PR Firm Gives Up Airport Contract

A politically connected public relations firm abruptly pulled out of its contract with Los Angeles International Airport Friday, only days before airport officials planned to rescind a controversial extension of the firm’s $9-million deal.

Winner & Associates announced the withdrawal from the airport contract in a three-page letter to Mayor James K. Hahn. The missive arrived at City Hall just as airport officials were placing a last-minute motion to rescind the contract on Tuesday’s agenda for the city Airport Commission.

The same commission had last month unanimously approved a one-year, $1.5-million extension for the firm, despite objections from airport executives who had slashed funding for the public relations effort. The plan the company had been hired to publicize had been scrapped by the mayor.

The commission is appointed by Hahn, who received substantial fund-raising support from the public relations company’s president, Charles Winner, in last year’s mayor’s race.

Reports in The Times have prompted questions from some City Council members about the need for extending the contract at a time when LAX is facing the worst financial crisis in its history.

Passenger traffic at the world’s third-busiest airport has plummeted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The drop in air travel and sharply higher security costs have carved a gaping $127-million hole in the airport’s budget.

Winner’s Encino-based company was first hired three years ago to help inform the public about a $12-billion expansion plan for the airport. The contract was extended five times to pay the company and its subcontractors a total of nearly $9 million through last September.

The Encino-based company is withdrawing from the contract because recent news stories, columns and editorials have left “inaccurate impressions” with the public about the work being done, Winner said.

He said suggestions that the contract extension was a political deal damaged his business. Winner said he has no intention of bidding on any other contract with the airport.

The veteran political consultant and advertising executive said he objected to the media inferences that spending airport money on the PR contract would cost city employees their jobs.

Winner said he was also concerned that the controversy swirling around the public relations contract would detract from Hahn’s effort to win support for building a safer airport.

The administration of former Mayor Richard Riordan brought Winner and his company on board in 1998 to disseminate information and organize multiple public meetings about the LAX “master plan.”

But that proposal died when Hahn was elected last June, after promising he would not proceed with the Riordan plan. The new mayor said he favored spreading a future increase in airline traffic among several Southern California airports.

After the terrorist attacks, Hahn announced he would develop a new alternative that shifted the focus of airport modernization from expansion to security.

Political Ties to Hahn Detailed

The Winner contract came before the City Council Dec. 18, but the lawmakers postponed a vote on the matter until Jan. 15. The council’s initial discussion came the same day that a story in The Times detailed Winner’s political ties to Hahn.

Winner said he held three fund-raisers during the mayoral campaign for Hahn, at the request of the candidate. Winner, his family and associates also gave more than $20,000 to the future mayor’s campaign.

In addition, Winner paid another $20,000 for a mailer endorsing Hahn’s election to voters on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley.

At last month’s council meeting, lawmakers asked if Winner was receiving beneficial treatment.

The mayor’s office rejected suggestions that the contract extension, granted by the mayor’s appointees, was a political favor.

Several council members questioned the Airport Commission’s decision to award the $1.5-million contract at a time that the airport is taking extraordinary measures to plug its projected deficit.

Councilman Jack Weiss complained that he had been provided with little information on the matter.

The council asked the city’s legislative analyst to draft a report detailing what Winner and his subcontractors did for the nearly $9 million paid by the airport over the last three years.

Several subcontractors who worked for Winner on the airport contract privately expressed concern about the firm’s management style and the quality of work the airport received for its multimillion-dollar investment.

One subcontractor, who asked to remain anonymous, described feeling “guilty, truly guilty,” for accepting payment for services Winner asked him to provide because so little real work was done.

“People who didn’t get this contract wish they would have gotten it. It would be your dream contract,” the subcontractor said.

Winner countered those allegations in a 40-page report sent Friday to city officials, council members and The Times.

The document covers point by point the activities that Winner says his firm and numerous subcontractors undertook to disseminate information about the master plan “to a five-county population of 15 million people.”

It discusses how Winner had to extend the scope of its work on the master plan in part because “the public review and comment period for the draft LAX Master Plan was unprecedented.”

Some services Winner outlined in the report include:

* Simplifying thousands of pages of technical materials for the public.

* Managing more than 20 subcontractors.

* Interacting with members of the media.

* Reaching out to thousands of businesses, community and labor organizations.

* Producing documents including brochures, videotapes and news releases.

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said Hahn and the mayor’s office played no part in Winner’s decision to withdraw from the airport contract. However, the mayor’s office did ask airport officials to seek new bids on an expanded public relations contract.

The item added to the Airport Commission agenda late Friday calls for rescinding the contract extension for Winner and requesting new bids for expanded public relation services.

In addition to focusing on the master plan for the future of the airport, Middlebrook said the city needs help drawing passengers back to LAX and countering a sense that the airport is hard to use after the terrorist attacks.