Council Will Probe Disputed Airport Concession Pacts

Los Angeles City Council members, including the head of a key oversight committee, said Friday that they plan to launch a review of controversial airport concession contracts awarded to Urban League President John Mack, clergyman H.H. Brookins and other politically well-connected individuals.

“We need reports from the airport,” said Councilman Michael Woo, chairman of the council’s Governmental Operations Committee, which currently is reviewing the city’s ethics code in light of revelations of possible conflicts of interests by Mayor Tom Bradley. “It may be appropriate to initiate some kind of audit . . . with the serious questions raised.”

The Times reported Friday that the concession agreements, which were approved by the Airport Commission without competitive bidding, are under scrutiny by airport officials because they appear to lack the level of participation for the minority partners required by city and federal programs.

Those programs are designed to bring disadvantaged minorities and women into businesses where they traditionally have been excluded, and thus allow them to gain the experience needed to compete for contracts in the future against established companies.

Though Mack and Brookins are longtime associates of Bradley, there has been no indication that the mayor played a direct role in their receiving the potentially lucrative contracts from the mayor-appointed Airport Commission.

Bradley on Friday reacted testily when asked by reporters if his ties to Mack and Brookins helped the pair obtain a share of airport cafeteria business.

“I have nothing to do with the issuing of those contracts,” the mayor said. “I have a lot of friends all over the city. Don’t just pick out these two.”

Bradley said he learned of the involvement of Brookins and Mack “a long time” after their contracts were approved. He added that no one ever sought his advice about the participants. His top aide, Michael Gage, earlier in the week said that it appeared the contracts violated the city’s policy.

The contract controversy involves the degree of hands-on participation by minorities and women recruited by major contractors to help obtain lucrative concession business at city-controlled airports in Los Angeles and Ontario. U.S. officials say that federal rules, which apply to the concession contracts, require minority partners to participate in the day-to-day running of the business.

The wife of U.S. Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Ethics Committee, collected at least $150,000 over the last two years as one of several minority and women partners in Los Angeles International Airport gift shop concessions run by Duty Free Shoppers Group Ltd. Partnership. Betty Dixon, who initially invested no more than $15,000, acknowledged in an interview with The Times that she had limited involvement in the operation.

Brought Into Operations

Mack, a longtime supporter of Bradley; Brookins, a politically active African Methodist Episcopal bishop who helped launch Bradley’s career; attorney-restaurateur Andy M. Camacho, a close ally of Councilman Richard Alatorre, and others were brought into the cafeteria concessions by Host International Inc. The partners were not required to put any cash into the venture, according to records and interviews, and they receive a minimum of between $13,000 and $65,000 annually under a profit-sharing agreement.

The amount of direct involvement appears to vary among the partners, but Mack said he spends only a few hours a month on the business. Brookins’ participation has been minimal since he moved to Washington last summer, a few months after he and Mack were given a share of the $49-million-a-year food and beverage concessions at Los Angeles International Airport.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who chairs a committee that oversees the Airport Department, said the revelations “bother” her and added she plans to seek explanations from airport officials.

“I think we get in trouble whenever politically active people are involved” in such programs, she said. “I think it subverts the whole intent of the program. . . .”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, a longtime political rival of the mayor, said his Finance and Revenue Committee will look at the airport contractual arrangements as part of its examination of the city’s overall minorities and women business program.

Times staff writer Henry Weinstein contributed to this article.