Employee who falsified airport records demoted
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

The city worker who reportedly signed documents stating airport fuel tanks had been inspected, but who didn't actually do the inspections, has been demoted and placed on probation, City Manager Michael Kovacs said.

At the same time, the city is looking for someone to manage the airport, at least until a partnership agreement is reached with a private company to form an airport fixed based operating agency here.

James Martin, formerly street supervisor, has been reassigned as an equipment operator with a corresponding reduction in pay, Kovacs said. He said Martin is also on six months' probation.

City council members learned on Feb. 21 that contaminated fuel in the Mustang Beach Airport's refueling tanks was because the sumps in the tanks hadn't been checked since the employee responsible for checking them resigned in 2003. The sumps are compartments in the tanks designed to collect contamination or foreign material.

Documents showing that the sumps had been checked were falsified, Kovacs told the council; he said Martin was the city employee currently charged with inspecting them.

Because fuel is drawn from the tops of the tanks and the contamination was in the bottom, no aircraft had been refueled with the bad gaso- line, said city Executive Assistant Pat Garrett.

Since the discovery of the contamination during a regular inspection earlier this year, an "out of order" sign has been placed on the pumps. Kovacs estimated at the Feb. 21 council meeting that about $10,000 worth of bad fuel remained in the tanks. The city was looking for a way to use that fuel, but has come up with nothing so far.

Council members told Kovacs at that meeting to tighten up the management at Mustang Beach Airport and to institute a system of doublechecks to make sure maintenance was being done correctly.

Kovacs said the city is "months away" from finding a company to operate the airport, at least partially because the land designated for commercial use belongs to the Texas General Land Office (GLO). The GLO has historically not been interested in leasing land to commercial operations, but Kovacs has said officials are prepared to do that in the case of Mustang Beach Airport.

City Councilman Keith Donley, a pilot and aircraft owner and former chairman of the city's Airport Advisory Board, put the matter on the Feb. 21 agenda after he learned that the fuel was contaminated.

"When you go to a hotel, you go into the bathroom and there's a checklist of who's responsible for changing the paper and towels. I have confidence this won't happen again, but we need a system to operate the airport," Donley said at the time.