Tampa International Airport’s chief executive officer welcomed the possibility of an audit as suggested by state Sen. Tom Lee last week.
“We get audited all the time,” Joe Lopano said last week at a meeting of the St. Petersburg City Council.
The Tampa Bay Business Journal reported Lopano was on hand to present the $543 million Phase 2 of TIA’s three-part expansion.
Council member Charlie Gerdes addressed Lee’s call for an audit: “I’m not asking this to ask you to defend yourself. What is that all about?”
“That’s the elephant in the room, right?” Lopano said, explaining airport officials “expect to be held accountable” for state money.
“The reality is that the state has given us a grant which we’ve been very grateful for,” he explained.
TBBJ notes that the state awarded $194 million in grants to develop SkyConnect, a mostly automated people mover project as part of Phase 1 of TIA’s master expansion plan.
“We expect an audit,” Lopano added. “We get audited all the time.”
Lopano pointed out that TIA is audited by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Administration and both external and internal auditors.
“To be audited by the state is fine,” he said. “Join the club.”
Completion of Phase 1 of the expansion — costing $971 million — is scheduled for next year.
Lopano told the Council that Phase 2 will be less expensive than originally planned.
“It was already 5 years old,” he said. “And as you know the world changes a lot in five years.”
In that time, projected costs rose from $1.7 billion to over $2 billion, leaving airport officials to overhaul Phase 2 to make the project affordable.
“By taking some things out, we reduced the cost estimates by 20 percent,” Lopano said.
Phase 2 — now at about $543 million — includes $194 million for curb expansion and $121 million for the Gateway Development, a 17-acre site for hotels, office and retail space.
