Changes Sought in Airport Contracts : Concessions: A City Council panel wants firms’ pacts rewritten to limit benefits for political insiders. The city attorney opposes proposal.

Against the advice of the city attorney, a City Council committee on Monday recommended that the Department of Airports rewrite exclusive concession contracts that have netted millions of dollars for a handful of political insiders who did little or no work.

Of particular concern to the committee is a five-year contract extension now in the works for Duty Free Shoppers Group Ltd., which holds two lucrative contracts at Los Angeles International Airport.

Audits over the past year have shown that a small group of minority and female insiders have been paid more than $7 million through airport concession contracts with Duty Free and Host International Inc., which operates food concessions at LAX and Ontario Airport.

The contracts required that Duty Free and Host provide meaningful, hands-on opportunities for women and minorities, but audits have shown that the insiders were required to do little or no work in return for the payments.

Council members have shown increasing frustration over the last year with their inability to alter the situation, and Monday’s action by the Governmental Efficiency Committee could bring the issue to a head.

Councilman Michael Woo, chairman of the committee, said he rejects an opinion by the city attorney that the contracts are unbreakable, and asked that airport officials come before the full council to explain their continued resistance to his committee’s recommendations.

Woo and Councilman Ernani Bernardi voted 2-0 Monday to recommend that the council order the renegotiation of the contracts so that Duty Free and Host are forced to provide “meaningful” participation by minorities and women.

“The financial benefit must have a direct relationship to the degree of their participation,” Woo said.

The concession contracts now bring in more than $100 million in annual sales, the companies have reported.

In 1988, the Airport Commission approved a five-year extension of a Duty Free Shoppers contract that will allow the firm to sell duty-free goods at LAX until 1996. Final negotiations on that extension are under way, but the city attorney’s staff has said that the contract cannot be voided because of the questions raised about minority and female participation.

Other Host and Duty Free contracts expire over the next three years.

Minority members and women were originally included in the contracts as part of a city program to help them develop business skills. However, a Times report in June, 1989, and a city report last November showed that huge profits went to a small group that did little or no work.

Among them were Betty Dixon, wife of House Ethics Committee Chairman Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles), who has been paid at least $499,408 since 1985.

Bishop H.H. Brookins, a politically active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and close friend of Mayor Tom Bradley, received at least $296,840 through Host International. He no longer is associated with the company.