GUTHRIE — A Feb. 3 vote to remove councilman Grant Aguirre from the Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport Board for his alleged role in the resignation of board member Ryan Wallace failed to gain enough support Tuesday night.
The council voted 4-3 in favor of Aguirre’s removal after about 45 minutes of heated discussion, but the agenda item brought by councilman Brian Bothroyd did not receive a required two-thirds vote.
Bothroyd, Deanna Duehning, Vice Mayor Jeff Taylor, and Tracy Williams, a member of the airport board, voted in favor while Aguirre, Mayor Adam Ropp and Menecca Gibbs voted against removing Aguirre.
Wallace, in an interview with the News Leader on Jan. 24, accused Aguirre — the airport board’s vice chair — of “politicizing this seat to the detriment of the airport.”
Wallace said he received a phone call from Aguirre in which Aguirre “told me that there was a coup that he had heard about, and the coup was that the Edmond members were going to nominate me to be the chair.”
“The coup, as it was put, was that they had planned to nominate me when Grant had planned to either nominate himself or find somebody to nominate him,” Wallace told the News Leader.
Aguirre, who also spoke with the News Leader, denied saying “there was a coup under foot.”
“What I know is I called him to ask if he would support me for chair,” Aguirre told the News Leader. “And he said in that conversation ... something about that he thought he would do a good job as chair, and I said, ‘I think these are the qualifications that make me better for the position.’
“And there was some dispute about whether or not I was more qualified, and perhaps that’s where he got his feelings hurt or something and I’m not sure what happened from there.”
The airport is a joint venture between the cities of Guthrie and Edmond, and each city selects three members to serve on an advisory board.
Dick Geib, Walt Strong and Stan Young represent Edmond while Aguirre, Williams and Ryan Huskey represent Guthrie.
A seventh position is filled by Guthrie City Manager Eddie Faulkner or an ex officio that Faulkner selects. Wallace, a pilot, was Faulkner’s appointee and served for more than two years.
Wallace told the News Leader that “things took a turn for the worse” once the phone call with Aguirre ended, about two hours before the start of the Jan. 13 airport board meeting.
“Yes, other things did happen by the time that I hung up the phone with Grant until I showed up at the airport board meeting,” he said.
“I had a different tact until other stuff happened and once that stuff happened, I decided the only way for me to keep my integrity intact here is to step down.”
The “other things” Wallace referred to but declined to elaborate on were brought to light by Bothroyd and Williams on Tuesday night.
Bothroyd accused Aguirre and a second Guthrie councilmember of making “veiled threats” to remove Wallace from the airport board if elected chairman, a position Aguirre coveted.
Bothroyd told the council, which oversees governance of the airport, that he wanted to give Aguirre an opportunity to explain to this council “what went on.”
“I’m happy to talk about it, but in order to talk about it I will have to reveal names and contacts of multiple people,” Aguirre replied. “And I want you to know that after I do that all those contracts that we have that are potential for the airport will not be coming to the airport. So, if you want me to do that, I’m happy to do that.”
Williams told the panel he found some of the statements Aguirre reportedly made during his phone conversation with Wallace, including those about his influence on the board “alarming.”
He referred to Aguirre as “pompous.”
Williams and Bothroyd then referenced details Wallace provided to both men that were not disclosed in the News-Leader report.
“Did you make a claim that if Ryan Wallace was seated (as chair), that it would be expected of Eddie Faulkner to take him off that board?” Williams asked Aguirre.
“Absolutely not,” Aguirre said.
“Did you ever say to Eddie Faulkner ‘why would you put Ryan in a position where one of your bosses was unhappy with you?’ Did you say that?”
“I don’t believe I said that, no,” Aguirre replied.
Taylor joined the conversation.
“It’s all over Facebook, it’s all over the emails that I’ve had sent to me,” he said. “Who’s lying is what I want to know? Is somebody lying or is it a conspiracy ...?
“The question is, did Grant say that or not?” Bothroyd asked.
“Yep, he did,” Faulkner replied.
Bothroyd turned to Aguirre, who sits next to him on the council's dais.
“You’re saying you didn’t, he’s saying you did,” Bothroyd said.
“I don’t believe I said that,” Aguirre replied.
Bothroyd continued.
