Note: this message is current as of 4:00 PM Monday June 26, 2017.
We are encouraging all of our members to attend the Board of Supervisors meeting tomorrow Tuesday June 27th at 9:00 AM at 400 County Center in Redwood City because they will vote on an agenda item (#4) to approve a contract for up to $313,695 with Vector Airport Systems for an aircraft monitoring system (AMS) at San Carlos Airport.
The AMS includes surveillance cameras between the runway and taxiways (they are currently not operational, pending approval of this contract) that will track aircraft movements and could levy landing fees. (The County has declined to do that so far.) We are very concerned that the data produced by these cameras will be shared indiscriminately and used as part of an automated landing fee assessment plan or retained for years and used for unspecified purposes.
We believe that the most sinister use of these cameras will be to enforce an illegal proposed ordinance, including a mandatory curfew on airport operations. While we have successfully slowed discussion (for good we hope) of this proposal, it is still being held over our heads. We were promised a collaboration on a privacy policy BEFORE the AMS was put into operation, which we insisted would include prohibitions on using the cameras for any curfew enforcement. That collaborative meeting never happened. Instead, we received a completely unacceptable draft last week.
The Board of Directors of the San Carlos Airport Association is opposed to the provisions of agenda item #4. This is a colossal waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere and does nothing to address the Surf Air issue.
We also oppose (for now) the hiring of an additional employee (at $150,000 per year) to sift complaint data, flight track data and to “meet†incoming aircraft to encourage noise abatement compliance (if that was where that was likely to stop we might not be opposed). The supporting documents will take some time to digest and for us to comment intelligently.
We are asking all of our members to attend the Board of Supervisors meeting tomorrow Tuesday June 27th at 9:00 AM at 400 County Center in Redwood City. Please make your presence known to Carol Ford who will be near the entrance as you arrive. We will speak in opposition to portions of item #4.
Your presence is essential to show the Board of Supervisors that we are opposed wasting money on gadgety nonsense that does nothing to address the real problem, which is Surf Air. This is an issue which we largely resolved last month when we brokered an agreement and obtained FAA approval for Surf Air to fly the Bayside Visual Approach as a VFR route until the IFR route is published in 2018.
Please attend if you can. Sorry for the short notice, we just found out this will be on the agenda.
If you can’t attend, please email the Supervisors at these addresses:
Dave Pine [email protected]
Carole Groom [email protected]
Don Horsley [email protected]
Warren Slocum [email protected]
David J. Canepa [email protected]
Thank you for your continued support of the San Carlos Airport Association. If you haven’t renewed your membership for 2017, please do so at our membership signup form. We need you now more than ever.
Sincerely,
Carol Ford, President
