The Mayor is mistaken; Renton Airport Advisory Committee is not just advisory to council

A RAAC meeting was held in 2023, after a one and a half year period of no meetings

In a statement yesterday, Mayor Pavone dismissed one of the most important tools we’ve used to maintain a livable city; The Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC).

I’ve written about this committee frequently, providing background here.  In this entry I want to address a comment that shows his fundamental misunderstanding of the role and effectiveness of this committee

The Mayor diminished the effect they’ve had in the past by writing  “RAAC has a limited scope as an advisory committee, and can make suggestions, but are not in charge of setting policy or changing lease agreements. “

The Mayor’s comment is wrong, just as it would be wrong to claim that the Chamber of Commerce is merely advisory to the City Council.  The RAAC is made up of pilots, aviation professionals, and residents, who have authority in their planes and neighborhoods that the Renton City Council does not possess.

To put it succinctly, as soon as a plane is airborne, city council has no more influence over them.  Residents can have some influence, lodging FAA complaints if they feel unduly impacted and they track airplane tail numbers.   This is where RAAC shines.  Pilots, aviation professionals and other airport users work with neighborhood representatives to establish voluntary standards that keep complaints to a minimum.  The FAA has a representative on RAAC that participates, and so does city council. This work is not subordinate to Renton City Council.

When RAAC is working smoothly, it’s an excellent forum for creating operational documents, voluntary noise standards, airport layout plans, lease policies, fuel policies, and other important work.  With such an organization at our disposal, staffed with aviation experts freely giving their time and talent, it’s a terrible waste to not activate them.  There is strong precedent for them setting lease rates and providing other leasing decisions.

Unfortunately, because the Administration appears to think “they have limited scope as an advisory committee,” the RAAC has been effectively grounded most of the past few years.  This has allowed relationships to get more tense at the airport, and noise levels to increase in our neighborhoods.  Soon jets that are three-times noisier than prop planes will start landing regularly for fill-ups, and we will have missed our chance to engage RAAC to mitigate the issues.

All of this because the administration does not understand the RAAC’s capability or role.

These Airport Regulations and Minimum Standards (click here) are an example of a typical RAAC contribution to our airport that City Council would not be able to produce.

“From: Carolyn Currie <CCurrie@rentonwa.gov>
Date: Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 11:59 AM
Subject: Airport Regulations and Minimum Standards – UPDATE
To: Jonathan R Wilson <JRWilson@rentonwa.gov>
Cc: Jennifer Jorgenson <Jjorgenson@rentonwa.gov>, Julia Medzegian <Jmedzegian@rentonwa.gov>

Dear RAAC Members,

Last night the Transportation Committee approved our Airport Regulations and Minimum Standards.

Congratulations on your hard work, and thank you to our Transportation Committee Council members for their support!

I have attached the final copy of Airport Regulations and Minimum Standards for your records.

The next step is to have the full Council approval. The next Council meeting is this Monday, August 16.

Please contact me if you have any questions, and thank you again for helping out on this important project.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Wilson

Assistant Airport Manager”

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Here is a typical meeting agenda and minutes package I’ve randomly pulled from September 2013, back when our Airport Manager used to employ our RAAC to the fullest.  This was around the time our Airport Sustainability Management Plan was produced.