Mayor responds to airport concession criticism with press release

Last week, Councilmember Anne Clutterbuck put a tag on Mayor White's proposed sweetheart contract extension for the underperforming (but politically connected) concessionaire at Bush Intercontinental Airport's Terminal C.

Since then, Mayor White (who has trumpeted his administration's transparency) has come under fire in various quarters for refusing to open a bidding process to find a new vendor and upgrade Terminal C's inadequate concessions.

Today, Mayor White's press machine tried to counter some of the criticism. The Chronicle's Matt Stiles posts the press release he received from Patrick Trahan:

Food service at Terminal C provided by a contract inherited by my Administration is worse than at competing airports.

I have proposed to council that we negotiate an extension because our position with the vendor puts us in a unique position to leverage value for the city. Secondly, it is in the best interest of the city to move forward with this proposed agreement that would allow for expedited conversion of Terminal C, without a protracted battle over contracts.

The City of Houston's professional airport managers and I announced publicly last spring our intention to replace the current food contractor when the contract expires next summer, unless there were big changes in management and millions more invested in upgrades. Council Members were updated along the way and had input. The process was transparent. The contractor complied with tough demands. Aviation professionals tell us the City obtained the benefit of competition before the current inadequate contract expires.

Hard-nosed managers in the private and public sectors often tell vendors they must immediately offer better contract terms or face replacement later on. By removing contract extension as a tool for City negotiations, we would lose an effective tool for improving existing contracts.

This Administration does not mix contracts with politics and does not fear fights. I believe the public wants city officials to pay more attention to constituent service and improving public safety, traffic, and neighborhoods, rather than on fights between vendors.

Council spent almost a year debating the vendor for scheduled airport shuttle service, and for months much service was lost after a contract expired, without replacement.

That is a BIZARRE press release that is not convincing.

First, I don't think I would have concluded a press statement trumpeting the White Administration's transparency by... citing an earlier airport-related sweetheart deal that benefited one bigtime political contributor (Yellow Cab) and effectively put an existing airport shuttle operation out of business. That example isn't really consistent with the message (as the expensive political consultants might say).

Second, calling a non-transparent process transparent doesn't make it so. The Mayor may not like the criticism of this sweetheart extension, but he's getting criticism because he claims to govern transparently, yet has promulgated a sweetheart contract extension for an underperforming vendor who just happens to be politically connected. Even Mrs. White admitted that this doesn't pass the smell test.

Third, the whining in the first paragraph about inheriting this underperforming vendor from a previous administration is just odd, since the lengthy contract extension being proposed by Mayor White would only saddle future administration(s) with the underperforming vendor. Why is saddling the next mayor(s) with an underperforming vendor preferable to a competitive bid process?

Fourth, the notion that the public wants the Mayor and Council to avoid a protracted fight on this matter is curious. Surely Mayor White does not really mean to suggest that his administration is incapable of pulling off a basic function of government (structuring a bid for services and going through a fair process that secures the best deal for taxpayers). That is not a reassuring signal from a big-city mayor with aspirations for higher political office. It's hard to imagine such an admission (implicit or explicit) coming from Mayors Bloomberg or Daley.

Or even from Albuquerque's Mayor!

In fact, we've heard quite a bit about Houston's lax residency requirements of late. If Mayor White doesn't feel like he's capable of conducting a fair bid process for IAH Terminal C concessions and forging political consensus on Council for such a move, perhaps we could run Albuquerque's mayor in the next election?

ANNE ADDS: Here's the first paragraph of Carolyn Feibel's story in today's Chronicle:

Mayor Bill White called the food service at Bush Intercontinental Airport's Terminal C inferior to that of other airports and said the fastest way to improve it was to extend the contract of the company that dishes it out.

That's just insane. This is not how good government operates, and taxpayers should demand better. Also in Feibel's story, Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck asks:

"I think it's a terrible precedent," Clutterbuck said. "The way it is now, it begs the question of why do we bid any contract? To what other contracts will this process be applied?"

Indeed, but maybe we already do have a precedent: Will all airport contracts be set aside for City Hall's political friends? We certainly seem to see a pattern.

And Councilwoman Clutterbuck's greater point is extremely important as related to government: What other city vendors will now come forward and demand the same preferential treatment Jason Yoo gets -- provide a lousy service, give plenty of political donations, and land a sweetheart deal?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/17/07 09:44 PM | Print |

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