ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A saga is unfolding at the airport in St. Augustine.
The man who has run the airport for 27 years was ousted last week.
Over the last 10-15 years, locals rejoiced when small commercial airlines decided to fly in and out, but none of the airlines stayed for very long.
The Northeast Florida Regional Airport also services private planes and charter flights.
Here’s where politics makes a landing.
This past fall, voters elected three new members to the St. Johns County Airport Authority Board. It’s the group that makes decisions for the Northeast Florida Regional Airport.
Many of the candidates ran on a platform of change.
At their first meetings, the board discussed hiring a new executive director
Ed Wuellner has been in that seat since 1996.
Last month, all five board members voted to put Wuellner on administrative leave with pay, effective immediately.
New board members Dennis Clarke and Jennifer Liotta told First Coast news among other concerns, they were frustrated with the late delivery of information about a contract to bring a new commercial flight to the airport. They say Wuellner didn’t give them the contract until days before they had to make a decision with the airline.
And Clarke said he was not entirely happy with the contract itself.
Wuellner told First Coast News the vote was "to get me out of the way."
Out of the way for what?
He said the new board is "driven by people in the private sector" who have their own agendas: "agendas that have nothing to do with the public interest." As for the contract, Wuellner said he gave it to the board’s new attorney a couple weeks before the deadline.
Wuellner told First Coast News, "I’d love to talk to you about it,” but explained he is still technically an airport employee.
Clarke and Liotta said the board has selected a preferred candidate to replace Wuellner and are working on an offer letter. The candidate, they said, is Jerry Brienza.
Meanwhile, the airline that was considering St. Augustine, just announced this week that its new Florida city will be Orlando… not St. Augustine.
