Quill's quiet candidacy a stunner

Ocala Star-Banner - October 5, 2001
By SUSAN LATHAM CARR
Staff Writer

OCALA — In a surprise to Ocala city officials, Ocala International Airport Manager Gary Quill was named the top candidate to run the Charlotte County Airport in Punta Gorda.

"You should probably have seen what we saw in talking to him," said Pamella Seay, a member of the Charlotte County Airport Authority, by telephone Thursday night. "A take-charge kind of guy — bright, experienced — a man that would be able to take something raw like our airport and turn it into something that our area down here would treasure."

Seay said the Charlotte County Airport, like Ocala's, is a general aviation airport. It has a $1.5 million budget.

"We would just as well be happy to have him start tomorrow, but we wouldn't do that to someone else," Seay said. The Authority this week named Quill as its first choice but will not vote on the selection until Thursday.

"We held interviews with him about a little over a month ago," Seay said. "I am sure there is a lot of negotiating that has to take place and talking and working with him to make sure we all have a very positive outlook on an arrangement."

Reached at home on Thursday night, Quill said, "I don't think I want to comment on that."

Ocala City Manager Susan Miller said she was "surprised" Quill was looking elsewhere.

"Actually, I am shocked because we have had Gary working on our master plan," Miller said about the airport's major planning tool. "We paid him top dollar to come here, so he was in a position to have a privileged position with the city, and we paid him well for his skills."

When Miller hired Quill, who started working here in June 2000, she paid him $70,000 annually, which was criticized by a member of the airport advisory committee. At the time, she defended her actions, saying she was "buying expertise."

Before coming to Ocala, Quill was a director of airports in Toledo, Ohio, responsible for the operations of the Toledo Express Airport, the 15th largest cargo airport in the United States, and Metcalf Field, a general aviation airport. Before Toledo, Quill managed the Lakeland airport for 15 years. Prior to that, he was the manager of planning at the Louisville Airport Authority in Louisville, Ky.

"Certainly this was not on our radar scope," Miller said. "I am taken totally by surprise, and I don't like that. There's no reason for it from the city's perspective."

Miller acknowledged that Ocala's airport has challenges.

"We have some tough issues at the airport, but every general aviation airport has the same issues," Miller said. "I think all general aviation airports are looking for economic development, and we look to get the best we can."

She acknowledged that Quill had not brought any economic development to Ocala's airport but said the city is currently putting in sewer lines to make the property attractive for development. She said other progress was being made, too.

"We authorized two new T-hangars," Miller said. The hangars are one of the airport's money-makers. She also said the city was able to privatize the Airport Rescue Firefighting Facility, the $20 million training facility that never realized its potential under the city's management and was a drain on the city's budget.

"We were just moving along. Maybe they are further along than we are. I don't know. Or maybe they have more money," she said of Charlotte.

If hired, Quill would replace Fred Watts, who has managed the Charlotte County Airport for more than 10 years. Watts resigned in April to take a job with Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.

Susan Latham Carr covers Ocala City government and state issues. She may be reached at susan.carr@starbanner.com or 867-4156.

See October 5, 2001 issue of Ocala Star-Banner for original article.