Airport going-away party cost $22,418, draws ethics review

By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An elaborate going-away party for Ben DeCosta, general manager for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, cost $22,418 and is now under a city ethics review.

For a June 7 dinner feting DeCosta at the Georgia International Convention Center, more than $10,000 was spent for catering, $1,200 for entertainment and a song created for the departing airport official, $6,000 for audio-visual needs, $856 for flowers and $3,000 for a program, banner, posters, souvenir booklets and signs, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request.

Entertainment for the event included a tribute song to DeCosta entitled "Our GM" that was performed by Heather Hayes Experience; Hayes is the daughter of entertainer Isaac Hayes. DeCosta also was given a portrait of himself that cost $200.

The airport has said it did not use public funds for the 250-guest dinner, but questions surrounding the solicitation of sponsorship funds to pay for it from companies that do business with the airport prompted the office of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to ask the city ethics officer for a review.

Ethics officer Virginia Looney will determine whether there was a breach of the city's ethics code regarding the farewell event, the mayor's office said.

City ethics guidelines state that fund-raising solicitations by city officials "should not target prohibited sources such as those that do business with the city" unless the fund-raising is part of a "broad public appeal."

Neil Harris, Airport Area Chamber of Commerce executive director, whose organization was asked by the airport to collect event checks and pay vendors, said the amount spent on the DeCosta event was similar to what it has cost him to organize similar events.

Events such as mayoral inaugurations previously have been funded by private sponsors. In Cobb County earlier this year, private sponsors contributed $29,000 for a going-away event for former Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Olens, who resigned to run for state attorney general, donated nearly $18,000 of the money raised to charity. His event cost $11,000 and was not a dinner.

Event planners said the cost of DeCosta's event does not appear out of line compared to similar events. "Typically in the range of around $100 per person is about average," Beyond Events owner Amber Cleveland said.

The airport held the DeCosta event at the same time its workers learned who among them were losing their jobs. Last week, 67 airport employees were laid off because of a budget shortfall.

To pay for DeCosta's event, the airport collected $38,000 in sponsorships, much of it coming from airport contractors and businesses. It now intends to return $15,580 to sponsors.

City officials solicited the sponsorships, airport documents showed. For example, Hartsfield-Jackson’s ground transportation manager pursued sponsorships in the ground transportation industry, according to event planning meeting agenda.

Listed as event sponsors were airport concessionaires Flying Leap Inc., MBC Concessions Inc., Shellis Management Services, HMSHost, Global Concessions Inc., Aldeasa Atlanta, Areas USA Atlanta LLC, Paradies and Airport Retail Management; and consulting firms International Aviation Consultants LLC, B & E Jackson, PBS&J, HNTB, S.L. King & Associates and Jacobs JJG. Other sponsors were Hartsfield-Jackson Construction Management, TBI Airport Management, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Georgia Power.