LAX May Put Curbs on Solicitors

As the summer travel season heats up, jet-lagged passengers at Los Angeles International Airport will stumble on an escalating feud when they seek out someone to give them directions.

On one side: the “ambassadors” hired by Los Angeles World Airports to give travelers information and a positive first impression of the City of Angels.

On the other: the solicitors who carry clipboards with an airport map taped to the back and offer directions, but then request a donation to a charity. Animosity between the two groups has spilled into the open.

Ambassadors say solicitors have mimicked their hats and windbreakers, and started surrounding them to keep passengers from seeing them. Solicitors say ambassadors have called them “bums” and warned passengers not to donate to them.

And both groups have heaved the ultimate insult, charging the other with giving passengers bad information.

“The last two to three weeks I cringe because I know there will be a fight,” said Marsha Majka, an ambassador who counted 12 solicitors standing behind her on a recent morning as she waited to greet passengers arriving from Australia. “If you’re trying to protect yourself and passengers from these guys, how can you smile and be helpful?”

Arthur Choice, a hairstylist who regularly solicits donations for Christian Brothers at the airport, said, “LAX ambassadors feel like when we give directions, we’re doing their job. They’re trying to create a conflict.”

The conflict has bewildered travelers, who just want to find a connecting flight, catch the nearest rental car shuttle or purchase a hot cup of coffee.

“It’s wonderful to have an airport/shuttle information person near the terminal exit,” Molly L. Pratt, a Chapel Hill, N.C., resident who recently flew through LAX, wrote in a letter to the city’s airport agency. But she complained about the solicitors. “Those gangs of greedy sharks outside should never be permitted to hit upon unsuspecting arrivals to LAX needing outside directions.”

Ambassadors say the conflict has turned violent. Last weekend, one said a solicitor “keyed” her car after a heated exchange, and another said a solicitor threatened to “smash him.”

Alarmed by these reports and worried that the fireworks could intensify this weekend, when 800,000 travelers are expected at LAX, city officials say they are ready to take action.

“What’s really terrible to me is we have this group of solicitors who have basically targeted our international travelers,” said Kim Day, interim executive director of the city’s airport agency. Those travelers “are the ones who most need our ambassadors and the ones most likely to fall prey to solicitors who are disguising themselves as official airport people and then asking for money.”

The LAPD division charged with licensing solicitors is reviewing their permits to determine if the permits can be revoked, said John Werlich, an assistant city attorney.

Just how far officials can go to curb solicitors remains unclear.

The City Council has tried for 28 years to rein in fund-raisers at the world’s fifth-busiest airport, passing two ordinances that regulated solicitation there, but both have been challenged.

The city can’t arrest solicitors or ticket them unless they are breaking the law.

Even so, airport police Sgt. Anthony Boisselle and airport executives said they planned to review the laws to find a way to charge solicitors who harass ambassadors and passengers. They also plan to beef up police presence to keep an eye on solicitors.

“We’re going to start writing tickets to these people and fining them,” Boisselle told ambassadors at a recent staff meeting. “But by law they have a constitutional right to be here.”

Solicitors say the majority of them act professionally and deny that they harass ambassadors or passengers.

“We know how to respect people,” said Jerry White, who has raised money for Christian Brothers at LAX for three years. “But new people who come in from different organizations are creating the problem. They don’t know what to do.”

Airport officials say they’ve seen a marked increase in recent weeks in complaints from passengers who say solicitors “accosted” them and acted aggressively when they hesitated to give a donation after receiving directions.

“I thought he was there to help,” said Alison Ray, who gave a solicitor $3 at LAX recently after he provided directions to a restaurant. “I thought he was working for the airport. It annoyed me. It took me by surprise.”

Airlines that serve LAX have also recorded more concerns from travelers approached by solicitors, said Frank Clark, executive director of a nonprofit corporation that represents carriers operating at the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

“At noon and in the evening, it’s like running the gantlet,” he said. “It’s virtually impossible to get out of the terminal and not be confronted by these guys.”