A concessionaire has lost its administrative appeal seeking to overturn the awarding of restaurant contracts in a massive overhaul of food services at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
A hearing officer rejected the appeal that SSP America Inc. filed after losing out on the five largest contracts awarded earlier this year for restaurants at Hartsfield-Jackson, the world's busiest airport. Atlanta's chief procurement officer had already denied SSP's protest of the contract decisions before the appeal had been filed.
Hearing officer George Maynard wrote in his ruling late Tuesday that SSP "made an impressive showing of presenting a plethora of objections" to the contracting process, "but none of these objections merit overturning" the chief procurement officer's decision.
Attorneys for SSP had argued that politically favored companies won city contracts even though they didn't fulfill all the requirements in their proposals. The attorneys also argued over three days of hearings that evaluators didn't follow procedures and that the solicitation should have included a conspicuous statement prohibiting gratuities and kickbacks but didn't. They also alleged that Airport Concessions Director Paul Brown had conflicts of interest.
The legal team representing the city had argued that state and city codes allow the city discretion to choose winning contractors even if those companies' proposals aren't perfect.
The ruling said the city "acted fully within its authority."
"The City had the absolute discretion" to waive forms and irregularities it didn't deem material, the ruling said. It also said "the evidence unequivocally shows that the evaluators were given no directive or instruction as to which proposals should win from Mayor [Kasim] Reed, his administration, or from any other source."
The ruling said there is no evidence Brown had any conflict of interest, and that there was no evidence that the lack of a conspicuous notice prohibiting gratuities and kickbacks was an issue.
The burden that SSP would have had to meet to reverse the city's decision was to show a "gross abuse of discretion," in other words "an arbitrary and unreasonable act or conclusion as to shock the sense of justice and indicate lack of fair and careful consideration," the ruling said.
SSP attorney Ken Hodges has said he would take the matter to Fulton County Superior Court if the administrative appeal failed.
