Common Cause Georgia insists it's not out to put lint on the lollipop of the shiny new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
But the watchdog group's leaders on Wednesday -- the day the terminal opened -- said the $1.5 billion complex was a prime example of too much money flowing from contractors to campaign coffers.
The group said it found as much as $195,000 in campaign contributions to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed by winning bidders for concessions contracts for the new terminal and other parts of the airport.
"Contractors are a large part of getting officials elected in the city of Atlanta," said William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. "That's the concern."
Campaign contributions from people doing business with the city are legal under Georgia law and Atlanta's ethics code. Common Cause Georgia did not present evidence that any airport contract went to the winner in return forn contributions.
Common Cause advocates "pay-to-play reform" that would limit such contributions, but neither Atlanta nor other metro jurisdictions have adopted them.
Sonji Jacobs, spokeswoman for Reed, said only 4.7 percent of the roughly $3.8 million Reed raised between launching his mayoral campaign and Dec. 31, 2011 have come from airport concessionaires.
"Any allegations of pay-to-play are simply baseless," she wrote in an email.
Reed, saying he wanted to avoid any such perceptions, refunded about $24,600 in contributions that came in during the procurement process last year. Common Cause Georgia applauded the step at the time.
But Reed's campaign kept roughly $172,000 in contributions from vendors that eventually won contracts to run restaurants, bars and other stores in the new terminal and other parts of the airport, according to the group. About $50,000 in donations came days before the procurement was to begin, Common Cause said.
A spokeswoman for Reed gave a similar figure as Common Cause -- about $178,400 -- as the amount airport concessionaires contributed and Reed retained.
She also said losing contenders for concessions contracts made donations.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last winter reported on donations of more than $53,000 from several notable concessionaires and people connected to them. Common Cause said its broader search found donations by wives, subcontractors, attorneys and other related parties.
Common Cause also noted the new terminal's escalating costs -- which rose from $688 million in 2005 to $1.4 billion -- and smaller footprint than originally envisioned. And the group pointed out that international passenger growth projections have weakened since the project took shape in the late 1990s.
Still, Perry said he hopes it will pay off through more international commerce.
"It's an incredibly beautiful building and we want it to be as successful as it can be," Perry said. "Hopefully, we will have greater public scrutiny in future projects."
Jacobs fired back: "Those who would dredge up antiquated complaints about the necessity of the international terminal and disparage it as a ‘pay-to-play project' simply do not know what they are talking about."
-- Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this article
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