Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Guv'ment Common Cause: Airport bids need more time for review (Updated)
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Government watchdog group Common Cause is asking the city to slow down the ongoing process of awarding lucrative restaurant and retail contracts at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to allow the Atlanta City Council more time to review the proposals.
On Dec. 14, the city's top-secret team of evaluators released its list of recommended vendors for more than 120 retail and restaurant slots up for grabs at the world's busiest airport, including coveted spots in the new international terminal scheduled to open in the spring. The multi-billion dollar concessions program, considered one of the largest in U.S. history, attracted numerous proposals from celebrity chefs and well-known local restaurateurs eager to enjoy a captive audience at the bustling airport.
City Council is expected to vote on the proposed vendors — which include Varasano's Pizzeria, the Varsity, and TWIST, among other local eateries — on Jan. 3. But some political observers have complained that the process, in the works since March, hasn't been as transparent as they'd hoped — especially with the airport's unfortunate history of occasional corruption and insider deals.
In a statement issued this morning, Common Cause Georgia Executive Director William Perry says Mayor Kasim Reed backtracked on the promise his administration made months ago to reveal the names of evaluators who selected the potential vendors — most likely after realizing they'd be lobbied to death by bidders. (Reed has since said the names would be disclosed after the contracts have been awarded.)
The city also has declined to release detailed information about the proposals, citing exemptions in the Open Records Law. (CL tried to obtain a list of contractors who failed to comply with E-Verify requirements, causing the entire bidding process to begin anew, but was denied by the city. We filed a complaint with Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, which remains unresolved.)
Some Council members complained that they learned about the proposed winners just several hours before they were expected to vote. In addition, many of those who've been recommended spots in the airport have made campaign contributions to or worked on election efforts of the mayor and Council members. (Reed has said he played no role in the selection of potential retail and restaurant contractors.)
"We hope the selection of proposed contractors has been a fair and impartial process," Perry said in a statement. "Unfortunately, it has not been transparent enough for anyone to know if it has indeed been fair and impartial."
The group wants Council to delay voting on the proposals until Jan. 17 or Feb. 6 to give Council members more time to pore over the proposals and the public an opportunity to comment.
"We understand that there is a timeline for opening the international terminal," Perry said in the statement.
"However, contracts that are worth over $3 billion and covering a period of ten years certainly seem important enough to allow a few weeks for due diligence and public input."
Common Cause, which stresses they're not accusing the mayor or his administration's of corruption, has released a list of its concerns about the concessions program on its website. We left messages asking Council President Ceasar Mitchell if he'd be willing to support a delay, which airport officials have said could cost the airport millions of dollars in lost revenue. We'll update when we hear word.
UPDATE, 5:52 p.m.: Atlanta Airport General Manager Louis Miller says in a statement to CL:
“We believe that the City Council will have had ample opportunity to study and review the RFP process and recommendations of award in time for their January 3 vote. We will continue to make ourselves available to meet with any of the Council members and discuss any questions and concerns that they may have.”
An airport spokesman told CL in an email sent earlier today that delaying the awards could cause "significant problems" for the city. Among them: delays in opening the international terminal, which could cost the city as much as $5.1 million in lost terminal rents and concessions revenues per month. A delay could also throw a wrench in the city's plan to pay off bonds issued to build the terminal.
Comments (24)
Showing 1-24 of 24
Reed = Deal; Equals politics as usual. No big Surprise! NEXT! AKA Matt Damon re: Obama; more of the same different name!
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uncharacterisitically tame, thomas. your bit that gives kasim a pass on the release of evaluators' names ("most likely after realizing they'd be lobbied to death by bidders") is unfortunate. the bidders are prohibited from contacting any city employee, etc. associated with the award process. you should know that and the readers should as well. try to stay away from the scott henry style of reporting/public relations. it's a slippery slope.
Everyone knows Common Cause is a front organization. Give it a break. The City's ready to move on.
The title of this article should be "Common Cause: We Lost Airport Bids, Let's Shakedown The City"
I'm not sure what else Louis Miller has to say to convince these numbskulls that the process was fair and transparent. As we all know, some people can't be convinced.
Funny...the people complaining about the evaluator's names being released don't realize that such a disclosure would be counterproductive. Keeping the names unknown is a means of protecting the process, people.
General Manager Louis Miller has a great reputation in the industry and he's never been caught up in any corruption. I don't see any reason not to trust his word.
oh, baby kasim has his sock puppets in a commotion of riotous posts! common cause a front organization!! they lost bids!! i am not sure whether to laugh or laugh harder.
Where's the beef? I haven't heard any substantive issues in regard to the process. I'm proud of the job Louis Miller did.
yea i'm scratching my head about Ergo10's comments. Is it sarcasm? Cause it seems like common knowledge who Common Cause is.
They didn't lose a bid. Front organization for who?
