Former Board Chairman Hired As New Highlands Airport Manager

ABINGDON, Va. – When the search for a new manager for the Virginia Highlands Airport fell through, the authority charged with filling the position looked in a new but familiar place: amongst themselves.

Days before the outgoing manager was set to retire, lacking a replacement, members of the Virginia Highlands Airport Authority approached their chairman, Mickey Hines, and offered him the job.

Hines, 66, has been a sales manager for Wholesale Vinyls for the last nine years. He resigned from the authority’s board last Thursday, and accepted the position on Friday.

"Obviously, I couldn’t be on the board and be manager, too," Hines said in an interview.

In fact, the authority has a written policy that prohibits the hiring of a board member. James Elliot, the authority’s attorney, said it is not a conflict of interest "as long as he’s not a member of the board of directors at the time he’s hired.

"To my knowledge, [Hines] has done nothing in terms of structuring any vote that would have benefited him," Elliott said.

Hines and the remaining six board members – who are appointed by the Washington County Board of Supervisors – do not appear to have violated any state or local laws.

But neither have they strictly adhered to their own personnel policy in hiring Hines, who was formally approved late Wednesday and will start his new $55,000 job on April 28.

The airport authority falls under the umbrella of county government, and receives about 12 percent of its budget from county funds, but it operates independently and exercises full authority for hiring personnel.

The search to fill the manager position, occupied for 11 years by Ron Deloney, began last August when the airport authority engaged the search firm Springsted for $9,500. The firm presented the authority’s board members with a slate of candidates, and three – all out-of-state – were selected as finalists and flown in for interviews, members said.

As chairman, Hines was involved in interviewing the applicants, and extended one of them an offer in February. The applicant accepted, only to renege on March 19, less than a week before his starting date, and less than two weeks before Deloney would retire.

But instead of re-posting the vacancy and again notifying the original applicants, board members on March 24 held a closed meeting without Hines, and subsequently approached him about the job.

"Quite honestly, it was a surprise to him," said Mark Nelson, the authority’s vice chairman who first asked Hines about taking the manager’s job. "We were looking for the best candidate we could find. None of us sitting around the table thought any of us would be interested in running the airport," he said.

Kenny Hobbs, who has been on the board for three years, said, "In my mind, it seems like there was two separate processes," referring to filling the airport manager’s position.

Hines did not go through the same interview process as the other applicants, board members said, which requires references, a pre-employment skills test and criminal background check.

"Everybody’s seen him doing the job for the last three years as chairman," Hobbs said. "I feel better about Mickey doing it than any of the previous candidates."

As manager, Hines will be responsible for daily operations at the airport, keeping it in compliance with legal regulations, and procuring federal and state grants. He will also take the reins of a controversial project to extend the airport’s runway, years in the works, which he said Wednesday night would be his long-term priority.

Nelson said that Hines, an Abingdon native, "has the qualities to do the work that needs to be done" at the airport.

"He’s familiar with the area, he has the financial expertise, he’s a people-oriented person and he knows the inner workings of the airport," Nelson said.

Hines will bring a starkly different skill set to the job than his predecessor, Deloney, a retired Marine Corps colonel with extensive aviation experience. Deloney did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Hines is a civilian with a career in sales and customer service. He once flew planes privately, but has not held a license in at least 20 years, he said. He never considered putting in for the manager’s position – not even when he offered the job to an applicant – Hines said.

He mulled it over for two days before accepting the offer.

"I think [the board] liked to have someone local who knew the people, who could give folks the attention they deserve," he said.

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