Metro Nashville and the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority plan to file a federal lawsuit to fight a new law giving the state control of the MNAA board starting July 1.
According to a release, Mayor Freddie O’Connell has directed the Metro Department of Law to file the lawsuit against the State of Tennessee over a second attempt “to take over control of the Metro Nashville Airport Authority Board.”
"I have asked Wally Dietz, our director of law, to explore all possible steps to keep the Metro Nashville Airport Authority under local control,” O’Connell says. “We are asking the court to protect our legal rights because federal law says the FAA will not approve a change of sponsor if the current board does not consent to the change. This is a classic bait and switch by the state, which wrote in its 1969 law that the state would not take over airports transferred to authorities. The success of our airport under local control is unquestioned. And in their quest for absolute control, state lawmakers have — we believe — again violated federal law."
This is the second time Metro will fight the state for control of the airport board. Metro attorneys have taken the case all the way to the state Supreme Court and are still waiting on a final ruling after arguing that legislation from 2023 unfairly targeted MNAA.
New bill would give state lawmakers power over airport authorities in Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga
Under the legislation passed this year, the state House speaker, state Senate speaker and governor would each appoint two members to a nine-person commission governing certain state airports, including Nashville International Airport (BNA). The remaining three appointees would fall to a local chief executive, such as a mayor. Currently, Metro appoints all MNAA board members.
In a special-called meeting on Wednesday, MNAA voted to retain counsel for potential litigation expected to be filed late Wednesday or Thursday.
The airport authority board voted to retain Miami-based firm Sperling Kenny Nachwalter, which has offices in five locations, including Nashville. Relatedly, the board voted to cap its spending for legal fees to $100,000 through the end of the fiscal year.
Sperling Kenny Nachwalter attorney Phillip Cramer told the board his firm is prepared to join the litigation Metro Nashville will be filing to represent the airport board’s interest. The firm is prepared to make the case that section 757 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 gives existing airport boards like the MNAA the ability not to consent to any change in ownership.
“We would argue that this authority has already done that through its previous vote to express its opposition to what the state has done,” Campbell Haynes, an attorney for Sperling Kenny Nachwalter, told the board.
Haynes said only the FAA, and not the state, has the authority to approve any change in sponsorship or operational responsibility to an airport authority board.
According to Haynes, the law says the FAA cannot approve a change where there is a disputed change of airport sponsorship — and a disputed change of airport sponsorship means an existing authority, like MNAA, has expressed, "No, we do not consent to this proposed transfer."
MNAA President Doug Kreulen expressed concern that joining the lawsuit would place a financial burden on the authority and potentially distract from the business of daily operations. Kreulen issued a memo to the board stating that, before voting to direct the airport authority to file litigation against the state, the commissioners should carefully consider “whether funding a political dispute between Metro and the State of Tennessee would be consistent with the board's duties.”
“The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority was not created to dispute who appoints members to the Board of Commissioners,” Kreulen says in the memo. “If the Airport Authority files litigation against the State of Tennessee, it becomes embroiled in a partisan political activity that will divert our time and attention from our primary purpose of managing, operating, financing, and maintaining our airports.”
In the memo, Kreulen also states that filing litigation could result in BNA ultimately increasing the rates, fees and charges imposed on airlines that use that facility.
In addition to the complaint, Metro and the MNAA are expected to file a motion for a preliminary injunction and a motion to expedite the schedule so that a judge will make a ruling before the law takes effect July 1.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
