InsiderAdvantage along with other media outlets were told by sources months ago that the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI widened their probe of the Atlanta city hall bribery/contracting scandal that commenced under former Mayor Kasim Reed. So why would new Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms now move controversial Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport General Manager Roosevelt Council Jr. into the city’s Chief Financial Officer position?
A subpoena delivered to Atlanta’s law department in February was the first indication of broadening the scope into pay-to-play bribery for numerous city contracts. Indeed, an 11-point demand by the feds required the city to turn over conflict-of-interest disclosures by fired procurement officer Adam Smith, as well as all documents he controlled relating to contracts of $1 million or more since Jan. 1, 2014. That was a signal that the focus turned toward airport contracting. And remember that Smith was close to Mayor Kasim Reed, who exercised tight control over the city airport department’s contracting.
Remember, too, that Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport – the world’s busiest air terminus– ranks as perhaps the worst in the United States as measured by longtime cronyism and corruption. This is evidenced by a long history of shady and illegal airport vendor practices.
Reflect on some recent history. In November 2004 an InsiderAdvantage poll revealed that, by a 2-to-1 margin, Atlantans who had an opinion about business practices at the Atlanta’s international airport said that the city was unfair or corrupt when awarding contracts to its vendors. Soliciting opinions of 300 residents in the metro area during the first mayoral term of Shirley Franklin, the poll found two-thirds of the adults in metro Atlanta viewed the methods “for awarding contracts and vendor rights” as “politically motivated and corrupt.”
When asked about that poll, former Georgia attorney General Mike Bowers – who once assisted in filing an illegal bid-rigging lawsuit over airport contracting— commented that “this poll just shows what most people already know, that the airport administration is corrupt as hell.”
Fast forward to April 2011. That’s when the city agreed to a $3.9 million settlement with Atlanta businessman Billy Corey and his company, Corey Airport Services. Mayor Reed, who earlier vowed to appeal a federal jury’s award of a whopping $17.5 million in damages to Corey, caved. He said in the April 29, 2011 Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the settlement “was the right thing to do.” The city admitted no liability or wrongdoing in denying an airport advertising contract bid to Corey. Yet what a contrast to the 2010 federal court ruling which declared that the city had participated in “an evil” conspiracy against Corey with the winning bidder Clear Channel Outdoor Advertising Inc. and its minority partner, businesswoman Barbara Fouch.
Finally, it is interesting that a big factor involving airport corruption – whether in Atlanta, or Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago or other big cities— is that it often centers around the federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. State and federal entities including airports that receive U.S. Department of Transportation assistance must participate in a DBE program whereby a certain “goal” (critics call it a “quota”) of minority businesses must participate in the bidding and project work. So companies desiring to do business at airports are forced to partner (or contract) with minority or female firms that all too often bring nothing to the table but political or money influence. For some reason, city-run airports are almost always more susceptible to this influence.
What lies ahead for Atlanta? Construction contractors have already pleaded guilty to bribery charges and, as noted, the investigation is widening. More indictments are predicted.
Reed’s legacy is now in ruins, so many have been hoping that a new mayor and City Council would pivot toward contracting fairness, transparency and reform. (After all, there is currently a state legislative study committee pondering the establishment of a state-run airport authority to help buffer the influence of politics and money.) That Bottoms is keeping Reed’s crony Roosevelt Council inside city government, rather than removing him, is a blow to the reformers. It may also help those in the Legislature who want to take airport oversight away from Atlanta city hall.
