Well, it’s July and in Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Division, there is celebrating going on. Why are the champagne corks flying you might ask? Well, it’s because of this little provision here tucked into our license agreement for space rental.
Fees and Charges for Assigned Spaces are established in a Schedule of Fees and Charges adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the COUNTY and may be revised from time to time. In addition, the Schedule of Fees and Charges shall be adjusted annually according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). LICENSEE shall be required to pay, and LICENSEE hereby agrees to pay, the changed or revised Fees and Charges on the effective date thereof. Thirty days notice of any such change in Fees and Charges shall be provided in writing to LICENSEE by COUNTY.
This is a neat little trick by the County. If the CPI adjusts upwards, the rent goes up. If it decreases or remains the same, the rent stays the same. The only way to decrease the rent is by re-approval of rates by the Board of Supervisors. This year, I received an increase of $17/mo, to bring my total monthly rent to an astronomical $717/mo. A debate can be had on whether an extra $400 a year is “small” in the overall cost of aircraft ownership, its the principle of the matter that the price and any sort of increase should be commensurate with what you get.
Since I pay all this money, I must receive something of quality in return right? Don’t bet next month’s hangar rent on it. Maintenance issues logged on the County’s maintenance request portal languish for months without any change in status or updates. The County claims they use the ticketing system to group similar requests so that they’re able to have them all fixed at once rather than individually.
When I moved into my hangar, it was incredibly dirty with a thick layer of dust through the hangar. In the winter months when it rains a lot, I’ve discovered that the roof has several leak. Other tenants at the airport have roof leaks, pest problems (snakes, rats, etc) and inoperative equipment (doors, electricity). One tenant who shares a wall with the restrooms at the end of each hangar row, has the bathroom water leaking into his hangar on the side of the wall. Other issues have been well documented in San Martin Airport is a $hithole.
Overall, the airport is in deterioration from years of systematic neglect and under spending yet they keep raising the prices and crying poor when any maintenance request is filed. Given the number of hangars at the airport and using my annual increase as the average (some will be more, some will be less), the County stands to collect $30,000 more in hangar rents than they did last year. However when we ask for simple things such as paper towels or clean bathrooms, they say they can’t afford a vendor (it is reported that County employees feel it is beneath them to do this work) to clean and service the bathrooms (my wife refuses to use them they’re so disgusting). I would love to know what this money is actually spent on, because it isn’t at E16.