, Elizabeth Johnson, spokeswoman for Gov. Bill Lee, later Monday evening said Lee appointed Washington County Mayor Joe Grandy, Jonesborough Mayor Kelly Wolfe, both to represent Washington County, and Washington County Commissioner David Tomita, a former city commissioner, to represent Johnson City. All that remains are the to appointments of Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton. Efforts to reach his office Monday were unsuccessful. APPOINTMENTS Smith, Goetz, Grandy, Wolfe and Tomita are the first five of seven state appointees to join five local appointees on the new board after the old one was dissolved, with only Smith a member of the old board. A new state law effective July 1 dissolved the old board and requires three state officials make appointments of a majority of members to airport boards of the five commercial airline airports in the Volunteer State: Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tri-Cities and Memphis. The Nashville and Chattanooga airport authorities and those two cities have filed lawsuits in federal and state courts challenging the law. Those suits seek injunctions on the new appointments until the matters can be heard in court. Meanwhile, airport President and CEO Gene Cossey last week said he'd only received notifications of some state appointments, adding that he was waiting to release all the appointees at once and as of late last week hadn't heard from all the appointers. However, the airport board's next regular meeting is not scheduled until August. Asked again via email Monday, Cossey said he still had no complete list. District 1 state Rep. John Crawford, R-Kingsport, last week said state lawmakers from the Tri-Cities had earlier talked with state officials making the appointments. Airport Authority member and Sullivan County Commissioner Zane Vanover of Kingsport, unopposed in the Aug. 6 general election for county mayor, had said he believes the state appointments will closely mirror the existing commission membership. Under the new law, Cossey and Crawford said the airport governing body would stay at 12 members, seven appointed by state officials and five from localities. The current or former board has all 12 appointed by local governments that jointly own the airport. General Assembly members argued they wanted more control over airports because of state funding, although the federal lawsuits challenge the authority of the state to forcibly replace an existing board. A 2023 effort to make state appointments only to the Nashville airport but not the others was thrown out in court, coming after city leaders expressed little interest in hosting the 2024 Republican National Convention, after which the congressional district including Nashville was changed to split the consolidated government of Nashville/Davidson County. Nashville's Home Rule provision prohibited singling that airport out, the court ruled, so now all five boards are to have a state-appointed majority. An injunction to halt the state appointments would have avoided when happened in Nashville in 2023, when the state-appointed board was in place until the state lost to the Nashville lawsuit. OLD BOARD Tri-Cities authority members through June 30 included Chairman Smith representing Kingsport, Vice Chairman Mark Ireson representing Sullivan County, Kingsport City Manager Chris McCartt representing Kingsport and Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Lewis Wexler representing Washington County. Ireson, a retired air traffic controller, Monday said he had no idea about the appointments affecting him or the rest of the board. Other members are Johnson City City Manager Cathy Ball representing that city, Jeff Bedard representing Johnson City, Todd Hensley representing Washington County, Kenneth Huffine representing Washington County, John Hunter representing Washington County, Bristol, Virginia City Manager Tamrya Spradlin representing, that city, Councilman Vance Turner representing Bristol, Tennessee and Vanover of Sullivan County. Spradlin is the only Virginian on the authority. She could not be reached for comment Monday. Gov. Lee has appointed two members for Washington County, Tennessee, Grandy and Wolfe, and one for Johnson City, Tomita. Speaker of the House Sexton is to appoint one for Bristol, Virginia and one for Sullivan County, while Lt. Gov. McNally has appointed one from Kingsport, Parker, and one from Johnson City, Goetz. On the local side of appointments, Washington County, Tennessee, Sullivan County, Bristol, Tennessee, Kingsport and Johnson City each are to have one local appointment, Cossey said.