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This morning Mr. Anderson met the Airport manager at the Renton Municipal Airport office, shown here. The Airport manager keeps the office locked, and insists on appointments to meet with tenants. Tom had an appointment this morning.
Update 4/16/2024: A few hours after I posted this blog entry, Mr. Anderson was notified his employees’ credentials would be reinstated. Their passes worked this morning.
I received a phone call from Tom Anderson, President of Landing Gear Works, explaining that his employees have been locked out of accessing his east and west hangars. Their electronic credentials will no longer give them access.
Mr. Anderson has been working all day to get the credentials restored. According to Mr. Anderson, the Airport manager gave Mr. Anderson the brush-off this morning, saying the manager needed to talk to the city attorney and would get back to him in a couple of hours. Then he dodged Mr. Anderson’s calls until mid-afternoon. At that point he said the credentials would not be forthcoming.
Even terrible landlords know that you don’t lock out a tenant before the judge hears an eviction case. And the actual legal process has not even begun for Landing Gear Works. Typically a series of notices must be served, including an unlawful detainer that spells out the City’s claim fully. A court date will be set, cases will be prepared, depositions might be taken, and in some future date a judge will decide the case (there is a long wait for Court right now). Only if the landlord prevails will they then confer with the Sheriff’s office, who would then issue their own notice that the tenant must move or be removed.
This West airport gate provides essential access to one of the Landing Gear Works hangers. It is opened by electronic credentials that were taken away from Mr. Anderson’s employees.
Such an outcome is far from certain in this case, and months away. Even the worst Landlords throughout our region know this is a long process and that it is illegal to lock out a tenant before the judge has made a ruling. There are penalties for locking out a tenant before the process has run its course, and it hurts a Landlord’s credibility in court. Illegally locking out aviation employees who have STC and PMA continuing airworthiness duties likely breaches Federal rules as well. Mr. Anderson will not let this happen. He is using his own Renton Airport gate access pass to escort his employees in the gate to fulfill their customer and FAA obligations. He says the extra work will become burdensome quickly.
In all my memory, I’ve never seen this done to an airport tenant, even during rent disputes. The City Attorney bills are piling up, and Renton homeowners will of course be expected to pick up the tab with tax increases. Renton is going into uncharted waters, and risking an enormous amount to get out of fixing a roof.
The Landing Gear Works westside hangar is no longer accessible to his employees without Mr. Anderson escorting them
Uh oh, Mr. Mayor big mad! He hates negative publicity and this weekend was nothing but truth about just how untrue his “Mayor’s Statement on the Airport” was. Typical, he strikes out at the little guy, the employees trying to do their job to support their families. I wonder how long before the FAA steps in? This kind of unlawful action hasn’t happened before at the Renton Airport.
We supposed to follow the law, especially when we’re the government. Unless the tennents are burning the place down, the city needs to deal with them the same way we all would have to deal in a civil suit.
https://www.rentonwa.gov/city_hall/municipal_court/records_request
It would be interesting to request a record for all words “Landing Gear Works.” I heard through the grapevine that one of the dumber Renton City Council members is in hot water for not disclosing public documents they deleted.
I can sort of guess what would have happened if there was no publicity about this..