WATSONVILLE—The city of Watsonville must pay attorney fees and court costs to a business at Watsonville Municipal Airport after losing in a civil case earlier this year, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge ruled Monday.
In the Dec. 6 ruling, Judge Timothy Volkmann ordered the city to pay $301,140 to United Flight Services (UFS) for expenses incurred while battling a decision by Airport Manager Rayvon Williams to place barriers that blocked one of the business’ access points to the runway.
The case began in 2019, when Williams placed the barriers along one ramp leading to the taxiway. City Manager Matt Huffaker said that the barriers were placed after airport employees saw UFS customers and employees driving through the ramp instead of using Aviation Way, which he says created a safety issue.
UFS owner Terry McKenna said that Williams gave no warning before moving them into place, and that they seriously impacted his business, with revenue losses of in the tens of thousands per week.
McKenna sued in 2019, and after a protracted legal battle, Volkmann in July ordered the airport to remove the barricades.
Attorney Glynn Falcon, who represented UFS, says that there were no accidents in relation to the ramp since 1965, and pointed out that the company has a $3 million liability insurance policy. He also says it is UFS, not the city, that would be responsible for an accident.
Falcon also pointed out that, while Federal Aviation Administration guidelines state that traffic should be limited on transient ramps, there are no specific federal rules that would prohibit UFS’s access or justify the barricades.
Neither Huffaker, Williams nor McKenna responded to a request for comment as of noon on Tuesday.
