After nearly four months of discussions behind closed doors, Coos County Airport District board members have approved an abbreviated contract for Southwest Oregon Regional Airport Executive Director Gary LeTellier.

LeTellier’s contract, which would have expired in November 2008, will be cut off five months early, following a 3-0 vote Wednesday by Board Chairman Mike Lehman and board members John Briggs and Joe Benetti. Members Clair Jones and Helen Brunell-Mineau were absent.

“We’ve come up with a new contract through June 30, 2008,” Lehman said at the meeting. “After that, Gary’s contract will be month to month.”

Lehman explained that the original contract, entered into on Dec. 1, 2003, was to run for four years, through Nov. 30 this year. It would be automatically renewed for successive one-year periods if no notice of termination of the contract were presented by either party at least 180 days prior to the contract’s ending date.

That day came and went on June 2, catching board members unaware.

Lehman said this year’s board members had no prior knowledge of the contract provision.

“I was never made aware of it,” Benetti said. “One of the things we discussed is there has to be notification to the board.”

Lehman said if board members had received notification of the deadline, they could have avoided the conflict. Board members may have wanted to have the option to make some changes to the contract, he added.

“The issue with the contract was created because the board did not want this contract to go through without some say,” Lehman said. “The issue was whether the new board was bound by the old board’s contractual obligation.”

LeTellier declined to say anything about the shortened contract, except that he had known about the 180-day provision prior to June 2.

“We all signed the contract,” he said.

The contract had been signed by LeTellier and Jones, who was the district chairman at the time. Jones and Brunell-Mineau are the only remaining members from the 2003 board, which also included Sue Richardson, Judith Weeks and Michael Crow.

At a Nov. 20, 2003, board meeting, Weeks made the motion to approve the contract and Brunell-Mineau seconded it. The contract was unanimously approved.

Other changes in the new contract include 90-day compensation if LeTellier is terminated without cause after June 30, 2008. The original contract required one year of pay upon termination without cause. LeTellier’s annual salary is $103,400.

Lehman said the recent negotiations came at a busy time for the airport. Construction on a $17 million terminal is nearing completion and a $3 million air traffic control tower is under review by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“We did not want to be in the midst of a contract dispute while in the new terminal process,” he said, adding that he thinks the new contract will be something both the district and LeTellier can live with.

“It was just a great compromise,” he said. “We may enter into some new contract agreement after (the contract expires). There was no plan for the board, that said, ‘Come June 30 he will be terminated.’ It just means a different contract from then on.”

LeTellier nodded when asked if he was happy to move forward.

“Yeah,” he said. “There’s a consensus to move forward.”

The 59-year-old LeTellier began his career as a pilot and since then has held executive positions at airports, including: Macau International Airport in China, Southwest Florida International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He has worked for the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport since 1997.

“I spent my whole professional career as an airport executive,” LeTellier said. “I’ve always worked with a contract. Chief executives need contracts.”