Airport board’s Hawaii trip doesn’t fly with me

As a 36-year veteran of attending and making decisions to not attend such optional conferences or business meetings as a senior executive working for several Fortune 10 companies, it is apparent that the recent decision by the Asheville airport board to attend the meeting satisfied their personal agendas of being in Hawaii during the winter month of January. …

I note that there are 382 airports in the U.S., and only about 50 attend the conference, which signifies that this meeting was not that critical. Approximately 13 percent of airports deemed this event as important to attend. The other airports must use their superior judgment and attend the less costly meetings on the mainland, which take place on a frequent enough basis.

If the trip was really worthwhile, no one takes the time to send grainy photos back to Asheville during the trip and author a lengthy 536-word statement to justify bad judgment and ease their conscience or guilt on making a bad decision that betrays the public's trust.

Auditing their trip receipts and finding out if they apportioned personal expenses for their family members in attendance from the airport charges on receipts should be an interesting exercise for the airport accounting department when they return.

Well, at least there are some citizens of Asheville who will be sporting a nice, deep, healthy tan in the middle of winter (or maybe not, to show they were in meetings during the daylight hours, after the proverbial "blank" hit the fan). …

Where is the real accountability here? This board should be replaced as soon as they touch the ground in Asheville. I volunteer to serve on this board at no cost to the city, as I could probably make just as bad a decision as the current board did.

— Andrew Biazis
Candler

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32 thoughts on “Airport board’s Hawaii trip doesn’t fly with me

  1. Politics Watcher

    Susan Fisher must have even less political savvy than her recent comments indicate, if she’ll let her son post these “vacation” pictures.

  2. Mister Blister

    Jeez, they took their whole families? Susan Fisher’s son Jonathan Fisher, wrote “We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite the b.s.” What a little, arrogant, spoiled pr***! In responding to a picture of a protester he says, “Get your facts straight lady. If you haven’t used the airport in the last year, you didn’t pay for ANYTHING. Asheville Regional Airport is a private entity that gets ZERO funding from State or Federal dollar. READ UP! ugh…”

    So how many of your damn brood get money from that “private entity” to go have a vacation?

  3. Piffy!

    [b]Susan Fisher’s son Jonathan Fisher, wrote “We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite the b.s.” What a little, arrogant, spoiled pr***! In responding to a picture of a protester he says, “Get your facts straight lady. If you haven’t used the airport in the last year, you didn’t pay for ANYTHING. Asheville Regional Airport is a private entity that gets ZERO funding from State or Federal dollar. READ UP! ugh…”[/b]

    Source?

  4. GoodGrief

    Hey Penkippy…..the SOURCE is from Susan Fisher’s son’s Facebook page and all the photos of Hawaii he posted and the comments from each. Get on facebook, check it out. Very telling. Alas, not one picture of an actual meeting or tax payer money well spent. What a load of BS…this so-called airport board should be completely reprimanded and refund all money back to the airport. My family used the airport 6 times last year. So glad that I could help fund this worthless vacation for these worthless board members.

  5. travelah

    All this noise is being made before anybody has any facts associated with this. Who paid for the families? Were any public funds used for this? Just as impotant, what is your real complant?

  6. Alan Ditmore

    The airport should be sold to the highest bidder and then should either support itself with landing fees or be converted to condominiums and the government should work on trains instead, which waste far less fuel.

  7. Alan Ditmore

    Even if it looks like it isn’t taking tax money, there is an opportunity cost because if it were sold, the private buyer would be PAYING taxes. So zero is really a serious tax.

  8. travelah

    Alan, I thnk you should run for city cuncil and help Cecil. The two of you could really take Asheville to some new places.

  9. Piffy!

    [b]Hey Penkippy…..the SOURCE is from Susan Fisher’s son’s Facebook page and all the photos of Hawaii he posted and the comments from each. Get on facebook, check it out. Very telling.[/b]

    Like i said in my first post, if you arent on facebook you cant see it. If it’s really such damning evidence, feel free to screen shot it and post it on something like flickr, but i have no desire to sign up for a social networking site just to see vacation photos for a family i am not related to.

    [b]All this noise is being made before anybody has any facts associated with this. Who paid for the families? Were any public funds used for this? Just as important, what is your real complaint?[/b]

    Exactly my point. I’m just asking for sources, not possible hearsay and innuendo. A link to a facebook page that i have to sign up for?

    Please.

    Post it. Prove it.

  10. Piffy!

    [b]the SOURCE is from Susan Fisher’s son’s Facebook page and all the photos of Hawaii he posted and the comments from each… Alas, not one picture of an actual meeting or tax payer money well spent.[/b]

    Astounding information indeed. I cant believe her son didn’t post photos of his mother at governmental meetings on his personal facebook page.

    Do you often lurk on young buys facebook pages?

  11. Seriously

    Pkippy….don’t really care who you are…but you truly offer NOTHING to this discussion. So sorry you aren’t connected on Facebook like millions of other people, but to comment that Mr. McGraw is some stalker is inappropriate when the link itself was posted by Tim Peck and photos accessible through such. If you were privy to any information you’d know that the Facebook page in question actually belonged to Susan Fisher’s daughter, a senior at UNCA, and has since been deleted. Keep your snarky comments to yourself, you really offer nothing.

