Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee

TOWN-VILLAGE AIRCRAFT SAFETY & NOISE ABATEMENT COMMITTEE One Washington Street, Hempstead, New York 11550 (516) 489-5000 x3296 – TVASNAC@tohmail.org Meeting Minutes Monday, January 25, 2021 Virtual Meeting In Attendance Carl Baessler, Village of Atlantic Beach- Internet connection problems, left meeting early Andrew Weiss, Village of Floral Park Sean Wright, Village of Valley Stream James Vilardi – Executive Director James Vilardi called the meeting to order. Attendance was taken. As there were not enough members present for a quorum, with the audio problems Carl Baessler was having, the November 2020 Minutes and revised Mission Statement could not be voted on by the committee. Joining the committee at tonight’s virtual meeting was Andrew Mulvey representing Governor Cuomo’s office as well as Magdalonie Campbell and Michael Scheid representing Senator Gillibrand’s office. While waiting for others to join the meeting, James Vilardi thanked Michael Scheid for joining us and explained that it is important for the committee to know what is going on at the federal level, and Senators Schumer, Gillibrand as well as Congressmembers Rice and Suozzi’s office really have to take the lead on any advance to the FAA whether it be legislation or advisory opinions, and asked Michael how he thinks this should be approached. Michael Scheid commented that Senator Gillibrand’s Regional Director, Magdalonie Campbell, was having some technical issues, but would be joining the meeting any minute. He went on to say that in the past, Senator Gillibrand and Senator Schumer have sent letters with regard to airplane noise complaints and made inquiries regarding studies, however the FAA has been less than responsive. Magdalonie Campbell, Eastern Regional Director from Senator Gillibrand’s office, joined the meeting. James Vilardi explained to Magdalonie Campbell that the committee is anxious to get representatives from all of our federal elected officials’ offices to join our meetings, because 1 nothing will get done with the FAA without their support. James Vilardi inquired as to the best way for the committee to forward recommendations for the FAA to her office going forward so they can communicate our recommendations to the FAA, assuming Senator Gillibrand agrees with them. Magdalonie Campbell stated that holding these TVASNAC meetings and inviting the elected officials’ representatives to join is a great start. Regarding issues and recommendations, the last couple of years, they reached a dead end with the FAA because the appointed administrator in D.C. would not even meet with them, let alone take into consideration some of the recommendations they have had. In the past, Senator Gillibrand’s office has had regional meetings at JFK Airport with Congressman Suozzi’s office and every executive person possible, and still hit a wall. However, moving forward now they are definitely going to demand answers and changes. Magdalonie assured the committee that the Senator is an advocate in D.C., so we can rest assured recommendations coming down from the community will be discussed and taken seriously. She suggested getting recommendations from the Hamptons in regard to community input that the Senator took into consideration and included in her recommendations to the FAA. The Senator realizes we are all on the ground and are advocates who can speak to the issues - our recommendations are not taken lightly, they will be reviewed by the Senator, and then she can push forward with them. With that said, definitely contacting their office, providing recommendations, meeting with them and these virtual meetings are all ideal ways to get things into place to have the appropriate push. And again, we are in a better place than we were before, just for the simple fact, the Senator herself could not previously get an FAA executive on the phone to even entertain the recommendations from residents, and Senator Gillibrand and Senator Schumer have both been working collectively to address this matter. Magdalonie assured the committee that she has a good feeling about this year with the new administration, and while we do not know who is going to be appointed as of now, the recommendations sent to the Senator will be taken into great consideration. James Vilardi was happy to hear this and thanked Magdalonie, but commented that if the FAA is this monster organization who won’t entertain our committee’s recommendations or return a U.S. Senator’s call, he is cautiously optimistic about making any progress. The FAA seems pretty independent. Magdalonie Campbell agreed with James, responding that the process has been purely political. James Vilardi excused himself from the virtual meeting to take a call. Andrew Weiss continued. Andrew Weiss stated that one of the concerns the committee has and are trying to figure out, is how to get the FAA to open the door. Andrew has been to several NYCAR Round-table meetings as the Town of Hempstead representative, and the prevailing attitudes from the FAA are ‘we are autonomous; don’t question what we are doing; and when in doubt it’s all plane safety, you don’t want anyone to fall out of the sky do you?’ This has been the excuse for their autonomy; they can do whatever they want to do. The Committee is trying to determine how we work together utilizing the Senator’s power in Congress and our being on the front line living through the airplane noise issues, to strategize and get the FAA to listen. James Vilardi returned to the virtual meeting. 2 James Vilardi commented that he is happy to hear the elected officials may have better access and better response now from a political point of view, but asked what they do if the Senators and Congressional delegation decide they want to support something such as a change in the way planes approach or path planes take coming into JFK, and the FAA refuses to listen. Can Senator Gillibrand pass legislation to make them listen, to make them implement changes? Magdalonie Campbell respond stating not to sound overly optimistic, but we are at a different time so accountability will be different. The current constituent issues are something that definitely needs to be looked out, and despite not having a full understanding of the logistics and the language, from sitting in on meetings with the FAA Director, there are options. Elected officials are pushing for the options. At this point, once you are appointed by a certain Cabinet there is accountability to respond to make sure we get the results we need for the communities. Safety is always going to be a measure, but if there are options, we want to be able to look at those options and see what can be done. It is understood that airplanes still have to fly, but if we are able to mitigate some of the noise and some of the impact people are having in their homes with the taxes they are paying, then we want those options to definitely be looked at. If they can be implemented, we want those implementations to be made. James Vilardi asked the group what they thought of submitting a joint letter to the FAA. The TVASNAC committee should author a letter to the FAA from TVASNAC members, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congresswoman Rice and Congressman Suozzi outlining some of the recommendations we have to reduce the airplane noise in neighborhoods. James asked if we can all agree on a letter that will provide our recommendations in a concise way and send it to the FAA. Magdalonie Campbell assured the group that once we put our requests together in a letter, Senator Gillibrand’s office would be able to review the letter with their legislative directors and other individuals in D.C. who can look at the letter more in-depth and see what the possibilities are to determine if they can work jointly to sign onto that letter or create a new letter instead that provides the specific recommendations people have to move forward with. James Vilardi asked if anyone wanted to add to this idea. Andrew Weiss added that it is worth noting that we aren’t looking to change the world here. We understand one of the benefits of living near the airport is the convenience of having the airport, but the price that you pay is planes flying over your head. We get that; we are not saying we want to ban airplanes. But, if we can provide recommendations tweaking around the edges, we hope this something our elected officials would be amenable to. Magdalonie Campbell responded, “Absolutely.” Senator Schumer and Congressman Suozzi sponsored a bill to fix the helicopter pad out East. There is a group in Elmont as well. We have different districts that have formed committees and organizations just like TVASNAC to address these matters and things have been done. Whether or not a Bill has been passed is another issue, but things have been sponsored and moved forth in the House and on the Senate side. We now are at a place where we are hoping to get things passed and make them permanent. So again, all the ideas/recommendations that the TVASNAC committee has is not something that will be ignored in any of these offices because we understand the issues collectively in this region and what people have been dealing with for years. 3 James Vilardi asked the Governor’s representative, Andrew Mulvey, to weigh in asking if he thinks if the Governor would sign off on a collective letter once he is advised what we have in mind. Andrew Mulvey stated he would be happy to look at the letter and send it to their team. Andrew assured the group that the Governor’s office likes to keep an eye on what’s going on with this issue through NYCAR and some of the other community groups and keep an open dialogue to see how they might be helpful. He’s excited to hear Magdalonie Campbell speak of a new day with respect to the FAA relationship. Andrew has heard from a lot of different community groups and different officials’ offices how difficult they are to work with. If we can get some progress there that would be great; the Governor’s office is always happy to take letters, send them up and make sure Albany is aware of what those on the ground are doing. James Vilardi was happy to hear this and suggested that he, Carl Baessler, Andrew Weiss and Sean Wright put the letter together, get it to all the elected officials’ representatives and get their opinions to see if everyone will sign on. Once we have a final draft everyone agrees on, we can polish it up and get it to the FAA. That could be really effective. Then it gives us some targets to shoot at. We should all communicate as we are drafting the letter so that as Andrew Weiss pointed out, they are achievable goals and present ideas that have a real shot at being implemented to achieve an incremental change and maybe over time we can build on that. This time next month let’s have a letter ready to discuss with the committee and the elected officials’ representatives. Andrew Weiss agreed this is a good plan. Let’s put it out there and see what we get. More importantly, if we don’t get what we want, if we can at least get an explanation which would start the dialogue as opposed to silence or a blanket “No.” Michael Scheid interjected that he has attended a couple of the helicopter meetings out in Riverhead, and is pretty sure they started in a similar way. Once that dialogue or “can of worms” so to speak is opened, that’s when you can have a conversation. Michael believes the Riverhead or East End Helicopter Conference had an FAA member actually attend their meeting virtually. So definitely getting that dialogue started is very positive, especially with what Andrew Mulvey said about how difficult it has been to speak with the FAA. James Vilardi stated he was surprised to hear an FAA member attended the helicopter virtual meeting, because he thought they didn’t attend meetings or talk to anybody. Michael Scheid stated that Riverhead Town hosted meetings for the Helicopter Council in their Town Hall. There was someone who videoed in with a message from the FAA, so it wasn’t live as stated previously. But they at least had some sort of dialogue where they were sending complaints to the FAA and the FAA was responding. I believe the FAA may have been required to respond due to the amount of complaints that were coming through as well as the veracity of residents out there who contacted the FAA constantly. Again, as Magdalonie was saying, we are hoping this will be a more amenable relationship with the FAA between communities and the administration. Andrew Weiss commented that he was surprised and happy to hear this. Having attended several of the NYCAR meetings Andrew knows the FAA’s official position is that they will not speak to community groups. They have said this flat out, it is not an interpretation since the Part 150 Study is the mechanism for the community to communicate with the FAA. Therefore, if a civic group or town group such as TVASNAC wants to speak with them, they 4 flat out refuse to do so. So that is interesting that they attempted something out in Riverhead. Maybe something has changed. Michael Scheid stated he doesn’t know why things are different with the helicopter route, but he does know in the summer of 2019 or 2020 it received a lot of focus through Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand and Congressman Lee Zeldin’s office. There was a big push to get the oversea route for helicopters, but is unsure whether or not this is a different scenario from planes and airports. Michael believes they are the same because of the FAA, but again there could be a difference between how helicopters and planes are governed. Michael believes there were conversations between the Helicopter Council and the FAA. James Vilardi asked if the changes in the helicopter routes require federal legislation. Michael Scheid commented that he did not believe it was required. From what he remembers from the Helicopter Council, it was a voluntary route that was made somewhat mandatory but was not necessarily followed by pilots. As Magdalonie mentioned earlier, Senator Schumer and Congressman Suozzi’s offices did draft and sponsor legislation to make that route mandatory, but it did not get a vote in the Senate, not sure about the House, it just was not brought up for a vote in the Senate. Magdalonie Campbell confirmed what Michael Scheid stated. There is a community piece that she cannot recall right now, and there is a portion where Senator Gillibrand spoke about the community, and recommended the FAA come in and listen to the community’s input and have a resolution to the outcomes and complaints being made by residents and leaders. However, there has to be a certain percentage of people who attend that meeting, and the East End was able to pull it off. When the FAA did not follow up, we were able to follow up on a federal level. So again, there is a lot of different logistics that are involved in this and have been in play for many years, and it’s not that we haven’t moved on it it’s that we haven’t received the response we need to either move things forward and make it permanent or become law. This is why we are in a better place to have a better relationship to get things moving along and get certain things permanent. So there is room for introduction of any legislation in regard to FAA routes once the proper dialogue is provided and things are looked into at the D.C. office for legislation to be written up and pushed through the House and the Senate. The doors are