Firms With LAX Ties Aid Hahn

Two weeks after Mayor James K. Hahn proposed spending $9 billion to modernize Los Angeles International Airport, contractors likely to benefit from the massive public works project are lining up to raise money for his reelection campaign.

Airport contractors have scheduled Hahn fund-raisers for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with admission set at $1,000 per person.

Critics of the LAX renovation and advocates of new ethics rules at City Hall said they were troubled that airport contractors would help Hahn raise money so soon after the release of his plan.

“It is no surprise that the mayor is developing an opportunity to dole out $9 billion worth of favors to people who are contributing to his campaign,” said Denny Schneider, an officer of the Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council. “It’s a pay-to-play system at this point. I feel very frustrated and betrayed.”

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who opposes the project, also said she believes there is a link between the plan and Hahn’s political ambitions.

“As far as I am concerned, this is about contracts and the exercise of power by the mayor to create more opportunity for his contributors,” Waters said.

Bill Carrick, a political advisor to Hahn, denied any connection between the modernization plan and the fund-raisers.

“There isn’t any link,” Carrick said. “The fund-raising operation has been planning these events for a while, long before the mayor’s plan was announced.”

Other observers said that Hahn’s plan for LAX faces an uphill battle for approval, so the mayor may not be able to deliver the large public works contracts, even if he wants to. The proposal, including reconfiguration of the central terminal area and construction of a new passenger check-in facility a mile east of the airport, would need approval from the city Airport Commission, the City Council and the Federal Aviation Administration after a 45-day public comment period.

“If the mayor’s plan is D.O.A., then the quid in quid pro quo goes away,” said a political consultant, Larry Levine, who is not affiliated with the Hahn campaign.

Contractors said they had scheduled the fund-raisers well before Hahn released details of his airport plan July 9, and they maintained that they support the mayor for reelection because of his broader vision for improving Los Angeles.

Many contractors see the airport overhaul as a significant part of that vision, however.

In an invitation to Monday’s reception at its One Bunker Hill headquarters, the engineering firm HNTB said Hahn’s reelection is important “so the city can continue developing its focus upon” issues that include “modernization, safety and security enhancements for LAX.”

HNTB already has contracts worth $8.1 million with the city airport department, known as Los Angeles World Airports, including one to help expand Ontario International Airport and another to improve airfields that would be affected by the LAX modernization plan.

The company also was a subcontractor to Bechtel-JGM for a security study on the LAX perimeter and was a subcontractor on a study of passenger ground-transportation service.

HNTB officials did not return calls for comment.

On Tuesday, public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard will host a luncheon for Hahn at the exclusive City Club in downtown Los Angeles.

The firm has an $800,000 contract with the city airport agency to help with marketing Ontario International Airport.

“I can tell you unequivocally, my raising money for the mayor has absolutely nothing to do with Fleishman-Hillard’s relationship” with the airport agency, said Doug Dowie, the firm’s general manager. He said the company had no plans to bid for additional airport work created by the modernization plan.

Hahn’s Wednesday fund-raiser is a reception at Union Station hosted by the heads of airport contracting firms, including Psomas and Associates, Daniel Mann Johnson and Mendenhall and G & C Equipment Corp.

One of the hosts, Tim Psomas, is chairman of the board of an engineering firm that has received work worth more than $2 million through January 2004 as a subcontractor on the LAX master plan.

Another co-host of the event is Gerald Seelman, a corporate vice president with Daniel Mann Johnson and Mendenhall, an engineering company that has a $5.2-million city contract to design the new Flyaway Bus Terminal at Van Nuys Airport, where passengers will board buses for LAX.

Another co-host for Wednesday’s reception is Gene Hale, the president of G & C Equipment Corp., which provides rental equipment to the city airport agency.

Hale said he supports Hahn for many reasons, and he also hopes to get a piece of the LAX work.

“I will submit my bid just like everybody else to the prime contractors,” he said.

Hale also is chairman of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, which two weeks ago became one of the first business groups to endorse Hahn’s modernization plan.

“We think the revised plan would be economically viable for the city and will create a lot of jobs,” Hale said.

Supporters who have been asked by Hahn’s campaign to help raise money say they have been told by mayoral advisors that the goal is to raise enough money to dissuade potential challengers to the incumbent.

“Clearly we want to send a message to anyone thinking of running that the reelect Jim Hahn campaign will be well-funded,” Carrick said.

“That’s how you keep people out. You scare them with money,” added political consultant Joe Cerrell, who has submitted a bid for an LAX community relations contract and said he would raise money for Hahn “if asked.”

Hahn recently reported that he had reached the $200,000 threshold in fund-raising, even though no one has filed papers to challenge him yet and the election will not be until March 2005.

“He is going to be fully prepared to run a vigorous and competitive campaign,” Carrick said.