Present law requires metropolitan airport authorities to be governed by a board of commissioners, consisting of the county mayor and 10 commissioners appointed by the executive officer of the creating municipality and approved by its governing body. Of the 10 commissioners, at least seven must be residents of the county having a metropolitan form of government. The appointed commission members serve seven-year terms.
This bill vacates and reconstitutes the board of commissioners for the Davidson County airport authority. The commission continues to consist of 11 members, as follows:
(1) Four persons appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives;
(2) Four persons appointed by the speaker of the senate;
(3) Two persons to be appointed by the governor; and
(4) The mayor of the metropolitan government or the mayor's designee.
This bill requires that all persons appointed to the board must be residents of the county having the metropolitan form of government. The terms of initial appointees to the reconstituted commission will be staggered and all subsequent terms will be for four years.
This bill authorizes removal of a commissioner by a commissioner's appointing authority with or without cause.
This bill requires the authority to submit quarterly reports or briefings of the activities, plans, and conditions of the authority, and any proposals for capital expansion or improvements to members of the legislative body of the creating municipality, the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the speaker of the senate 90 days prior to the expansion or improvements;
Present law requires the president of the board to prepare annually the operating budget of the authority and submit the budget to the board for approval at least 60 days prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. This bill adds a requirement that the president submit the annual operating budget to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the speaker of the senate for review.
ON MARCH 30, 2023, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENTS #2 AND #3 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 1326, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #2 makes the following changes to this bill:
(1) Vacates and reconstitutes the board of commissioners for the Davidson County airport authority ("board") to consist of 8 members, instead of 11, with two persons appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives; two persons appointed by the speaker of the senate; two persons to be appointed by the governor; and two persons appointed by the mayor of the county having the metropolitan form of government;
(2) Requires persons appointed to the board to be residents of the county, or counties contiguous to the county, having the metropolitan form of government;
(3) Requires, in making the appointments to the board, the appointing authorities to ensure that each commissioner is generally a person of excellent character and reputation and a person in good standing and reputation in one of the following fields: (A) engineering, with a license to practice in the state and an active practice in such profession for the preceding five years; (B) law, with a license to practice before the highest court in this state for a period of not less than five years; (C) industry or commerce; and (D) finance;
(4) Declares the following to be public and governmental functions, exercised for a public purpose, and matters of public necessity:
(A) The acquisition of any land, or interest in land, pursuant to present law provisions governing metropolitan airport authorities; and
(B) The planning, acquisition, establishment, development, construction, improvement, maintenance, equipment, operation, regulation, and protection of airports, air navigation facilities, and avigation easements, including the acquisition or elimination of airport hazards and the exercise of any other powers granted to authorities pursuant to present law provisions governing metropolitan airport authorities;
(5) Adds to a provision of present law, which requires the president of the board to appoint certain officers, that for the board of commissioners of the authority in Davidson County, the president is required to appoint, and the board to confirm, an independent financial auditing firm and the following additional officers: secretary, chief financial officer, general counsel, and chief operating officer;
(6) Revises present law to grant the metropolitan airport authority in Davidson County to:
(A) Acquire real or personal property, or an interest therein, by eminent domain proceedings;
(B) Regulate aircraft hazards, compatible land use, or other factors impacting the safe and efficient operation of the airport by submitting a map to the county or to an applicable contiguous county that requires the review and approval, conditional approval, or denial of building permits within the designated boundaries; and
(C) Construct, authorize, widen, narrow, relocate, vacate, change in the use, accept, acquire, sell, or lease any street or other public way, ground, place or space, or public utility whether publicly or privately owned, or any portion thereof; as long as the authority owns all of the real property abutting the street or other public way, ground, place or space, or public utility, or owns all of the real property abutting the portions thereof that are to be constructed, authorized, widened, narrowed, relocated, vacated, changed in use, accepted, acquired, sold, or leased;
(7) Adds to present law provisions governing metropolitan airport authorities relative to eminent domain, that:
(A) For the purposes of making surveys and examinations relative to eminent domain proceeding, it is lawful for the metropolitan airport authority in Davidson County to enter upon the land, doing no unnecessary damage;
(B) An authority may take possession of any property to be acquired by eminent domain proceedings at any time after the commencement of the proceedings; and
(C) The authority must not be precluded from abandoning the proceedings in a case where possession of the property has not been taken, even after a trial jury in circuit court has rendered a verdict as to damages for the property taken and at any time prior to the entry of a final decree disposing of the entire eminent domain proceedings; and
(8) That provisions governing metropolitan airport authorities must not be construed to limit any power of a municipality to regulate airport hazards by zoning, and airport hazards in Davidson County must be regulated pursuant to this amendment.
AMENDMENT #3 makes a technical correction to this bill.
ON APRIL 20, 2023, THE HOUSE SUBSTITUTED SENATE BILL 1326 FOR HOUSE BILL 1176, ADOPTED AMENDMENT # 4 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 1176, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT # 4 makes the following changes and additions to this bill:
(1) Requires that each appointing authority appoint to the board one person who is a resident of Davidson County and one person who is a resident of Davidson County or a neighboring county;
(2) Requires the authority to maintain its books and prepare its financial statements in a timely manner satisfactory to the state and pay the state for all costs the state incurs in reviewing and auditing the authority's finances;
(3) Specifies that authorization for the authority to construct, authorize, widen, narrow, relocate, vacate, change in the use, accept, acquire, sell, or lease any street or other public way, ground, place or space, or public utility must be undertaken pursuant to an agreed upon license agreement or prescriptive or express easement;
(4) Adds a severability clause to this bill;
(5) Removes the correction made by Senate Amendment #3; and
(6) Specifies that the provisions of this bill concerning vacating and reconstituting the board take effect July 1, 2023.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 42-4-105(a)(1)(B), 42-4-105, 42-4-105(d)(1), 42-4-106(d), 42-4-106