Western Petroleum suing Direct Aviation

On the 18th of January 2011 Western Petroleum filed a law suit against Mr Venuti and Direct Aviation Inc for unpaid aviation fuel bills at the old airport.

$600,000.00     (Six hundred thousand dollars)

I will have the documents next week on Monday when the court house is open.

Tough on issues, principle and process. Soft on the people

There is no question in my mind that city employees are good hard working people with very good intentions. Some of us even share common interests beyond the airport, such as rugby.

I am very interested in building long term relationships,  finding creative solutions and a mutual effort to make the new airport as successful as it can be.

I want to be absolutely clear on this point because a difference in opinions on process, policy and application is often misinterpreted as a personal attack. This quickly undermines any effort to build a framework of trust .

“He is disagreeing with me therefore he is attacking me personally”.

Let’s change the dynamic of the conversation by agreeing to be tough on the issues and principles and soft on the people, so we can all be friends at the end of the day.  Separate the people from the problems.

If I have offended anyone by my my tough stance on these issues, I apologize.

I am simply asking for a respectful back and forth dialog. If you feel that I am asking inappropriate questions or that the information is confidential PLEASE tell me and why. Feel free to ask me some tough questions.

You might be surprised what we can collectively accomplish by simply agreeing to to some basic ground rules for communication that can evolve into a rich and productive collaborative process.

Why am I putting the various leases and bankruptcy documents on the blog?

A fair question from a reader.

All of the information that has been posted is in the public domain. The bankruptcy documents came from the Utah 5th District court and the leases etc came through Grama Requests or the freedom of information Act process.

Public bodies have struggled trying to decide what information should be released and where to put it all so it is easily accessible.

My feeling is that any information that is available to a public employee should be easily available to any interested party in the public without a Grama Request. It’s our government.

Technology provides us with the tools to manage large sets of data and make them accessible on the internet. This creates transparency and increased accountability. In effect a 24 hour a day virtual city council meeting for ongoing public dialog about things that matter. It has never been tried before. Why don’t we try and see what we can learn.

Mr Venuti and Mr Johnson

Please fell free to join the conversation. This would be very helpful.

Reply: to City about building goodwill

Goodwill begins with honest, forthright, reciprocal, transparent and timely communication. I tried for 4 months to deal with all of these issues in PRIVATE without success.

We did have a success with the help of the City Council. We worked together to lower the rent increases for all airport tenants from 1500% down to 500%.

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Asking legitimate, fair and researched questions then being ignored or provided with a split hair response is not fostering goodwill.

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Your response “The city currently has no rfp coming out for a gas station pad at the airport.” is not forthcoming and does not foster goodwill. Particularly since, I  later learned that the city had indeed leased ground to a business that is building a gas station. You  just did not want me to know that at that point in time. These are the semantic  games that undermine goodwill.

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My repeated requests for private off the record meetings. IGNORED.

My request for a press conference to discuss these matters face to face, REFUSED.

Turning a blind eye towards a business with no business license and a history of providing misinformation does not foster goodwill.

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Anytime that you would like to meet face to face and begin discovering goodwill and transparency, call me.

No AT&T cell service at new airport

Another tip from a reader. There is very poor to no AT&T cell phone service at the new airport.  Not good for PR.

According to Wikipedia 92 million customers will not be able to use their cell phones, iphones or ipads at the new airport. The city might consider free local calls from several land lines until a new tower is built.

Is there any of the $160 million left to improve cell phone service for At&T customers?

Hopefully the 60 million Sprint and 96 millionVerizon customers are in better luck. Let me know how your cell phone is working.

To: City Attorney Mr Cuzman

I was informed by the City that there is no business license on record for Direct Aviation Inc for 2010 and 2009.

I know of businesses that have been shut down by the city for not paying their annual business license fee.

Once again, why is their a different or double standard standard for Mr Venuti and his partner Mr Jeremy Johnson?

The new company Direct Jet Center did get a license that was issued on Jan 19 2011.

Protect yourself from fraud

Recognize phone fraud: tips from FTC

Airport Gas Station awarded to?

Yesterday I finally received a copy of a RFP for a gas station at the new airport. That is a gas station for cars not planes.

I have been asking for this for several months so that we could forward to Maverick to submit a proposal.

Now it is too late because the contract was awarded 4 weeks ago.

There was only one proposal submitted. More details will be coming as I receive them.

Summary as per the 48 hr rule

After more than 48 hours and no response to inquiries for more information, confirmation or clarification we can conclude that the following isuues are correct and factual as stated.

• Direct Aviation the old FBO company at the old airport has been conducting business without a business license for several years.
• Direct Jet Center the new FBO company at the new airport does not have a current St George business license.
• Direct Jet Center has not paid $153,000.00 in annual rent, due on January 1st 2011,  as required by their lease.
• The City was aware of the creation of the new FBO entity and the conversion to a Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy just days before signing a 40 year $million lease on November 11th 2110.
• After 2 years the city allowed the applicant to change the name of the entity that submitted the proposal to a new company before the new lease was signed, without any public notification, hearings or due process.
• The City entered into the new lease fully aware and informed of the financial troubles of Mr Venuti and both of his partners, Prestige Air and Jeremy Johnson.
• The City has full faith and confidence that Mr Venuti can pay 1200% more in rent in 2011 than he paid in 2010.