Hangar owners must pay own Richland water bills, report finds
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- Port of Benton committee report says tenants should arrange & pay for city hookups.
- After the 2025 discovery, Richland cut water and sewer service to some hangars.
- Herb Brayton is the only tenant the report found with a city permit and legal hookup.
The Port of Benton agreed to extend water and sewer lines to private hangars at the Richland Airport in the late 1990s.
But it was the tenants’ responsibility to connect legally to those lines, and to pay their own utility bills.
Those are the conclusions of an investigation by the Richland Airport Utility Committee, tasked with looking into questions about water and sewer connections at certain hangars at the port-owned airport.
The report says only one tenant, Herb Brayton, secured legal permission to connect to city utilities when he built restroom facilities at his own expense for pilots and the public.
The city has since cut off water and sewer service to hangars that it says are using those utilities illegally. And the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating if any crimes were committed.
The 65-page port committee report was delivered to the commission at its May 11 meeting. But it wasn’t released to the public until the Tri-City Herald filed a Washington Public Records Act request.
The utility hookups are a key issue in an effort to recall Commissioners Scott Keller, Bill O’Neil and Lori Stevens from office. The state Supreme Court is set to consider the issue on July 2.
An attorney representing the recall supporters said it is still possible to put the recall before voters in November if the high court allows it to proceed and enough signatures are gathered quickly enough to qualify for the ballot.
Port committee report
The port’s elected commission created the Richland Airport Utility Committee in February. The six members include four port employees, a representative of its law firm and a property manager.
Commissioner O’Neil, president of the board, released a lengthy statement to the Herald in response to questions about the report. Commissioners Keller and Stevens did not respond to the same questions.
“Those are great questions, and as we further evaluate this report, we will be formulating the best options going forward. Both for the tenants and the Port of Benton,” he wrote.
“Working through legacy agreements and issues arising from them is the most challenging. Applying today’s standards and/or requirements to a decades-old agreement is unfair, but bringing it up to date is also our responsibility to our community,” he said.
“The Port is working through all options to resolve this issue. We appreciate your patience as we do so. As far as maintaining accurate and complete records going forward, the Port’s current system of meeting minutes, video recordings, and document retention is leaps and bounds above what was done 25 years ago. That said, we are always striving to improve records retention and accountability to the public,” O’Neil wrote.
Key findings are:
- “(A)n original agreement existed whereby tenants would fund a water and sewer realignment and extension to service ground leased property, but that agreement was not done in exchange for payment by the Port of water utilities for those properties.”
- “(T)he plans called for the construction of sanitary water and sewer services terminating at end-of-service markers. The plans did not call for connection to tenant building/improvements.”
- “On November 19, 1999, (Herb) Brayton was issued (a city building permit) for the addition of a pilot’s lounge....to include a bathroom and water connection to the port’s existing water meter.”
- “Mr. Brayton is the only tenant who has a permit to install water to his hangar building.”
- “The Port requires tenants to follow the law when connecting to utilities. The tenants should be required to facilitate the appropriate hookup and payment of their own city utility bills.”
- “The Port cannot install its own meter on a water line providing City water and charge tenants itself.”
2025 utility discovery
The port commissioned the review after the city of Richland discovered unpermitted utility connections during a fire hydrant inspection at the airport in 2025.
One of the affected hangars is owned by Scott Keller, a port commissioner and former executive director who bought the hangar in 2017.
The port subsequently hired a surveyor, which confirmed the unexpected connections via ground penetrating radar.
This spring, Richland cut service to the hangars, saying they did not respond to requests for them to comply with city codes.
Brayton confirmed to the Herald his hangar was not cut off and said the port continues to pay his utility fees.
The committee members are: Bryan Bell, the port’s construction project manager; Summers Miya, the port’s marketing and communications manager; Quentin Wright, the port’s airport manager; Sheri Collins, the port’s contract specialist; John O’Leary of Gravis Law, the port’s law firm; and Mark Underwood, who works for an airport tenant.
The committee noted it was unable to interview city officials. The city previously has declined to have the city police department investigate claims of wrongdoing, saying it is a potential victim. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, instead, is conducting a criminal investigation into the allegations.
Generally, the committee said poor records made it difficult to confirm past agreements.
However, it said there was reason to believe an agreement existed where tenants would pay the $21,000 cost to extend water and sewer service to the area around Butler Loop, where the private hangars were built.
The agreement is mentioned in a 1999 letter written by Brayton and addressed to Keller, then the airport’s manager. It did not constitute an agreement, but confirmed actions that were later carried out.
Richland Airport hangar review
The utility committee review covered hangars along Butler Loop.
- 2050 Butler Loop (Bing Manawadu, now deceased)
- 2049 Butler Loop (The Axe LLC, owned by Port of Benton Commissioner Scott Keller)
- 2048 Butler Loop (James Leedy)
- 2060 Butler Loop (Hangar 2060 LLC, owned by Herbert Brayton)
- 2082 Butler Loop (Richland 13 Hangars c/o Herb Brayton)
- 2096, 2094 and 2090 Butler Loop (C&H Aviation Ventures LLC, owned by Ryan Hone and Dennis Collins)
Election recall effort
The current recall effort of the three port commissioners centers on the January 2026 decision to place Executive Director Diahann Howard on leave pending an investigation, to fire its new finance director, and its handling of an outside investigation that found Keller violated port policies and state law on four occasions.
The complaints that led to the outside investigation by law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt were lodged by Howard and by former Port Commissioner Roy Keck. O’Neil defeated Keck in the November 2025 election.
A Benton County Superior Court Judge allowed the recall to proceed on limited grounds.
The commission have asked the Washington Supreme Court to stop the recall, arguing their actions were within the scope of their roles as elected leaders.
The court will consider the matter when it meets July 2. There will be no oral arguments.
The commission recently temporarily suspended its investigation into Howard pending a ruling by the Supreme Court.