By all accounts the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport has a bright future ahead of it. A runway expansion, more services in the works, and the hope that corporate customers will be attracted to its facilities and proximity to Pittsburgh are all part of what makes the airport’s future look so good.

But no one said there wouldn’t be speed bumps. On Thursday night tensions bubbled to the surface at the airport authority’s board meeting, where county Commissioner Kim Geyer said commissioners — who appoint members to the seven-person board — said the county wants an injection of fresh perspectives and ideas.

Board chairman Harry Boben — who along with treasurer-secretary Bill Giallombardo resigned from the board Thursday night in protest — disagreed, saying that commissioners should not be selecting members of the authority.

At-issue, apparently, is commissioners’ demand that the airport authority’s board of directors abide by the same best-practices we would expect from any government body or multi-million-dollar organization.

The disagreement has been going on for two years now, and began after airport manager Ike Kelly took the job while still serving as a board member. Commissioners recommended the board replace Kelly after he was hired to a paid position. Board members declined to do so, and Kelly continued to serve on the board until September, when his four-year term expired.

Now, with the resignations of Boben and Giallmobardo, commissioners have two seats to fill in addition to Kelly’s, which has been vacant these past 5 months.

Geyer, after Thursday’s meeting, reiterated why commissioners objected to Kelly’s continued service on the board after being hired as airport manager.

“It’s not a sound practice,” Geyer said.

Members may not like it, but Geyer is correct. It’s simply not acceptable for an employee to hold a voting seat on the board of the organization that cuts them a paycheck. It opens that organization up to all manner of potential conflicts of interest and allegations of impropriety.

That said, no one has accused Mr. Kelly of anything. And by all accounts he is an invaluable resource, having helped shepherd the facility through a name change as well as tens of millions of dollars worth of improvement and expansion projects in recent years.

We hope Kelly continues his good work. With a multi-million-dollar runway expansion project in the works and the possibility of expanding services already in the airport’s long-range plans, a steady and knowledgeable hand at the wheel is of the utmost importance.

But Kelly does not need to sit on the authority’s board of directors to help guide the airport into prosperity and success. What he needs is a board of thoughtful and dedicated individuals who value his input and are committed to providing thorough oversight.

In the past, Kelly has shared his belief that the county’s airport is destined for great successes in the years to come. The best way to realize those goals is to eschew the kind of protracted squabbles and bad blood a that apparently were behind Thursday’s resignations.

—PAR