Cindy Gordon: Stop delays on airport landing fees decision (guest opinion)

Getting your For more than a year, Longmont residents have been asking a fairly simple question about Vance Brand Municipal Airport: Why shouldn't the people who use the airport help pay the cost of operating it? Landing fees are hardly a radical idea. Over 400 airports around the country use them to create long-term airport sustainability. Yet every time Longmont gets close to seriously addressing landing fees, something seems to happen. Most recently, the city commissioned a $40,000 rates-and-fees study. One of the central purposes of that study was to examine how Vance Brand might become more financially self-sufficient and reduce its dependence on taxpayers and outside grants. (Much of this information had already been delivered by the assistant city manager at a City Council meeting in October 2025.) The process hit another snag when expense figures used for the rates and charges analysis turned out to be incorrect. The study had to be revisited, delaying the discussion and delaying action on landing fees yet again. This comes after much delay in getting accurate information about landing fees to council in 2025, as the former mayor noted in her introduction ahead of the landing fee vote last November. It is more troubling given the long-running resistance to landing fees from a relatively small but highly organized portion of the aviation community. The former Airport Advisory Board played an important role in that history. Some of its members repeatedly opposed measures aimed at making airport users bear more of the airport's costs. The board was eventually dissolved after years of controversy and increasing concern from City Council about whether it was adequately representing the broader interests of Longmont. A former AAB member, Daniel Meester, has filed an ethics complaint against Mayor Pro Tem Sean McCoy, one of the council members who has been outspoken about airport impacts. As a result of the complaint, Meester has requested that McCoy be recused from future airport decisions. Not only was Meester on the AAB, he is the 'Registered Agent' for General Hangars Corp., which owns Hangar H-16 at the airport. An independent hearing officer did find that McCoy committed a limited violation of the city ethics code in his communications with city staff regarding aircraft activity near his neighborhood. But the rest of the ruling is equally important. The hearing officer found no independent City Charter or open-meetings violation. Most significantly for what comes next, the hearing officer specifically rejected a blanket recusal of McCoy from airport matters. Those findings matter because McCoy has been one of the council members willing to press hard questions about Vance Brand: Who benefits from the airport? Who bears its costs? How much should taxpayers subsidize it? And should high-frequency users contribute more toward its operation? The Times-Call reported that aircraft activity at Vance Brand increased from approximately 126,600 operations in 2024 to roughly 137,450 in 2025, an increase of about 8.6%. Nearly three-quarters the way through 2026, and we're already approaching last year's number. That's a lot of lost income for the city. It is the responsibility of the city of Longmont to ensure that the airport operates in a financially sustainable manner. That is what seems to keep getting lost. The airport belongs to, and is the responsibility of, the city. Its policies should reflect the interests of the entire community, not simply the people who fly airplanes into and out of it or use it for their hobbies or businesses. Landing fees deserve an up-or-down decision based on their merits. If the council believes they are bad policy, it should vote them down and explain why. If council believes airport users should contribute more toward the cost of operating Vance Brand, it should implement them. What should not happen is another round of procedural delay, questionable data, political maneuvering and endless reconsideration. At some point, delay stops looking like a process and starts looking like obstruction. Cindy Gordon is a Longmont resident.