Airport Agency Is Scrutinized

Los Angeles County prosecutors are investigating possible corruption in the way the city’s airport department handles lucrative outside contracts, according to sources familiar with the probe.

In the last week, Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, along with a former airport agency executive and a lobbyist who represented a Los Angeles International Airport concessionaire, has been called to testify before a county grand jury, sources said.

A spokesman for Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley declined to comment, citing laws aimed at preserving the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.

The airport administers 434 revenue-generating contracts valued at about $346 million each year.

The probe by the county grand jury follows disclosures in an Oct. 23 Times article about the activities of Los Angeles lobbyist and businessman Art M. Gastelum.

The article quoted lobbyist Clark Davis as saying that former Airport Commissioner Leland Wong used his position in 2002 to try to pressure Davis to steer a lucrative concession contract to Gastelum’s daughter. Wong said he made a suggestion but did not exert any pressure.

Davis represented Atlanta-based concessionaire W.H. Smith, which operated a majority of newsstands and retail shops at LAX. Davis wrapped up his testimony before the grand jury Wednesday and emerged from the courtroom on the 13th floor of the downtown criminal courts building clutching a soda and looking warily at a group of reporters blocking his path to the elevators.

“I don’t think I’m allowed to talk to anybody about anything,” he said.

Ron Martinez, a business consultant who backed Davis’ account in the Times article, has also been subpoenaed to testify, a source said. Davis had enlisted Martinez in 2002 to help him line up a new subcontractor for W.H. Smith.

Rick Janisse, former deputy executive director for properties and concessions for the airport agency, appeared before the grand jury this week.

Also testifying was Edwards, who manages several city departments, including the harbor and Los Angeles World Airports, which oversees LAX, Ontario International Airport, and Van Nuys and Palmdale airports.

Edwards, who was Mayor James K. Hahn’s campaign finance director during his first run for mayor in 2001, refused to comment on his appearance Wednesday.

In another probe that has not made use of the grand jury, prosecutors are making inquiries into questions raised by City Controller Laura Chick as an offshoot of a Dec. 15 audit that was critical of airport contracting practices. Chick asked local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to look into “potential illegal acts” that she found while conducting the audit of the city’s airport agency.

When she released the audit, the controller said she was concerned about a “pay-to-play environment in the city of Los Angeles,” referring to a practice in which contractors make contributions to political campaigns in exchange for preferential treatment.

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Times staff writers Jessica Garrison, Patrick McGreevy and Noam Levey contributed to this report.