Government : Airport Scandal Hangs Over New Atlanta Mayor : Bill Campbell begins his first term just as jury selection begins in a corruption trial. He is implicated in bribe-taking to aid minority contracts.

As Bill Campbell prepared to be sworn in as Atlanta’s new mayor on Monday, jury selection began in a potentially explosive public corruption trial that could make his honeymoon in office a short one.

A former city councilman and two Atlanta businessmen face mail fraud and bribery charges in connection with the scandal, which developed from a 22-month federal investigation of the city’s program to boost minority participation in concessions at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport.

In all, seven men have pleaded guilty or been charged in a multimillion-dollar conspiracy to bribe public officials in exchange for preferential treatment in the awarding of airport contracts.

Campbell, a 12-year City Council veteran, was one of several officials identified by a government witness as having received bribes. Campbell has not been indicted, and he vehemently denied the accusation when it surfaced during the campaign--going so far as to take a polygraph test.

The scandal had little effect on the election, perhaps due in part to unaggressive coverage of the allegations in the local media and to a judge’s decision to postpone the trial until after the election. Campbell won 73% of the vote in defeating former Fulton County Commission Chairman Michael L. Lomax.

Although Campbell says that he is unconcerned about potentially damaging testimony, his initiatives during the first weeks of his term nevertheless will have to compete for attention with allegations of shady doings and under-the-table deals at City Hall. And this is only the first of at least three trials.

Promising to be “the most accessible mayor the city has ever seen,” the 40-year-old Campbell attended a morning prayer service Monday and then walked to City Hall as jury selection got under way. He made strategic stops at a police precinct substation (to stress his stand on community policing), the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (to praise the slain civil rights leader) and the state Capitol (for a symbolic greeting from the governor). He did his best to keep the airport scandal in the background.

The scandal also threatens to tarnish the legacy of Campbell’s still-popular predecessor and mentor, Maynard Jackson. Jackson, who stepped down after 12 years in office, is expected to testify for the prosecution.

The airport, one of the world’s busiest, was expanded and modernized during Jackson’s first term. The affirmative action program was designed to ensure women and minorities a fair share of airport business but allegedly became rife with corruption.

While the bribery allegations rolled off Campbell’s back during the campaign, he raised some eyebrows immediately after the election in an unrelated controversy concerning the airport.

He was instrumental in torpedoing a City Council audit of BestFest, a planned one-day morale booster for airport employees in September that became a $757,000 three-day bash, financed by tax money, that included jugglers, a karaoke bar, live bands and Las Vegas-style gambling with fake money.

Like Campbell, Jackson has attempted to deflect damage from the airport scandal, taking credit for discovering problems and volunteering information to the U.S. attorney general. Nevertheless, he concedes making a mistake when he appointed the first airport commissioner.

And despite the accomplishments of his first two terms in office, Jackson has had to contend in the waning days of his Administration with editorial cartoons depicting him as a clown. In one cartoon, Jackson, dressed as Bozo with gigantic feet, is saying: “My handling of the airport has left Bill Campbell with some big shoes to fill.”