Airport reimbursements mount

Ron Mathieu, executive director of the Little Rock National Airport, has now reimbursed the airport for more than $3,000 in questionable expense account charges.

We reported on-line Friday that Mathieu and other airport officials had begun making reimbursements in a review of expenses that followed Arkansas Times' disclosures about Mathieu's expenditure of $40,000 on a football field fund-raising drive at his child's school, Little Rock Christian Academy, and his and other officials' heavy use of credit cards for meals and other expenses.

Friday, we told you that Mathieu had reimbursed almost $1,800, including about $400 for a birthday dinner with Airport Commissioner Jesse Mason at Arthur's Prime Steakhouse and more than $700 for a dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse in Rogers, which Mathieu said he inadvertently charged to his airport charge card in October.

Today, we reviewed documents that showed Mathieu also reimbursed the airport $795.06 for his wife’s meals in Maui last January at an annual airport industry conference and in San Diego in September. She was accompanying her husband on the business trips. He also reimbursed the airport $407.79 for meals in Brussels, Belgium, in June that he said were probably not business related.

In light of the scrutiny of the spending at the airport, Mason and fellow Commissioners Virgil Miller and Tom Schueck also have decided not to attend the Airport Issues Conference in Kona, Hawaii, this January. “Going to Hawaii in January just doesn’t look good to people,” Schueck said Monday. He said he dropped out after seeing e-mails that indicated Miller and Mason would not attend. Airport spokesman T.J. Williams said Monday the airport was reimbursed $8,021.73 for the plane tickets it had purchased. In keeping with airport policy, first-class tickets had been purchased for the commissioners because the flight was longer than four hours.

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LR Airport gets its money back

Little Rock National Airport announced this afternoon that it had cancelled its controversial advertising contract with Little Rock Christian Academy and gotten its $40,000 back.

The Arkansas Times broke the news of the contract last week. Airport Executive Director Ron Mathieu, whose son attends Little Rock Christian, steered the airport into the deal. When he was asked about a jump in marketing expenses in May on account of the $40,000 paid to Little Rock Christian, he told airport commissioners it was a result of a variety of new efforts, including on TV, to drive traffic to the airport website. He did not mention the Little Rock Christian expense, the first and only one by the airport on a football field or with any school.

Events moved quickly. The Airport Commission met in executive session Tuesday and announced afterward that Mathieu had made an error in judgment and that the commission would undertake a review of past expenses as well as review procedures that give Mathieu discretion over expenses up to $50,000. He apologized for the expenditure. He had earlier defended it by saying he'd deferred the decision to subordinates, who defended it as a good investment at the equivalent of $4,000 a year for a 7-by-10 logo on the football field at the private school. However, e-mail uncovered by the Times indicated the $40,000 payment followed a e-mails between the school and Mathieu about a contribution to a fund drive to install new turf at the field.

Airport Chairman Bobby East had said the airport would seek to get the money back. Mathieu wrote his letter Tuesday, the day of the meeting.

The airport today released a letter from Mathieu to the school asking for the money back and a letter from the school, plus a photocopy of the check repaying the money. The letter from Gary Arnold, head of Little Rock Christian, dated the next day, was warmly complimentary of the airport. He said it was an "honor" to promote the airport for only three months and closed, "God bless your work for the best interests of Little Rock and our surrounding communities."

An airport news release said, "The airport will apply the full value of the check against the original transaction." I'm not sure exactly what that means — perhaps to underscore that the airport gets its money back after a season's worth of free advertising at LRCA.

Photocopies of the letters follow.

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Dailey criticizes Airport expenditure

Airport Commissioner Jim Dailey has told Fox 16 that Little Rock National Airport director Ron Mathieu's decision to spend $40,000 on sponsorship of the football field at his son's school, Little Rock Christian Academy, was a "bad judgment call." He said he thought other airport commission members would agree with him at tomorrow morning's commission meeting. The Arkansas Times broke this story on-line on Friday.

"I don't think any of us or the public is looking for excuses or reasons but really looking for someone to say I messed up on this," Dailey told Fox's David Goins.

Dailey said he wouldn't have voted for the expenditure had it been subject to a vote. Mathieu has discretion for expenditures up to $50,000 without commission approval. Dailey said he was disappointed that Mathieu, when asked about the expenditure at a June meeting, didn't mention the football field sponsorship, which constituted virtually all of a big jump in monthly marketing expenses. Instead, as the transcript shows, he talked about a number of "new things" being done to push the airport's website.

Dailey addressed Monday to FOX16 News the possibility of Mathieu losing his job.

"You know, I don't think so,” Dailey says. “In fact I told him this morning, I'm not out for his head."

You know, I think such a poor judgment call combined with Mathieu's disingenous remarks to his bosses and his refusal to address the issue openly with the press ARE ground for dismissal. At a minimum, the commission should review the totality of Mathieu's judgment calls before a rap on the wrist and a let-bygones-be-bygones verdict.

Mathieu has refused to be interviewed or to respond to written questions from the Times about the expenditure. He has referred requests for specific information to the airport's law firm, which works on a $10,725-per-month retainer.

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