Mention the words “Gwinnett County” to Brett Smith and you can almost see him recoil in pain.
Smith, an Emory grad, is the guy who worked quietly over the past year to nail down what had been contemplated for decades – a second commercial airport for metro Atlanta.
Smith’s rationale for creating a second airport in metro Atlanta seems compelling – he believes Atlanta is defying market forces by being the only top 10 market in America without two airports. Even so, no one knows whether it will work.
But if it does, and if I were interested in the economic future of Gwinnett County, I’d buy the guy a drink.
Smith labored futilely for three years to bring commercial service to Gwinnett’s Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville. He still confesses – ruefully – that Briscoe remains a superior choice for commercial service. He has particular regrets about abandoning the idea of placing a commercial airport so close to Athens and UGA.
Smith commuted between New York and Atlanta pushing the Briscoe plan, which he laid out in a 600-page proposal outlining his plans to invest $110 million. He believed the expansion would add thousands of jobs and $1 billion a year to the economy.
It all seemed such obviously good sense to him that he was astounded when the virtues of his vision were less obvious to others. At times, it seemed Smith was proposing a 500-acre toxic waste dump.
In June 2012, the county commission finally voted to kill the proposal. No question, many county residents hated the idea of expanding Briscoe to a 10-gate airport with flights to New York, Chicago, etc. They worried about the noise, the prospect of additional development and, frankly, they expressed a distinct lack of trust in their county leaders.
Their concerns may have been valid. We’ll never know. But Smith will tell you that the negatives were exaggerated and that his proposal never received a fair hearing in Gwinnett. Even officials who privately expressed support did little to sell it.
Smith was particularly annoyed that the county refused to share his proposal with the public because of the county’s bureaucratic rules. The county’s staff also rejected the proposal, but Smith and his lawyer argued their report was unfair and fatally flawed.
The proposal also became inextricably tangled with the perceived corruption of the county’s elected officials. Indeed, as Smith working his way through the process – two county commissioners were indicted and the chairman resigned under a cloud.
Federal officials said that disgraced commissioner Shirley Lassiter, who pleaded guilty on bribery charges, was actively marketing her vote on the airport. Smith denied he did anything wrong and expressed shock over the allegation. Nothing ever came of the allegation.
Smith took the defeat bitterly and never hid his frustration.
Mention Paulding County, and Smith nearly glows. He describes the place as some kind of businessman’s Nirvana. David Austin, the county chairman, is a good guy who you can talk to. When Smith refers to airport director Blake Swafford, it’s Blake this and Blake that.
Bureaucracy? What bureaucracy.
Smith’s describes Paulding officials as “pro-business” and “committed to economic development and growth” unlike leaders in you know where.
Things worked so smoothly that nearly a year after concluding the deal, no one who knew about the deal leaked it. He expects Silver Comet Field to begin scheduled commercial service soon and believes that it will prove a huge success.
Smith told me he chalks his Gwinnett experience to a lesson well learned. “The lesson I learned is that small special interests can derail economic growth and opportunity for an entire county,” Smith said. “Leaders have a responsibility to provide opportunities for growth for future generations – and they shouldn’t capitulate to small special interest politics when the greater good is at stake. On the other hand, Gwinnett’s loss is Paulding’s gain.”
If Smith is right, Paulding residents will find harmony with the airport as it creates 20,000 new jobs by 2020. It will produce some congestion relief to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and provide metro travelers a more competitive marketplace for airfares.
If he’s wrong, he will have blown a lot of money; or Paulding residents decide they hate the airport just as much as the folks in Gwinnett folks did.
If Smith’s wrong, Gwinnett residents will breathe a sigh of relief. If he’s right, then some deep and open reflection will be in order – if anyone has the stomach for it.
