Former Hillsdale Municipal Airport Manager James Scheibner said he was surprised when City Manager David Mackie decided last month not to renew his contract.
On Sept. 29, 2015, Scheibner received a letter from Mackie saying that the city would not renew its contract with Scheibner and his business, Hillsdale Aero.
The letter blindsided him, Scheibner said.
“I didn’t get the memo,” he said. “I had no idea.”
The letter didn’t contain any reason for not renewing his contract, which expired in the spring of 2014, but Scheibner said that because Michigan is an at-will employer, it has no legal obligation to explain why he was fired.
“That’s what my legal counsel told me. They can hire and fire if they want,” Scheibner said.
Mackie told the Collegian he couldn’t detail all the reasons for not renewing Scheibner’s contract, but some of his concerns included the safety of the airport and Scheibner’s ability to enact Mackie’s vision for the airport.
“I want it to be more professional as opposed to a local place for a local pilot group,” Mackie said. “The airport does more business than people would recognize.”
Mackie said Scheibner and his business have been there a long time, and it became apparent to him that to move forward in this vision of having a more professional airport, he needed different management at the airport.
“He’s not a fit for the new direction,” Mackie said. “And based on what I’ve seen unfold, I’m confident I made the right decision.”
Since Scheibner’s termination, the airport employees and pilots have emptied the terminal, painted buildings, put in new cabinetry, furniture and equipment.
“We worked on the fuel systems that had been neglected for many years and weren’t certified.
Scheibner admitted that he hadn’t changed the fuel filters in while, but that was because the fuel flow wasn’t high enough to warrant it.
Mackie also said the fire extinguishers were expired.
“From what we’ve uncovered, people weren’t at risk but are much safer today,” Mackie said.
Scheibner said he knew the fire extinguishers were expired, but it was an issue with their supplier.
He added that over the last few years, the mandate he’s heard from the city is to tighten the budget and not spend much money.
“I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, and the building they are now fixing up was slated to be torn down,” Scheibner said. “I thought we were on the same page with the vision. For 20 years everything is fine — I don’t know why didn’t I get the memo.”
In retrospect, Scheibner said he should have fought harder for city money to make improvements at the airport, but that came with political consequences as well.
“It’s kind of tough. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” Scheibner said. “I’ve worked through four or five city managers and none of them seemed to have a problem. If the city wanted me to spend money and turn it into a nice shiny palace, I wish I would have been given the chance. I’ve never had any formal review of performance.”
Mackie said his decision to terminate Scheibner was made possible by the help and support of the Airport Advisory Committee.
“They’ve helped with this process and provided me some back up,” Mackie said. “The last three city managers had concerns but could not move forward because they had no group to rely on to support them.”
Jeff Buchhop resigned from the Airport Advisory Committee in the spring, and expressed similar concerns to those of Mackie in his letter of resignation that the Collegian obtained.
“James Scheibner was very negative about any suggestions for airport improvement,” Buchhop wrote. “After a while I came to realize he was not interested in spending money on maintenance items which were his responsibilities under the airport manager’s contract.”
He recommended the council visit the airport and put out bids to find someone to take Scheibner’s place.
“It became apparent to me that we were unlikely to make any real progress in promoting the airport or the local economy through the airport with the managers we have in place,” Buchhop wrote.
Mackie said he met with Scheibner a couple times before making the decision, but Scheibner said that based on their conversations, he had no forewarning of Mackie’s decision not to renew his contract.
“The AAC members are in the middle of it. It’s like a bad divorce and all your friends are still friends with both sides,” Scheibner said.
Scheibner will take the portions of his business he can utilize without the airport and continue them.
“I don’t necessarily need an airport to do it, but it worked better that way,” Scheibner said.
For now, Mackie is working on naming an interim manager and ironing out logistics. Mackie said that in the next couple months people will see changes that they can be proud of at the airport.
