City, Corey strike deal on airport ad dispute

By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The city of Atlanta has struck a $3.9 million settlement in the long-running legal battle over an airport advertising contract.

The city earlier this year appealed a federal jury’s decision last year to award $17.5 million in total damages to Atlanta businessman Billy Corey and his company, Corey Airport Services.

The settlement announced Thursday ends the city’s appeal of its portion of the verdict.

“I hope that this is the end of a very long and divisive episode in the life of the city of Atlanta,” Mayor Kasim Reed said.

“I believe that this is the right thing to do,” Reed added. Under the settlement the city admits no liability or wrongful conduct.

“This has been a long, hard battle for me,” Corey said Thursday, adding that he has had many discussions with Reed about the dispute since the mayor was elected.

Corey claimed the city and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport broke the law by steering a contract to a competitor with political connections.

The jury verdict called for Corey to get $8.5 million in compensatory damages, to be paid in thirds by the city, winning bidder Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. and businesswoman Barbara Fouch, and $9 million in punitive damages from Clear Channel and Fouch.

Reed said the decision to settle is part of his effort to close matters lingering from the previous administration.

Corey lost out on the airport advertising contract in 2002. He argued in his suit that the bidding process at the airport was corrupt, citing instances of cronyism and bribery in the airport’s past. The federal suit was filed in 2004 against Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and originally also named then-Mayor Shirley Franklin and more than a dozen other city officials as defendants.

A settlement means “a huge savings in legal fees,” to the benefit of taxpayers, said John Sherman, president of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation.

The legal battle with Corey had cost the city about $3.5 million in legal expenses prior to the jury decision last July, then-acting city attorney Peter Andrews said at the time. Reed said that if the city continued the appeal and lost, the city’s liability could have risen to as high as $12 million including legal expenses, damages and attorneys’ fees associated with the claim.

Corey said he hopes to settle with Clear Channel soon.

Clear Channel has continued to operate the advertising contract on a month-to-month basis. Reed said he expects the city will rebid the contract within 90 days using a different process with more openness and transparency.

Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Louis Miller said he was glad Corey and the city worked out a settlement, adding that the deal makes it clearer that the airport can move forward with the request for proposals process for a new advertising contract.