Thank you Commissioners, Port Executives and Staff.
My name is David Montanaro and I am the managing Partner of
Pallino in the Central Terminal. We have been serving
travelers, Port Employees and other workers at the airport
since 2005.
I am also a member of the Small Business Airport Action
Committee, a group formed to communicate the concerns and
challenges facing small business concessionaires. We recently
wrote to you with our suggestions for a comprehensive solution
and to request we be included as true partners in discussions
concerning relief efforts.
I, along with many of my colleagues, are speaking here today to
further share with you our belief that the viability and vitality of
the concession program at SeaTac, a program we are all proud
of and worked so hard to create, is at risk.
The current proposal to defer rent for two months with a
“possible” additional two-month deferral, while well
intentioned, is tone deaf if it is expected to be anywhere near
enough to preserve the concession program.
Whether our businesses remain open or closed, costs are piling
up and revenues are lost forever. Pallino has chosen to stay
open as a service to the airport community and to support as
many of our employees as possible with what work is available.
Sales barely cover the cost of the food we are serving let along
all other expenses and employee relief.
The PPP program that many of us have applied for is a band aid
and will not make a dent in piling expenses.
Some of us experienced the 2008 downturn and a few 9/11.
Both times it took years for traffic to resume to previous pre-
collapse levels. No one can be certain how long it will take us
post Covid
Today’s situation will be far worse as there are many more of
us sharing what is, and will be, for quite some time, a much
smaller pie.
Plans, agreements and expectations crafted in a pre-Covid
world are untenable in a Post Covid environment with all the
uncertainty that comes with it. The sooner we can all get
beyond the “IF” contracts and arrangements have to change
and start focusing on the “How” and “When” the closer we will
be to a workable solution.
As small businesses, we do not have access to the public
markets for funds, large balance sheets, or a team of lobbyists
and executives with access at all levels of government. For us it
is not only business, it is personal.
The Port and Commission continually profess to support and
promote small businesses and to value the diversity,
commitment and personality we bring to the airport. If that is
truly the case, their needs to be collaboration, consideration
and accommodation for our unique situation.
Public testimony at these meetings is an important element of
the public process. That said as Port tenants and partners we
should not have to use this forum to be heard and
communicate our needs. We do not see the airlines executives
and other large operators having to come here to testify to let
their needs be known. They are already part of the discussion.
Thank you for your consideration.