Two big companies that won lucrative contracts to run shops at the Atlanta airport made errors in a first round of proposals that would have disqualified them had the city not taken the unusual step of stopping and restarting the selection process.
The reversal of fortune for Delaware North Cos. and Paradies Atlanta came to light Tuesday as the city released more documents related to the awarding of contracts worth $3 billion over the next decade. The concessions deals will reshuffle operators at Hartsfield-Jackson International and fill space in a new international terminal opening this spring.
Aside from the effect on Delaware North and Paradies-Atlanta, there was little discernible effect on the roster of winners and losers after an initial round of 95 proposals was scrapped last summer, according to a review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The city said 41 of those proposals included disqualifying errors, mostly involving forms related to immigration regulations. It stopped the process and started over in order to ensure a large enough pool of valid proposals, city officials said.
Delaware North ultimately won a large food and beverage contract after initially turning in a proposal that would have been disqualified because of a missing E-Verify immigration form. Paradies-Atlanta won a retail contract.
"We're just very thrilled to be part of the partnership and we can't wait to get started," said Matt King, president of Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services.
City officials argue that restarting the process succeeded in creating more competition. In the second round, only eight of 107 proposals were deemed non-responsive. So the city was able to evaluate 99 proposals instead of 54 if the first round had not been cancelled, according to a statement from the office of Mayor Kasim Reed.
"This resulted in maximum competition, and as a result, there will be enhanced service and revenues," the statement read.
Most of the mistakes in the first round -- 34 out of 41 -- were made by companies seeking small restaurant contracts. But Delaware North and Paradies-Atlanta were the only two companies to win contracts after making key mistakes in the first round.
Adam Smith, the city's chief procurement officer, said he was "shocked and baffled" that some larger companies did not complete forms correctly. But he said the re-start did not give an edge to any company, nor did it penalize them.
In the re-started procurement, "Everyone was starting over on equal footing and on equal ground," Smith said. "We were not going to penalize anyone the second time around. We wanted to cancel across the board and give everyone an opportunity to start over."
Like those with other longtime operators at the airport, people connected to Delaware North and Paradies-Atlanta contributed thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Reed and members of the City Council. Other companies and businesspeople that donated or backed Reed and council members submitted clean initial proposals.
Such donations are legal and allowed under Atlanta's city code. Reed returned donations made during the open procurement, saying he wanted to "avoid appearances."
Separately on Tuesday, the city released about 2 million pages of documents showing parts of proposals to run restaurants, bars and retail shops at the airport. The documents took up 350 boxes and were set up on rows of tables in a room at City Hall.
Some of the proposals reveal high levels of detail in certain sections, coupled with extensive deletions in others. One winning proposal included information on the price of a three-piece chicken meal from Popeyes ($7.99) and the process for cleaning tables but redacted key details such as the business plan.
Losing companies can use public documents to gather information to challenge the awards. But city lawyers honored winning companies' requests to redact details they described as trade secrets.
On Tuesday, several lawyers and executives from losing companies perused the documents. Three companies have already filed formal protests with the city after losing out on restaurant, bar or retail slots. Smith rejected the protests, although the companies can appeal or sue.
"We're looking at documents to prepare to file a protest," said Edward Matthews, who helps run two Domino's Pizza restaurants at the airport but lost out on a proposal. Matthews said he wanted more information on background and conflicts-of-interest checks of the 15-member evaluation panel, made up of city employees whose names were released after the selections.
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