open. As someone stated, if you start the communication appropriately and you have the backing of the community, that’s where we start. The East End has been so geared up about this – not that TVASNAC’s issues are not prominent – they are geared up. They would personally go to Senator Schumer and Congressman Zeldin’s offices to tell them how many helicopters go over their house and it actually had to be written down. So again, we are responsive. You call us, we will be there. We will work collectively to address this issue. It has been going on for years, and we do understand the need to get things moving. James Vilardi continued stating that we live around JFK, the busiest airport in the world, and there are only a couple of groups like ours. What would it be for the FAA to appoint a member to TVASNAC to interact with our group, and now the larger group, to include our elected officials and have a dialogue. It is unacceptable to hear they have refused to speak with people. Maybe that would be a good place to start, to reshuffle the deck and say, “Wait a minute. You can’t say that you are only going to speak to community groups in a certain way or in a certain forum.” That already assumes that they are in such a high level that they don’t have to respond to people. Maybe the first step is to bring them down to our level and say, “No, you have to speak to community groups.” The problem with the FAA affects an awful lot 5 of people in the Town of Hempstead and beyond. Maybe the first step is to get them to really interact with people in the Town of Hempstead starting with this committee. Magdalonie Campbell agreed with James adding that one time the FAA attended an event in the East End and their concern was that only 15-20 people showed up in comparison to the hundreds of complaints they were told about. The Senator’s office will do everything they can on their end to facilitate a meeting with the FAA. However, numbers matter to them (the FAA) and that was one of their pushbacks to the Senator’s office when they asked for a follow-up meeting. Community representation was not at that meeting out East, so numbers definitely matter to them. We know 10 people matter just as much as 100 people, but that was their issue. Andrew Weiss responded that we should remember there are actual bodies and then there are the represented bodies. “For example, I’m the floral Park representative. I’m appointed by the Mayor. Although I may be only one physical person in a chair, I’m actually 16,000 people, and everyone else from TVASNAC can say the same thing with the number of people they represent. So if that’s what they are going by, how many people are in the Town of Hempstead? James Vilardi represents everyone in the unincorporated areas of the town. Sean Wright represents Valley Stream. There are a lot of people in the room through their representatives.” Magdalonie Campbell agreed as she represents Senator Gillibrand who represents a larger body, however this is something she wanted us to be aware of as this went back and forth with the FAA. Perhaps it was the FAA’s way of getting out of it without doing the follow up. One thing Senator Gillibrand’s office suggests is to invite people to meetings with the FAA. If we have to bombard them with people and have every single person attend, then it is what it is. At that point they can deal with each individual instead of their representative. James Vilardi commented that we can have 1,000 people in the room or call the FAA every day. If that’s what they want, we can certainly arrange that for them. Magdalonie Campbell stated that she is hoping not to entertain some of the nuances we had a couple of years ago. She is hoping this is a new day and we can do things more collectively and smoothly understanding there is a bigger body at large and everyone has representation. James Vilardi thanked Andrew Mulvey, Magdalonie Campbell and Michael Scheid for taking the time to be on the call, and hopes this will be a common occurrence so they can keep updated on what we are hearing from our constituents, and hopefully we can move legislation or recommendations forward at the FAA to improve the quality of life for the local communities in the Town of Hempstead. James suggested if they join us every month we can update each other with what is happening in our communities and on the federal level. Our members are all convinced the only way to move the FAA is in partnership with our federal elected officials, because they are our federal agents and have the power. Andrew Weiss echoed what James Vilardi said in thanking everyone for joining us tonight and looks forward to this being another step so we can all work together and keep everyone happy. Carol Renta offered to email the Calendar of Events and monthly virtual information going forward. 6 James Vilardi and Andrew Weiss agreed to work toward putting the letter together using the three goals we spoke of previously and adding a fourth that the FAA have a staff member join our meetings from time-to-time. James Vilardi thanked everyone for their input tonight and the meeting was adjourned. Prepared by: Carol Renta Secretary, TVASNAC 7