More importantly why is there an Everify requirement? That's supposed to be a voluntary program. Lord conservatives for more government promoting more government redtape and decision making for private businesses.
This process has been about as fair as I've ever seen. Someone should take a look at Common Cause's donor sheet to see if any losing bidders have given to their coffers. Louis Miller was the most sought after Airport Chief in the country and by no means is he an "Atlanta Insider". This is another non-story and Common Cause needs to find some better Causes!!!
I have a simple question, and neither the AJC's or CL's reporting has touched on it: Will the rent be at a "market rate"? That is - is the city charging every penny that the market will bear? If so, why is there a selection committee in the first place? If there are 10 spots, the top 10 bidders get it. End of story. No room for corruption or backroom backscratching. If they are not charging every penny that they could, why on earth not? Why should the city (i.e. the TAXPAYERS) get less than they could in rent so that the friends of whoever (most likely the Jackson/Campbell/Franklin machine) can get a better lease rate? The airport should be throwing off tons of revenue to the City. But as long as it is a favor machine, that can't happen.
The free market can easily solve this problem.
Perhaps Thomas Wheatley could commit some actual Journalism and find out how the rent is determined.
Thought to ponder: if the administration was going to be corrupt, why would they waste time restarting the initial bid process in order to ensure everyone got a second chance? The lame stereotype of all black politicians being corrupt is really getting old...Reed has proven that we are in NEW ERA. Check the record.
oh i get it now. i heard that kasim was throwing fits -- tantrums, rather, as he so often does -- and was going after common cause. so that's the tactic. paint common cause as tainted. their donors who lost bids at the airport. again, do i laugh or laugh harder. if this guy - reed - spent more time actually governing the city and less time thugging his way to a higher office none of this foolishness would be necessary. but he is a thug. and this is how he does it. dirty. and as for miller. poor guy. he is like a deer in headlights. barely involved in the award process and ready to jump when kasim tells him to.
I'm officially announcing my availability as a paid sock puppet for the mayor— one who actually has a presence on the site outside of defending graft from his office.
"Some Council members complained that they learned about the proposed winners just several hours before they were expected to vote." Please state who those council members are and post a direct quote. I trust my council members and need to hear directly from them. What's unusual about people trying to do business with a city making campaign contributions? A smart business person more than likely contributed to all candidates on the ballot. I'm not dismissing the claim, I just need more than hearsay.
Attention Mayor Reed, when you use sock puppets don't be so obvious, otherwise it looks like you have something to hide.
I trust my council members...give me a break! The posts on here are laughable! Follow the money! such a joke. I hope there is another bad recession or some freak act to scare off travelers!
I don't believe I've ever actually seen this kind of obvious shilling for the subject of a story after a Creative Loafing piece.
Hey, new idiot or idiots posting in response to this article: a sock-puppet is a fake account used solely to reply online to a story. Often, sock-puppetry isn't as obvious as this, which leads me to believe that whoever is posting these inanities is a refugee from the digital divide, a septugenarian who only sees a computer when visiting his or her nieces, or plain stupid.
Also, since whoever these idiots are may also be unlikely to know how a computer actually works, I should mention that the IP address for the postings -- the electronic code that marks the location of the Internet connection you used to make these postings -- will probably be visible to the technical staff of Creative Loafing.
If they want to, CL can see if one person made all of these posts ... and make a reasonably good guess at who made them if the IP addresses match a city government Internet connection.
(I think the IP block for the City of Atlanta is 65.82.136. I may be wrong.)
That said, I find it hard to believe that the Mayor's people would be this ... well, incompetent. It's got to be one of the vendors. And if that's the case, then there might actually be a bigger problem with these bids than we've seen. This kind of stupid reaction wouldn't happen on a clean bid.
It goes without saying that Common Cause isn't a front organization for anything at all. They're a nonpartisan good-governance watchdog organization that has been around longer than many of the vendors bidding on the concessions.
I think it's great that so many local eateries were given the opportunity to service the Airport. Creating a local feel was a wonderful idea.
Is anyone surprised that the Obstruction Twins (Felicia Moore and Michael Bond) have a problem with the bidding process? They're like my 2 year old daughter, the only word they say is no.
Questionable acts in regards to airport contract bids? Some things never change. It seems as though every mayor since the Midfield Complex opened has had their fingers in the pie in one form or another.
We could set up a stage for sock-puppetry theater given the presence here.
Here is info. for common cause: http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=d…
Given Atlanta's unfortunate record on graft, kickbacks, corruption and cheating I am more than willing to give common cause the benefit of the doubt on this. It appears to be a genuine issue that deserves vetting. If it is not done now, the legal fallout will be far more than the alleged 5 million dollars per month that will be lost. Hopefully everything will be above board and if anything will gain Atlanta city government more credibility and trust. If not it may become a major issue. On a ten year contract even a month delay is <1% of the time total time frame. Not taking the time to at least clear up any potential misunderstanding would be unconscionable.
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