New Bids to Be Sought on Jet for Davis

A top state official recommended Tuesday that a plan to lease a gubernatorial jet from a major campaign donor to Gov. Gray Davis be junked and the $1.2-million state contract be reopened to competing bidders.

“I want everyone to see and review it,” California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. “Spike” Helmick said in disclosing a reversal from last week. Officials had been poised to approve a contract that would have paid $80,000 a month to a Davis backer to lease a $9-million aircraft.

Although some officials said Davis’ staff urged reconsideration of the deal, Helmick said he was not directed by the governor’s office to pull back the contract. He acknowledged, however, that there had been considerable negative reaction to the deal, which would have awarded the lease without subjecting it to competitive bidding. As a result, Helmick said he would reopen the lease issue and invite other companies to make offers.

“I’m going to recommend a full bid process,” Helmick said. “There are other planes available.”

A spokesman for Davis concurred, saying, “That’s what will happen.”

Operators of airplane sales, lease and rental companies welcomed Helmick’s announcement.

“We’d like to see how we could help our governor,” said Brian Siske, a manager at TWC Aviation in Burbank, one of the largest private fleet operators in California, whose inventory includes 26 jets. Unlike commercial flights, he said, “You always know who is on the airplane with you.”

Helmick said he also intends to take another look at whether California’s governor, one of only a handful nationwide who do not have a state plane at their disposal, needs a jet. “I think he does,” he said.

The move to lease the aircraft for safety reasons comes even as other officials are attempting to bolster confidence in the nation’s commercial airline system.

Asked at a news conference whether he needed the additional security that a personal airplane would provide, Davis answered indirectly. “All this is being decided by the CHP,” he said.

Helmick has said he first proposed that an executive airplane be acquired for Davis in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings of four airliners.

Davis, a familiar passenger on airliners as he travels around California and beyond, first opposed the proposal of a gubernatorial jet but later agreed to it, Helmick said.

The CHP chief said it is important to move the governor in and out of airports swiftly, which is shaping up as a big challenge for everyone as airports invoke heavier security measures that dramatically extend passenger waits.

Helmick, who protects the safety of Davis and other state officials, said he waived normal competitive bidding procedures because of what he saw as the urgency of acquiring a secure aircraft for the governor.

He said he contacted at least five airplane sales and leasing companies and asked them to make offers on leasing a jet to the state for one year at a maximum of $1.2 million. Four declined, he said.

One agreed. That was a jet sales company owned by Stephen Beneto, a West Sacramento trucking company operator who has contributed $226,000 to Davis since the governor was elected in 1998.

In addition to a monthly lease of $80,000, Beneto offered to provide jet fuel at a discount price and to house the airplane at a hangar without charge. Helmick said these inducements were attractive money-savers.