  12. The more I consider the possibilities, the more I think Alan’s idea about converting the airport into condos is a great idea. That would be one hell of a front yard for the kids to ride their big wheels around in. The control tower could be turned into a rotating bar and you could get a 360 view of WNC during happy hour/sunset. We would have parking out the yang.

    (When in the hell are we gonna get serious about light rail?)

  13. Piffy!

    [b]Keep your snarky comments to yourself, you really offer nothing.[/b]

    Why is it that you think asking for proof is snarky? A link to a facebook page is evidence of nothing. It is hearsay.

    Anyone could have taken a screenshot of the page in question and posted it to flickr in mere minutes if they really wanted to show evidence. And even then, a link to a daughter’s vacation photos, as travelah already pointed out, is not proof of any wrongdoing whatsoever. It’s a junior-high level smear campaign.

    Show me the PROOF that the pictures are evidence of any wrongdoing. You may be right, you may be wrong, but until you provide actual proof, the claims of misappropriation of funds is baseless.

    Instead of calling me names, why not just provide the evidence both travlah and myself have asked for? To me, that is a far more substantive, productive level of debate than the names you have called me.

    [b]If you were privy to any information you’d know that the Facebook page in question actually belonged to Susan Fisher’s daughter, a senior at UNCA, and has since been deleted.[/b]

    Like I already said, I am not friends or family with the young woman you are referring to, so I don’t know why i would be ‘privy’ to such private information. Is that what passes for political discourse in your world? Inside information into a young girl’s facebook account?

    Personally, I think lurking on a persons facebook page who you don’t even know is kinda creepy. No wonder she deleted her private information.

    I can see why Tim, Blister, and chainsaw have chosen not to come back and defend their claims. They appear to be nothing more than hot air and outright lies.

    i patiently await even a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing. Like i said, i don;t know if it is true or not. I’m just asking for evidence.

  14. Piffy!

    Also: [b]If you were privy to any information you’d know that the Facebook page in question actually belonged to Susan Fisher’s daughter, a senior at UNCA, and has since been deleted.[/b]

    That’s funny. i assumed it was a male since Chainsaw said:

    [b]Hey Penkippy…..the SOURCE is from Susan Fisher’s son’s Facebook page and all the photos of Hawaii he posted and the comments from each. Get on facebook, check it out. Very telling.[/b]

    So perhaps he isn’t ‘privy’ to that special stalker info either?

  15. Asheville Dweller

    Seriously:

    You had evidence (Pictures from a LEGAL website, that was marked for PUBLIC viewing) Nothing against the law, and “Changemynameeveryotherweek” can’t handle that so they try to be edgy and smug and even will resort to name calling, to make you the bad person in the argument.

    Just stick to your guns and ignore the senseless spewing of smug.

  16. Changemynameeveryotherweek

    [b]You had evidence[/b]

    What was this “Evidence” of? That they went to Hawaii? We already know that.

    [b](Pictures from a LEGAL website, that was marked for PUBLIC viewing) Nothing against the law[/b]

    i never claimed looking at facebook is illegal. i did ask someone to post a link that a non-facebook user could view. You say it was “open to the public”, but it wasnt. I clicked the link and was told i need to sign up for facebook to see it. No thanks.

    i did imply that trolling a young girl’s facebook account seemed kind of creepy, because it does.

    , [b]and “Changemynameeveryotherweek” can’t handle that so they try to be edgy and smug and even will resort to name calling, to make you the bad person in the argument.[/b]

    It would appear it is you attacking me instead of merely presenting the ‘evidence’ you claim to have. even travlah finds your claims silly.

  17. Piffy!

    [b]Just stick to your guns and ignore the senseless spewing of smug. [/b]

    i agree. Now what are those guns again? What is it that you say you have evidence of?

    I would not be against seeing evidence of any misappropriation of taxpayer money, but nothing of the sort has been presented so far. instead of attacking me for asking questions, why not just answer the questions?

  18. Piffy!

    [i]All this noise is being made before anybody has any facts associated with this. Who paid for the families? Were any public funds used for this? Just as important, what is your real complaint? [/i]

    I too await the answer to these simple questions.

  19. Asheville Dweller

    Your questions were answered, your trying to turn the conversation around on people is failing, just like everything else you try to do on here.

    He had proof at the facebook site, you chose to attack him for finding proof trying to make him out to be the bad guy. Just like most of everything else on here you can’t handle the truth.

  20. Piffy!

    [b]you can’t handle the truth. [/b]

    and what is that truth again? That is all I’m asking.

    All I can tell is someone’s daughter apparently posted some photos. what that is ‘proof’ of hasn’t yet been stated.

  21. shadmarsh

    Tim “nobodyeffswiththejesus” Peck*

    *think about it and it is funny, what with the Facebook stalking of a young woman and all…

  22. Piffy!

    I am OUTRAGED, OUTRAGED!!!!, that her daughter uses facebook. she should be using myspace.

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