The Federal Aviation Administration has again ruled that Yavapai County and the Sedona-Oak Creek Airport Authority violated the agency’s economic nondiscrimination policies “by failing to provide reasonable accommodations” to Sedona Air Tours, a helicopter tour provider that had previously leased space at the airport.
Sedona Air Tours, owned and operated by the Brunner family, has been operating in the Verde Valley since 1994, when it was under the umbrella of Dakota Territory Tours. In 1999, Eric Brunner incorporated Solid Edge Aviation LLC, which began managing Dakota.
In 2017, SOCAA issued a request for proposals to select an exclusive air tour operator for the airport, and the contract was awarded to Guidance Air, one of Dakota’s competitors. The award set off a legal dispute to stop the RFP process. Following a year of legal proceedings, SOCAA issued Dakota an eviction notice on April 19, 2019. On May 9, the FAA associate administrator for airports reaffirmed the agency’s director’s determination of July 29, 2021.
If Yavapai County and SOCAA wish to appeal the decision, they will have to do so in federal court.
In its complaint to the FAA, Sedona Air Tours argued that SOCAA had unfairly denied the company access to the airport by rejecting its request for a lease, selecting a rival firm as the sole permitted operator of helicopter tours and charging it the $75 landing fee assessed to transient aircraft.
The county is SOCAA’s insurer and will ultimately be on the hook for damages owed if the airport loses its case — on top of what it has already sunk into trying to evict Sedona Air Tours.
The airport’s legal fees were $705,000 in 2017, $685,000 in 2018, $762,000 in 2019 and $982,000 in 2020. SOCAA General Manager Ed Rose said that the airport’s legal fees since 2021 “have been in the neighborhood of $600,000 a year, paid for 100% by the dollars we make here.”Rose couldn’t say if SOCAA would appeal the latest decision and clarified that it would be a mutual decision of SOCAA’s board and Yavapai County. He also clarified that the FAA’s latest decision will not require SOCAA to repay any federal grants that have already been disbursed.
“They simply won’t consider any grant applications for airport improvement program funds until it’s resolved,” Rose said. “But we’ll still work with the FAA to have them understand what our program is, regardless of whether they’re going to accept applications for these projects or not. They’re still going to be on our plan.”
Eric Brunner declined to respond to questions about the possibility of his company’s return to SOCAA.
“Milly [Brunner] is the one that has suffered most fromthis,” said her attorney, Keen Ellsworth, of Silver State Law. “She’s lost everything. She owned Dakota and by the acts of Yavapai County and SOCAA, they’ve completely destroyed Dakota, [it’s] in bankruptcy and being liquidated as we speak … That was her sole source of income, and it’s gone.”
If the county and airport decide to appeal, they will have to show that the FAA acted without justification or evidence in its findings. Ellsworth said his opinion is that they have a slim chance of prevailing on a federal appeal.
Ellsworth added that Milly Brunner will be seeking economic and non-economic damages for lost revenue and the valuation of the company.
The Brunner family has been operating out of the Cottonwood airport since being evicted from Sedona. According to Ellsworth, they ceased operations from that location in October 2022 due to their financial unviability.
“It ruined Sedona Air, that company had to file bankruptcy,” Ellsworth said. “Even then, Yavapai County and SOCAA opposed their effort to prepare a plan of reorganization; their original filing [was] with Chapter 11. But they opposed that so much that the bankruptcy court didn’t think a plan was feasible, in large part because SOCAA and Yavapai County opposed it … The court converted it to Chapter Seven, which means the business is shut down and all assets are liquidated. So there is no Sedona Air and there’s [nothing] to operate because Dakota was the operating entity, and so there’s no way Dakota can come back in and have a spot at the airport.”
Solid Edge Aviation, which is a separate company, does still have some aircraft and did not declare bankruptcy.
Ellsworth said that he is drafting a lawsuit and intends to file it immediately if the county and SOCAA don’t resolve the matter with him. The lawsuit will also eventually include all of the individuals who were involved in SOCAA’s discrimination against Dakota or Sedona Air because federal law imposes personal liability on those involved in discriminatory actions.
“When we file the lawsuit we will immediately engage in discovery and find out who those individuals were, and then the complaint will be amended to add them personally,” Ellsworth said. “Milly is sick of waiting for Yavapai County and SOCAA to do the right thing. She’s hurt because she’s lost her entire company … She’s saying ‘They need to pay for everything that I’m entitled to receive.’ Those are my marching orders … If they want to resolve it, they better do it quickly.”
Yavapai County and SOCAA have not been in contact with the Brunner family since the decision was issued, Ellsworth said. Yavapai County officials did not respond to a request for comment.
