Panel Reviewing LAX Bid Shaken Up Before Choice

By HOWARD FINE

Staff Reporter

Days before recommending a bidder for a multimillion-dollar airport design contract, which is likely to go to a financial supporter of Mayor James Hahn, three senior airport executives were placed on the evaluation panel, supplanting staff that had been tracking the issue for months.

While an airport official insists that such last-minute changes are standard procedure when handling an important contract, the action could raise questions given the ongoing local and federal investigations into contracting policies involving LAWA and whether a “pay-to-play” environment exists in which campaign contributors are given special treatment.

One of the three executives has little experience in airport design matters.

“This is all very suspicious, bringing in high-level people at the last-minute who do not have an extensive background in engineering and planning issues,” said one source closely following the airport master plan process. “It leaves one to wonder whether there was an outside agenda here.”

Joining the panel in early March, several sources familiar with the process said, were Chief Operating Officer Paul Green, Deputy Executive Officer for Airport Operations Michael DiGirolamo and Chief Information Officer Louis Hook.

Remaining on the panel were Jim Ritchie, deputy executive director of LAWA in charge of long-range planning issues, and Richard Wells, its interim deputy executive director.

On March 9, letters were sent to the three bidders informing them that L.A.-based DMJM, a major engineering and design firm, was being recommended for the contract.

Airport officials strongly refuted suggestions of political meddling in the contracting process, calling the speculation “unfounded and irresponsible.”

LAWA spokesman Paul Haney said a full report on the process used to evaluate the bids would be released 72 hours before the Board of Airport Commissioners meets to consider the contract. The master plan contract is now tentatively on the commission’s April 5 meeting agenda.

“This report will document that great care was taken to ensure a fair and impartial selection process, using the highest standards of contract evaluation by our professional staff,” Haney said. “Any further comment on this issue would be inappropriate until that report is released.”

He would only confirm that Ritchie and Wells were on the panel that made the DMJM recommendation. Sources closely monitoring the process said those two officials were most likely involved in the changes.

Little experience

The selection of Hook raised the most questions from those familiar with LAWA’s contracting process, primarily because he joined LAWA in early February and has little background in long-range planning issues.

“It seems a little odd that they would pick an information technology person who had just joined LAWA to review such a huge, complex design plan,” one source said.

Requests to interview Hook or anyone else involved in the contracting process were referred to airport public relations workers, who reiterated that no comments on this specific contract would be made until the staff report is issued.

However, one airport official privately said the security components of the Hahn plan require major outlays of information-gathering technologies, such as cameras, fiber-optic lines and scanning devices. “Information technology is a crucial component of the Master Plan,” the official said.

Typically, city commissions tend to follow staff recommendations in making their contract decisions, which is why the staff review panels have been the subject of such intense scrutiny.

Two criminal investigations are under way into “pay-to-play” allegations. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is looking into contracting procedures at Los Angeles World Airports, the Harbor Department and the Department of Water & Power. L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley is also looking into contracting procedures and fundraising by officials in the Mayor’s office and various city departments and commissions.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued subpoenas for records and notes from both Airport Commission President Ted Stein and Ritchie regarding Hahn’s modernization plan.

L.A. City Controller Laura Chick issued an audit last December that was highly critical of contracting procedures at LAWA; she turned over some of the files to the District Attorney for further investigation.

DMJM contract

Sources said staff members in the airport planning division, headed by Ritchie, put out the request for proposals for the engineering and design contract.

For the next three months, these staff members culled through multiple proposals, eventually winnowing the selection down to three teams, though no formal evaluation panel was established.

The design contract, which is part of L.A. Mayor James Hahn’s $9 billion modernization plan for LAX, has an estimated value of $1 million to $2 million a month.

Ritchie and Stein have been the public faces of Hahn’s proposed overhaul, making repeated presentations to community groups, business leaders and airline industry groups.

Because of his close relationship with Stein and his pushing of Hahn’s plan, sources said Ritchie is viewed as a major political force at LAWA.

“Just the fact that he was on the panel and that he may have been involved in making these late additions opens this up to the political process,” one source said. “It cries out for an explanation.”

According to records filed with the City Ethics Commission, DMJM, its affiliated companies and employees gave $50,000 to LA United, the anti-secession campaign Hahn formed in 2002. These contributors gave another $8,825 to Hahn’s first election campaign. DMJM’s parent company, AECOM Technology Corp., has given $1,000 to Hahn’s 2005 re-election effort.

DMJM’s main subcontractor for the contract bid, HNTB Ltd., gave $100,000 to LA United, $31,000 to Hahn’s 2001 election campaign and $4,100 to his re-election campaign.

The Business Journal first reported the award recommendation March 15. A DMJM spokeswoman, Alexandra Spencer, defended both the firm’s awards and its political contributions.

“LAWA staff determined we were best qualified to perform the advanced planning services,” she said. “We’re currently working on major airports throughout the U.S. We did support the anti-secession movement, and the reason was we believed it was in the community’s best interest to keep the city intact. We’re businesspeople here, we’re employers here, and we have a vested interest in L.A.’s economic and social well-being.”