ESCANABA — The results of a months-long investigation into the past administration of the Delta County Airport was made public record Tuesday, after the Federal Aviation Administration decided to take no action on the findings.

“They’re satisfied with Graham’s investigation. I don’t believe they’re going to move forward with anything, and that’s good news,” said Delta County Board of Commissioners Chair Dave Moyle during Tuesday’s statutory board meeting.

An email responding to the investigation conducted by the county’s attorney, Scott Graham, was read into the record as part of Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young’s administrator’s report.

“The FAA’s previous investigation … was prompted by the certificate holder failing to provide the required documentation and records. We have reviewed your memo and concluded there is nothing for the FAA to further pursue. As of February 7, 2024, the FAA has closed out the investigation with a Warning Letter. We will continue to work with current management to maintain compliance with the regulation. We appreciate the airport’s transparency and its attitude toward compliance,” the letter read in part.

The board approved waiving its right to attorney client privilege regarding the memorandum sent to the board by Graham detailing the investigation’s findings. However, the bulk of the investigation remains confidential due to sensitive security information (SSI).

“My conclusion can be summarized as follows: Andrea Nummilien, the Delta County Airport Manager in the first half of 2023, subjected the airport and the county to serious jeopardy by performing her duties in a grossly negligent manner that jeopardized continued airport operations. She may have intended to harm the airport and the county by sabotaging the annual inspection,” Graham wrote in the memo.

According to the memo, Nummilien failed to prepare information necessary for a periodic inspection. She then told the FAA she had a scheduling conflict in an attempt to postpone the inspection, but the FAA was only willing to reschedule to an earlier date. Nummilien agreed to the date and falsely told the FAA that documents were uploaded to the FAA’s information portal, but quit before the inspection took place “with no meaningful notice to the airport or the county.”

“The airport manager spent her last two days of work shredding documents and cooking for her friends. A reasonable inference is that the airport manager destroyed records that showed the extent of her misconduct,” Graham said in the memo.

The memo also states that Nummilien left the airport office “in shambles” with “piles of documents out in the open,” including some that contained SSI, and that there are still concerns about whether the she mismanaged the payment of airport funds to contractors who work at the airport.

“The airport manager was, at the least, grossly negligent in fulfilling her work duties. The airport manager is potentially criminally liable for her actions,” wrote Graham.

In footnotes throughout the document, Graham suggests the county pass the information on the the FAA, which would then decide whether to send it on to the FBI for criminal prosecution. He references the “dynamics” in the county and a segment of the community that would reject a negative report about Nummilien.

“The present hostility apparently control many opinions regardless of what happened. The FAA should decide whether further action will occur. This is the closest that the county will come to (an) impartial third party whose opinion may be accepted by all. This is unfortunate, but it appears to be a fact of life in the county,” wrote Graham.

Nummilien herself spoke Tuesday about her time with the airport. Her comments came after the email from the FAA declining to pursue the matter was read and after the board voted to release the memo but before the memo was publicly available.

“You can come up here and spew the lies that you want to spew. I know the truth. I have evidence. I don’t know what your gain was from this other than costing the taxpayers a ton of money. All of these findings could have been taken care of in June before they were due. You chose not to,” said Nummilien, who said she had offered to come back and finish the inspection and had provided contact information for someone to come train the new assistant airport manager hired shortly before her departure.

Nummilien also said she was “begging” the county for help during the three month period when she was without an assistant at the airport. Instead of offering assistance, Nummilien said county commissioners spread lies about a security breach and targeted her for political reasons.

Moyle, who said “the citizens came within one hour of losing the airport,” presented the idea Tuesday to have the current and any future airport managers bring evidence of the airport’s compliance with FAA regulations to the county board annually. A formal motion to do so was made by Commissioner Bob Petersen and seconded by Commissioner Bob Barron.

Commissioners John Malnar and Steve Viau opposed the move. Malnar argued that other boards are not required to make similar reports. Viau argued that any policy adopted by the commission regarding the reports would likely be forgotten unless the airport fell out of compliance in the future — something he didn’t see happening.

When it came to a vote, the commission split 3-2, with Viau and Malnar dissenting.