The Purpose of this Presentation The authors of this presentation believe that it tells a story of what can happen to a community - yours or someone else's - when the wrong people become too powerful. Or, looking at it another way, when the majority of us are too busy to pay attention or too easily swayed by unfounded or ill-founded rumors.
The Public Records Act
The Public Records Act is for the County like the Freedom of Information Act is for the federal government. This Act allows anyone to request information from the County. The County is supposed to respond within a period of 10 days. However, there may be a longer period before the information is fully retrieved due to the amount of work involved in reading and hiding certain parts of each document by blacking them out.
The Friends of the Airport
This is a group of people devoted to the Georgetown Airport. Although it consists of volunteers who want the Georgetown Airport to be a success, other issues are important to the success of the airport. The Friends are convinced that the success and well-being of Steve and Trish Cimmarusti are vital to the health of the airport.
These Documents
The documents summarized in these pages were requested from and furnished by the County of El Dorado, examined by the Friends, and placed here after much time and effort was expended. The originals may be viewed by contacting Pat Leeds, President, Friends of the Georgetown Airport, P O Box 1741, Georgetown, CA 95634.
The Quick Way to Understand the Issues
There is very quick way to become aware of what originally caused all the trouble. It is all in Section 10 which is composed of the exact words found in one long document. Once you have read Section 10, you may go through the entire list of events via summaries of public documents to see the details of the story they represent. The exact words of the document are used in places and are so marked. Photocopies of the most important documents are accessible by clicking on their pages. At this time, it is necessary to use "back" on the program bar to come back to the placed where you clicked on "page" or "document". There are no direct links from one page to the next. These documents will be identified by three stars (***) in front of the date of each.
Usually, descriptions of the documents are used in lieu of the documents to assist the reader in covering more ground quickly - by showing only the main ideas expressed in the documents and by creating a faster response from his or her computer. Therefore, the words in the descriptions are are not the exact ones used in the documents unless so stated.
The editorialized comments may be opinions and should not be accepted as facts. They will be in italics in some cases. In cases of descriptions of meetings or events in which no documents are available, there will likely be some opinions as well. These will not be in italics, but since no document is used, it should be obvious that the words and interpretations are our own.
Our purpose is to educate the reader by showing him/her what happened.
FBO (Fixed Base Operator) - This is someone who has a business at an airport, and there can be several FBOs at one airport.
Fuel Flowage - Fuel is measured by its flow when it is pumped into an aircraft or automobile. It is paid for by the gallons that flow, so the pilot pays for fuel flowage. When an FBO is pumping the fuel for County owned tanks, he is usually given a percentage of the dollars paid for the fuel. He then must pay the balance to the County as a "fuel flowage fee" which has been shortened to "fuel flowage" in some of the documents. Of course, there must be a valid agreement or contract for fuel flowage fees to be paid.
Hangar - This is a garage for an airplane that can be used for other purposes.
Minimum Standards for Commercial Aeronautical Activities or just "Minimum Standards" - This is a document defining the standards for FBOs. It was created with much effort from standards for other counties, current demands of general aviation, FAA requirements, other pertinent data, and good judgement. It is not changed easily nor should it be.
Tie-down - Aircraft when on the ground are tied down (secured) to prevent them from being removed from their parking place by a strong wind. The places where they are parked have been called tie-down places or tie-downs and pilots must pay rent for them when their planes are at the airport. This like paying for parking in a parking lot.
There are many people who wrote, received, signed, or are mentioned in these documents. Most of them are of lesser importance to the issues involved. Those who are important and their titles or roles are listed below. Because the events take place over a period of time, some of the titles changed and some of the people with same title were in that position at different times.
Using the List
You may click on the name of the person to find a place where his or her name appears in the documents. Having arrived at this point, you have the option of going to another place where his or her name appears or going back. Going forward to new places may continue until you arrive back at this list. You may click on "List" and come back here at any time.
List of Key People
Craven Alcott - Parks and Recreation Manager - Airports, Parks, and Grounds Manager - Director of General Services
Janet Atwood - Airports Operations Manager
Helen Baumann - District 2 County Supervisor
Carl Borelli - District 3 County Supervisor
Mark Chase - Supervisor Penny Humphreys appointee as District 4 Airport Commissioner
Steve and Trish Cimmarusti - FBO, Skyways Flying Service and Blacksheep Classic Airplane Company (Georgetown Airport)
George Cuttrell - Director of General Services (County)
Matt Donahue - Attorney hired by the County
Louis Green - County Counsel
Scott Herring - FBO of Airfilm (Georgetown Airport)
Penny Humphreys - District 4 County Supervisor
Gary Hyden - Airports, Parks, and Grounds Manager (County)
Sherril Jodar - Risk Program Manager (County)
George Martin - Director of General Services (County)
James McKeehan - FBO, Daedalus Aircraft (Georgetown Airport) - Campaign Manager for County Supervisor Walt Shultz - District 4 Planning Commissioner (County)
David Nicolls - Acting Airport Operations Manager - Airport Operations Manager
Charlie Paine - District 4 County Supervisor
Thomas Parker - Deputy County Counsel
Freda Pechner - Attorney for the Cimmarustis
William Pieper - FBO (Georgetown Airport) - Supervisor Walt Shultz' appointee as District 4 Airport Commissioner
Oliver Reighn - Manager, Communications and Transportation (County)
Walt Shultz - District 4 County Supervisor
David Solaro - District 5 County Supervisor - Chairman of County Board of Supervisors
Michael Stoltz - Director of Transportation (County)
Josef Treiber - FBO (Georgetown Airport)