“Did you know that Eddie was told ‘we needed to get Wallace to support Aguirre for the chair position at the airport board, and if Wallace didn’t support Aguirre, then Eddie would be pressured to remove Wallce from the ex officio board seat?”
“I don’t recall that,” Aguirre answered.
To which Bothroyd asked “does anybody at this (horse) shoe know that?
“Eddie, did anybody up here say that?”
“Yes, and I don’t want to be in the middle of this,” Faulkner said.
Bothroyd pressed the city manager.
“Who said it?”
“That was a conversation (with a council member), yes,” Faulkner replied.
Bothroyd called Wallace a good man who felt “just jammed into resigning.”
It’s not right,” Bothroyd added. “It’s an advisory board (where) people give their time freely and voluntarily. They don’t get paid.
“This isn’t a position where you’re going to speak to Stephanie Bice or Governor Sitt or anybody else out there. You’re not talking to anybody about getting money.
“From the articles I’ve read you’re responsible for bringing all the money in!”
Williams disclosed his desire to see Wallace lead the “divided” airport board because of his experience as a pilot and city leader along with his neutrality.
“It was time for, I thought, fresh blood,” he said. “I thought Ryan was the obvious choice.”
By that time, Wallce had decided otherwise. He resigned his position at the Jan. 13 meeting and left the room.
Geib — not Aguirre — was reelected to another 1-year term. Wallace said that was part of the reason he stepped down.
“By stepping down at that point, there was no way for Grant to secure the nomination or to win a vote,” Wallace told the News Leader. “He simply wouldn’t have had enough votes.”
Bothroyd said he brought the agenda item forward because of “two things that were said to Eddie ... that are veiled threats, and the people that said it know it’s a veiled threat.”
“That’s what happened and that’s why this is on this table,” he said. “And you did it, according to who I’m talking to over here to my left ... said that you did.”
“You’re not telling me who did this other one, which is as big or bigger. I know who did that, too, OK?
Former airport board chairman Brad Latham addressed the council, telling members he supported the item to remove Aguirre from the board. He spoke on behalf of Geib, who couldn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting,
“Mr. Aguirre has sown division and put politics ahead of the good of the airport community,” Latham said. “Also, his personal agenda above serving the community.
“As a leader you are to be held to a higher standard. Instead, Mr. Aguirre has abused his position of authority to serve his own interests.”
Young, a 7-year airport board member, also addressed the council. He said the airport has the potential to be a “very good airport.”
“The thing I see right now is Guthrie and Edmond have to work together,” he said. “The last few years I’ve felt like there’s been kind of a division between the Guthrie people and the Edmond people, and the Edmond people have kind of been pushed out.
“If we want to make an excellent airport we’re going to have to work together and that means the board members, that means the council members, that means our local and state and federal politicians and we can make this where it is a magnet for the businesses that he’s talking about.
Bothroyd revisited his two reasons for bringing the item to the table, “which is being utterly denied.”
“Do you know anything about this, Adam?” Bothroyd asked the mayor.
“No, because I didn’t say them,” Ropp replied.
Ropp and Gibbs, who represents Ward 1, mostly defended Aguirre during the meeting.
“What we have is an issue between two individuals on our board,” Gibbs said. “Disagreements happen. People say things in the heat of being upset that they don’t truly believe, or they’re just upset.”
“I kind of say things that I don’t mean sometimes or, you know, maybe over exaggerate where I might have had a greater hand in something and maybe I didn’t.”
Gibbs said everybody on the advisory board brings something to the table.
“If there is a disagreement between two parties, one, was it preemptive, maybe a little bit too early for the resignation for a heated argument?” Gibbs said. “Or not being able to agree on who was chair and who was not chair.
“I mean, we just had that same issue here, and nobody resigned because of it. Things can be settled, and arguments can be made to fruition, and you can have a solution.”
Ropp questioned Bothroyd’s decision to pursue Aguirre’s removal because Aguirre feels self-important.
“If somebody thinks that they're the reason why something happened more so than others, I’m not saying that’s the correct attitude to have because we’re a team.
“If somebody thinks that in their own mind, that’s not illegal, I’m not saying it’s good to think that. I’m just saying are we going to hold this because somebody feels like they were important?”
Aguirre left the meeting following the vote when members entered executive session to meet behind closed doors. He did not return to council chambers for the end of the regular meeting or attend the Public Works Authority meeting that followed.
