Clergy for Change, People United To Lead the Struggle for Equality (PULSE), the NAACP and a group of Baptist ministers have announced their participation in a community protest planned for Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the offices of Opa-Locka Flightline, an FBO threatened with eviction by Miami-Dade County's Aviation Department and AA Acquisitions, the designated leaseholder on much of the airport property.

Airport tenants have been up in arms since AAA began issuing eviction letters and raising rents. Opa-Locka Flightline alleges discrimination on the part of the county and AAA and has filed a preliminary FAA Part 16 complaint, as have others. Along with many of the aggrieved tenants who are Hispanic, Opa-Locka Flightline has engaged an attorney Willie Gary, a high-profile litigator in the Miami area. The fixed-base operator stakes its claim as the only African-American owned and operated FBO in the nation.

Tenants met with County Commissioner Barbara Jordan in late March to air their grievances, and Jordan agreed only to look into the matter. In a recent report in the Miami Times, Jordan "voiced grave concerns about the future of the embattled Opa-Locka Flightline" and "would like nothing more than to sit down and negotiate." The report states that because of the threatened action by attorney Gary, "she feels her options gradually slipping away."

On April 7, PULSE Executive Director Nathaniel J. Wilcox wrote a letter to Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez alleging "gross mishandling of lease agreements, County Resolutions, and verbal agreements" having an adverse effect on Opa-Locka Flightline. Wilcox called the county's actions "racist and systematic obstructionist policy toward Opa-Locka Flightline with the objective of putting them out of business."

Whereas the county alleges that Opa-Locka Flightline is in arrears on its rent, the FBO counters that it has withheld payment in protest of the treatment it has received. Wilcox further states that AAA was found during a county audit to be 90 days past due on $252,030, and further, that the developer was in violation of its obligation to provide $22.6 million in leasehold improvements within 18 months of acquiring the lease, or by Sept. 9, 2008.

A number of tenants have already shut down or abandoned their businesses. AAA says it intends to develop "Airside International Business Park" at the airport, complete with upscale hangar facilities and other amenities. The company has said that the existing tenants prevent its proceeding with the required improvements and also cites the current economy as stalling plans to move ahead. (See the "The Opa-Locka War" in the June issue of Business & Commercial Aviation magazine.)

Photo credit: Miami-Dade Aviation Dept.