Airport Executive Overseeing Concession Deals Steps Down

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Airport Executive Overseeing Concession Deals Steps Down

By AMANDA BRONSTAD

Staff Reporter

The official responsible for all non-airline revenues at Los Angeles World Airports quietly resigned Nov. 10, leaving the agency at a time when it is under scrutiny from several city offices.

Richard Janisse, LAWA’s deputy executive director of business development, said he resigned to pursue “lucrative” business opportunities. He declined to be specific, other than to say that he may serve as a consultant to LAWA while the search for his replacement is on.

The deputy executive director of business development handles all food, newsstand, rental car and gift store concessions at LAWA’s four airports. The position is also responsible for real estate matters and parking.

Concession revenues at Los Angeles International, Van Nuys, Ontario and Palmdale airports are projected to be nearly $200 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004, nearly 40 percent of LAWA’s projected $534.5 million in operating revenues.

LAWA spokesman Paul Haney said Janisse’s departure was not announced because only the executive director warranted that step.

Janisse is leaving as the district attorney’s office has begun inquiring about airport contract awards. In addition, City Controller Laura Chick is wrapping up a first-time audit of the airport due for release next month, and the City Ethics Commission has begun looking into political fundraisers held by city commissioners, including Airport Commission President Ted Stein.

The ethics commission is scheduled to take up draft language requiring disclosure of certain fund raising activities by city board members and commissioners at its regular meeting on Dec. 9.

Reached at his Laguna Beach home, the 54-year-old Janisse, a former aviation consultant who took the LAWA post in 2001, said the inquiries had no impact on his decision to leave.

“A lot of people are alleging a lot of things,” he said. “And quite frankly, I don’t have the time and energy for any of that stuff. I’ve got a family to take care of and retirement to worry about. And the opportunities I’ve got on the outside are bigger than those issues.”

Janisse said that while he enjoyed working at LAWA, he wants to return to the private sector.

“There are cultural issues in government I don’t fully understand,” he said, declining to be specific. “After what I’ve done, I could do a lot better for myself and my family in private sector applications.”

Last month, Ron Rogers, chief executive of Rogers & Associates, confirmed to the Business Journal that he had been questioned by the district attorney’s office about airport contracts. Rogers’ firm is contending for the lucrative communications contract that’s a part of Mayor James Hahn’s $9 billion modernization plan for LAX.

The district attorney’s office has declined comment.

The Business Journal on Nov. 24 quoted a senior city official as having been told by two contractors that they had been asked to make political contributions. One of those contractors was URS Corp., a consultant for advance planning on the LAX Master Plan. The city official said a URS official told him Stein had asked the company for a contribution to LA United, the Hahn-backed group that fought San Fernando Valley secession last year. The request was rebuffed, the source said.

Last week, the airport commission voted 4-0 to expand the URS contract, with Stein recusing himself from the vote after calling the Business Journal report “unsubstantiated and erroneous.”

Filling posts

At the same Airport Commission meeting, LAWA approved a three-year, $215,000 contract for an executive search firm to help fill several “executive level managers.”

Janisse’s departure follows that of Lydia Kennard, who resigned in August as LAWA’s executive director. No replacement has yet been named. (Both Kennard and Janisse remain on LAWA’s Web site in their former positions.)

Kennard, who joined LAWA as deputy executive director of design and construction in 1994, also resigned to “pursue opportunities in the private sector,” according to an Aug. 15 press release issued by LAWA. She has been replaced on an interim basis by Kim Day, who had been serving as deputy executive director of facility and space planning.

There are seven deputy executive directors at LAWA. Four report directly to the executive director, including Paul Green, LAWA’s chief operating officer. The others, who included Janisse, report to Green.

The executive director, appointed by the mayor, reports to the Airport Commission. The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the timing of a replacement for Kennard.

Haney said Day was out of state on personal business and unavailable to comment. He said Stein was also out of town and unavailable.

Kennard could not be reached.

The recent resignations are “unrelated,” Haney said. “They represent personal career decisions and there’s no connection between the two. There’s certainly nothing to be read into that.”

Janisse’s position will likely be one of the first filled under the executive search contract, although that has yet to be formalized, Haney said.

Flight check

Before joining LAWA, Janisse ran a consulting business, RMJ & Associates LLC, which was founded in 1994 and remains an active firm. RMJ was instrumental in promoting an air cargo hub at George Air Force Base, since renamed the Southern California Logistics Airport, in Victorville.

Before forming his consulting firm, Janisse was president and chief executive of Martin Aviation, which provides maintenance, refueling and charter aircraft services at John Wayne Airport. During his tenure, Martin Aviation obtained an exclusive option to build a new $3.8 million jet center at the airport when the Orange County Airport Commission opted to bypass the bid process, according to a report in the Orange County Register.

Janisse has also served on the other side of airport operations.

He was president and chief executive of AMR Services Corp., a subsidiary of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. and was named chief executive of charter carrier World Airways Inc. in 1989. The Herndon, Va.-carrier suffered losses, and Janisse resigned in the summer of 1990, after which the company instituted a top management shift that brought a financial turn-around.

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