The Atlanta City Council approved a multi-billion dollar array of concessions contracts at Hartsfield-Jackson International Atlanta airport after nearly nine hours of discussions that at times grew contentious and prompted a visibly upset Mayor Kasim Reed to join the debate.
The contracts cover operating rights for 150 restaurant, bar and retail locations throughout Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Together, they will remake the image Hartsfield-Jackson presents to more than 90 million travelers per year.
The list of contracts proposed by Reed's administration won City Council approval over the objection of critics who wanted more documents to be released to the public and for the council to spend more time combing through the contracts.
The retail contracts and a separate slate of contracts for food and beverage passed by 12-3 votes, with Natalyn Archibong, Felicia A. Moore and Michael Julian Bond dissenting in protest, they said, of how the Reed administration handled the process.
Five hours into the meeting, and after comments from several public organizations, Reed took the microphone to call for swift approval of the contracts, which are timed to coincide with the opening of a new international terminal, which is planned for mid-May.
Reed also blasted Common Cause Georgia, which has accused him of not keeping promises to make the procurement process transparent. And Reed said press coverage, which has documented political contributions from vendors recommended for contracts, had besmirched his character and that of council members.
Such contributions are legal, and Reed had returned some of them to, as he put it, "avoid appearances."
"The level of hypocrisy is stunning," Reed said, adding that directors of Common Cause Georgia who have been public officials have taken campaign contributions from businesses. "I've been taking this for three weeks, sitting around and listening to this stuff. It ain't right. It's not right."
Reed also said the city needed to move forward to start paying off $1.4 billion in bonds issued to fund the new international terminal.
The contracts now go to Reed's desk. He is expected to sign them quickly.
The contracts will be some of the largest ever doled out in Georgia, with food and beverage gross sales estimated at $347.3 million per year for the next decade. The city's aviation department, which runs Hartsfield-Jackson, will reap more than $51 million per year from those sales, according to estimates.
Some of the new brands to be offered by contract winners include hometown names such as The Varsity, Shane's Rib Shack, Willy's Mexicana Grill and Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint.
Though Reed's administration heatedly defends its handling of the contracts, some have urged the City Council to slow the process since the list of winners was approved by the city council's transportation committee nearly three weeks ago. The City Council was out of session Dec. 19-30.
Louis Miller, the airport's general manager, offered to meet with City Council members any time before Jan. 3 to discuss the procurement process. Several said they took him up on the offer.
The City Council effectively only had three business days to make what amounts to a $3 billion decision, said William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia.
"There have been people who say it’s been fair," Perry said at Tuesday's meeting. "There have been those who say it’s been unfair. I have to say, we don’t know. There has been nothing that’s been transparent about it. I hope you’ll pause today."
Some representatives of losing bidders spoke against approval, but Councilman Ivory Lee Young Jr. said he wanted to hear facts, not allegations, from them.
"Let us not buy into the notion that something is wrong," Young said. "We got good people to evaluate this. We have to depend on the people that we have hired to represent us to do what is in the best interest of the taxpayers of this city.
"For those of you who came up here with allegations, God bless you -- good luck," he said.
City procurement chief Adam Smith said he had already received three protests of the concessions recommendations. He said he rejected all three, though those companies have the right to appeal.
Some of the winning businesspeople already operate at the airport, including Daniel Halpern of Jackmont Hospitality and entrepreneur Mack Wilbourn, both of whom helped Reed's mayoral campaign. A consortium including HMS Host was one of the biggest winners.
Reed called campaign contributions from airport concessionaires a "rounding error" in his campaign.
The city says delaying ratification could also delay the opening of the international terminal, causing the airport to lose $3.1 million per month in terminal rents from the airlines and an additional $2 million per month in lost concessions revenue.
"This body has been put in a squeeze play," Archibong said before the final vote. "And then you get the sense that we are the problem, we are not moving quickly enough. But we are deliberative body. I hope that the message is clear that the way this was handled is not okay."
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