A government watchdog group has called on Atlanta officials to delay approving the concession contracts for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to give the City Council and the public more time to scrutinize the proposed winners.
Common Cause Georgia on Wednesday asked the council to postpone a vote on contracts for restaurant and retail spaces in the airport worth more than $3 billion over 10 years.
The council’s transportation committee approved the list of winning bidders in a meeting Dec. 14. A review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed financial and political links between Mayor Kasim Reed and major concessionaires, and also between the businesses and other city officials.
Reed vowed that the process would be honest and transparent: the anonymous selection committee would be fully vetted with background checks, and the mayor would remain at arm’s length throughout.
He also noted that he had returned campaign contributions from all of the competing companies — even though the donations are legal — to “avoid appearances.”
The full council is expected to vote on the contracts Tuesday, the first day back from holiday recess. William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, said the council should delay the vote until its Jan. 17 or Feb. 6 scheduled meetings and hold a work session with public comment. At least one Atlanta council member said he would support a delay if it increased public confidence in the contracts.
Perry also called on Reed to release the names of the city employees who selected the winning contractors.
“Based on the history of corruption that has happened in the city, citizens and groups like mine distrust the process,” he said.
Aviation General Manger Louis Miller called the bidding “the most fair, open and transparent process I have witnessed” and said council members have had ample time to review the contracts heading into next week’s meeting.
Reed’s office referred questions to Miller, who in written responses to questions from the AJC said delaying a vote on the concessions contracts could postpone the planned spring opening of the airport’s new international terminal.
“For each delayed month in opening the international terminal, the city will lose approximately $3.1 million in terminal rents from the airlines and an additional $2 million per month in lost concessions revenues from our new program,” Miller said.
Vendors at Hartsfield-Jackson, the nation’s busiest airport, are expected to make about $375 million a year in food, drink and retail sales — $55 million of which comes back to the city. The contracts can run 10 years.
Concessions at the airport have been marked by corruption in the past. In the 1990s, a bribery scheme sent two councilmen and one vendor to prison, and a lawsuit over the selection of an advertising contractor cost the city millions.
Perry said Common Cause is not accusing the city of doing anything illegal, but the history is reason to slow down.
In an effort to remove himself from the process, Reed set up an independent committee to evaluate the proposals. Committee members’ identities were kept secret.
Miller said Reed will release the names of the evaluation committee once the contracts are approved. The mayor has not done so yet because the council could vote the contracts down, which would mean the committee would need to go back to work, he said.
“We need to keep the integrity of the evaluating committee intact through this process,” he said.
Perry said the airport could set up temporary concessions to keep the international terminal on schedule. Alternately, Perry said the council could approve the vendors for the international terminal now and take their time with the rest by temporarily extending the contracts of the current tenants in those slots by a few weeks.
Miller said such measures would be costly and likely illegal, but Councilman Michael J. Bond said he thinks extending the current contracts is “very workable.”
“We extend existing contracts all the time,” he said. “We do want to get the international terminal open on time and on budget, but having the public’s confidence that everything has been done above board and these contacts have been fully vetted is a more important issue than the money.”
Transportation Committee Chairman C.T. Martin said he is not in favor of delaying for its own sake. The council has had plenty of time to review the contracts, he said.
“It doesn’t take a long time to look at the materials that were handed to us,” he said.
About the Author
