Clerk, commissioner clash over RSW terminal safety records

The Terminal Expansion project at Southwest Florida International Airport is facing renewed scrutiny, this time from the Lee County Clerk of Courts, who is challenging a Lee County commissioner over the relevance and custody of public safety records tied to a recent audit. 

The project, managed by Manhattan Construction Co. and AtkinsRéalis, is more than three years behind schedule and more than $300 million over its original budget. 

While an audit concluded that the Lee County Port Authority’s Airside Operations and Safety departments appeared to comply with applicable rules and regulations, the clerk said the review was conducted with incomplete information because key records were withheld. 

“I believe the Port Authority intentionally impeded the auditor’s ability to gather sufficient audit evidence to express an opinion on certain issues,” Clerk of Court Kevin Karnes wrote, describing the review as having a “limitation of scope.” 

Karnes said the Port Authority failed to provide safety inspections conducted by contractors from August 2023 to October 2024 and minutes from weekly safety meetings with construction contractors from October 2023 to October 2024. 

That period is critical to understanding what went wrong during construction, how problems were identified and whether the public was ever at risk after incorrect steel stresses were incorporated into the structure, according to an email sent by a Port Authority project manager who later resigned. 

“We all know I was the one that caught the failing steel connections that would have collapsed the building that night (per your engineers), but instead we removed weight and shored up the steel keeping the building from collapsing,” Anthony Bonacci wrote in an email to airport leaders shortly before resigning in August 2024. 

Bonacci, who worked for the Port Authority for about three years, could not be reached for comment. Without the weekly safety meeting minutes, the public remains unaware of the incident Bonacci referenced, including when elected officials first learned of the failing steel connections. 

Although no Lee County property taxes fund the terminal expansion, airline passengers pay ticketing fees, portions of which support the project. 

In Lee County, the Board of County Commissioners also serves as the Port Authority’s governing board. Commissioners Cecil Pendergrass and Brian Hamman did not respond to requests for comment. Patricia Petrosky, who took office Dec. 15 after being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the seat vacated by the death of Mike Greenwell, did not respond to an email. Kevin Ruane’s office said he was out for the holidays. 

Commissioner David Mulicka, elected in November 2024, disputed Karnes’ position, arguing that the requested records fall outside the scope of the audit. 

“The Port Authority and the Board of County Commissioners are pro audit and pro transparency,” Mulicka said. “Period. When I have questions, I want answers. 

“Just to be clear, the clerk is auditing the Airside Operations,” Mulicka said. “Airside operations in common speak means where airplanes travel. Where do they land, where do they taxi, where do they dock? Ramps, apron areas and on-airport fuel farms. 

“The clerk’s audit, for this report, should be confined to those operations in those areas. Phase 1 is basically an interior remodel of an existing building. It is not where airplanes travel. If you want to audit Phase 1, do a Phase 1 audit. I’m concerned that the clerk doesn’t know the scope of his audit.” 

Karnes maintained that the records are necessary for an accurate airside audit and said the Port Authority is the custodian of those records. 

Florida’s public records law supports that position, defining public records broadly as materials “made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency.” 

State statute 119.07 states: “Every person who has custody of a public record shall permit the record to be inspected and copied by any person desiring to do so, at any reasonable time, under reasonable conditions, and under supervision by the custodian of the public records.” 

At the Lee County Port Authority, that custodian is Director of Communications Vicki Moreland. 

On Dec. 18, Gulfshore Business requested the same safety records sought by the clerk’s office. Moreland initially responded that the safety meeting minutes had been provided to auditors and acknowledged the public records request. 

“I will provide what was asked for and given to the Clerk’s office,” she wrote in an email, noting that time was needed to respond. 

Later that day, Moreland reversed course. 

“The Lee County Port Authority is not the custodian of the ‘weekly safety meeting minutes,’” she wrote. “These are landside reports that are produced by the contractors on the projects and, in any event, would not be part of an airside audit. If you want these reports, you will need to reach out to the independent companies for that information. We did advise the auditors that these reports did not reside with the Port Authority, which they acknowledged.” 

The two emails, sent roughly four hours apart, offered conflicting explanations regarding whether the Port Authority possesses the records. They also mirrored what Karnes and his auditors experienced. Email correspondence shows the Port Authority initially agreed in May to provide the records to auditors and had already shared some safety documents before reversing its position in June. 

In the audit’s cover letter, Karnes said he hoped raising the issue publicly would prompt commissioners to help his office obtain the records. 

As of publication, Gulfshore Business had not received the documents. 

“I think there’s a big story in these safety meeting minutes,” Karnes said. “If they’re doing weekly site meeting safety meetings, there should be 52 documents that should be labeled by date. Ownership of the documents is always the Port Authority.”