Jackson County’s Airport Authority has been cleared for take off. The only problem is that the pilot’s missing.

In a sweeping, five-part motion county commissioners made three weeks ago (Jan. 12), authority chairman Tom McClure was removed from his post as commissioners called for an investigation into the local Economic Development Commission, of which McClure is also chairman.

The ongoing investigation has yet to turn up anything conclusive; however, commissioners have asked the remaining airport authority members to fill McClure’s vacancy on that board.

During a Jan. 31 meeting, commissioners cited the previous boards’ failure to correctly appoint airport authority member to office as part of the reason for McClure’s removal.

McClure’s name, along with those of the other five members of the authority, was not submitted as a choice of at least two potential appointments to the authority, said county attorney Paul Holt.

McClure and the other five members of the authority also were never sworn into office, as called for by the general statutes that created the authority, said commissioners’ chairman Stacy Buchanan.

Lending institutions would most likely require lawful appointment before issuing the $1 million loan the authority is pursuing for airport renovations, Holt said.

“I still say it’s for the authority’s benefit,” he said.

Consequently, commissioners decided to reappoint Gary Buchanan, Chip Hall, Commissioner Eddie Madden, Eldridge Painter and Jim Rowell to the authority.

Rowell, authority treasurer, took issue with the reappointments, saying he saw no need to be re-appointed to his position unless he was first removed from it.

“Do we need to be reappointed or just sworn in?” Rowell asked.

Buchanan explained that reappointment was a move to legitimize the board, as the appointments never really existed in the first place. Airport authority members said that each of the five members who were at their last meeting were willing to continue serving in their current capacities.

McClure did not attend that meeting.

In five separate motions, commissioners re-nominated each authority member, unanimously accepting each member for the duration of his original term — Buchanan until June 2010, Hall until August 2006, Madden until December 2008, Painter until December 2007 and Rowell until February 2007. Buchanan said these appointments are considered to be the first real appointments to the authority and thereby only required commissioners’ motion. How this move is different from how authority members were appointed at the time of the authority’s creation was not explained.

The five authority members were asked to appear before the clerk of court to be sworn in before their next regularly scheduled meeting — 11 a.m., Feb. 9, at the Jackson County Airport Terminal — and to bring two nominees for filling McClure’s vacancy.

Though not cited by commissioners as reasoning for McClure’s removal during the Jan. 31 meeting, another motivating factor may have been “serious” statutory violations in the authority’s financial records.

In a letter addressed to McClure and dated Dec. 8, 2003, State Treasury officials reprimanded the chairman for two violations committed during the 2002-03 fiscal year — not adopting an annual budget and failing to establish a separate fund for the proceeds of any debt issued to finance the renovations to the airport terminal building.

“The members of the governing board, as well as the Authority staff, should be familiar with those Statues that apply to local governments and should conduct themselves such that these violations do not recur,” the letter states.

“Our records indicate that we wrote to you on April 2nd of this year (2003) regarding the same budgetary issue,” the letter continues. “We do not have a response on file to that letter.”

Copies of the Dec. 8 letter also were sent to the authority’s finance officer, Deborah Tarmann, the accounting firm of Crisp Hughes Evans — the same firm currently performing the county’s requested audit of EDC records — county manager Ken Westmoreland and county finance officer Darlene Fox.

State Treasury officials said that the authority’s budget violation has been resolved, and that the debt proceeds account is no longer an issue — not because it has been corrected, but because the debts already have been repaid.