The third meeting of the Senate Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Operations and Authority Creation Study Committee finally saw the 13 member committee begin to get to the heart of the issue at hand – why the airport needs, or doesn’t need, new management.
Where the first meeting was mainly introductory and the second got into the nuts and bolts of bond obligations, the third iteration saw testimony advocating for the need for outside oversight of the airport due to the extensive corruption involved in the vendor procurement process, as well as an outline for why the Metro Atlanta area may need a second commercial airport. Rebuttal to those points, which city legal counsel Robert Highsmith promised would be extensive, will have to wait for meeting four.
Consumer advocate Dale Cardwell was the first speaker at Wednesday’s meeting, and he gave a brief history lesson on some of the corruption issues that have plagued the airport for 30+ years. City officials dating back to former Mayor Bill Campbell have touted the Minority/Female Business Enterprise (MFBE) Program, arguing that it aids the black community by offering aid to economically disadvantaged businesses. A major part of the MFBE has been in selecting vendors for airport contracts, but as Cardwell explained, the system has devolved into one of patronage that has allowed city officials and their allies to create immense wealth for a very limited, and exclusive, number of people.
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” said Cardwell, and that classic refrain has perhaps never fit better than in a system where one individual – Atlanta’s mayor – answers to no one when it comes to the state’s largest economic engine, one that generates more than $34 billion in direct business revenue to Metro Atlanta alone annually.
Because the Office of Contract Compliance is so entrenched in the vendor procurement process, continued Cardwell, it would be nearly impossible to root out a system of corruption that spans decades. Lawsuits are filed, individuals are arrested, yet without the transfer of oversight to a third party, the system remains.
The argument from the city, of course, will be that the new administration, which includes a new mayor in Keisha Lance-Bottoms, new city council president in Felicia Moore (on hand), and new airport GM in John Selden (who briefly spoke Wednesday) has few ties to the Reed regime or any of those that preceded it. Indeed Bottoms has already pushed for increased transparency, including the implementation of a Transparency Officer and a website that allows the public to peruse the city’s finances.
However, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard this spiel. Posited Sen. Burt Jones, (R-Jackson) the committee’s chairman, “When a new administration comes along it’s natural to say ‘that was the prior administration.’ But repeatedly we’ve seen that play out and revert to the same patterns… An organization like the airport needs to be an arm’s length away from the political process.”
Aviation consultant Blake Swafford was the second speaker of the afternoon, on hand to discuss the committee’s second named goal – to determine the viability of a second commercial airport in the Atlanta metro. As the former manager of Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport, Swafford saw firsthand the difficulty of such an endeavor. When the struggling airport attempted to get limited commercial service in 2014, it was bombarded by a string of lawsuits from neighbors and public opposition from the City of Atlanta and Delta Airlines that forced it to abandon the plan.
Swafford argued that a second small airport, meant to facilitate lower income passengers using ‘Ultra-Low Cost Carriers,’ (think Frontier, Allegiant, etc…) would not harm Hartsfield-Jackson and in fact would help service a portion of the community that currently avoids flying altogether. ‘Legacy’ airlines, most prominently Delta, have long voiced their opposition to a second commercial airport in the metro area, and because they are so closely allied with city officials it would be extremely difficult to move forward with such a plan under the current ownership structure.
The next meeting, with a date and time still yet to be determined, will have a much different tone. “We will be rebutting most of what Cardwell had to say,” laughed Highsmith. With a heavy-hitting lineup of city officials and Delta executives prepared to argue in the current administration’s defense, this battle is just heating up.
A recommendation from the committee is due by December 1st, just in time for the debate to truly kick off in the 2019 legislative session.
