CLARIFY AIRPORT CONTRACT RULES, PANEL SAYS.

Byline: Rick Orlov

Staff Writer

Los Angeles city officials on Wednesday called for tighter regulations on how all contracts are awarded as they moved to clear two contested contracts doled out for work at Los Angeles International Airport.

Members of the City Council's Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee said they want to avoid the types of problems and conflicts over contract awards that have plagued the Los Angeles World Airports agency. With multibillion-dollar modernization of LAX on the horizon, the agency is headed by an executive director appointed last year.

"We have to make sure that there are no questions so that we can go ahead and do the work that we all support," Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. "I am all for modernization of the airport. We all know it needs to be done and done quickly.

"At the same time, we want to make sure there are no questions raised about how we award contracts, and we want to make sure the procedure is transparent."

Hahn said she also wanted to assure the airline industry that there have been no delays while the committee reviews decisions that led to the award of a $25million project-management contract to DMJM.

"DMJM is on the job and has been working," Hahn said, adding that she wants to clear up questions about selection of the firm.

Airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey and her staff offered the panel a detailed explanation of how DMJM was selected over Bechtel Corp.

After a first round of interviews, panelists submitted their scores, showing Bechtel rated the highest, the staff said. However, staff members said they still wanted more information, and Lindsey approved a second round of interviews that she also attended. The final recommendation was to award the contract to DMJM.

One of the DMJM project team leaders is Loren Smith, who worked for Parsons Corp., which had a contract with the Seattle Tacoma Airport when Lindsey was executive director there.

Lindsey said she sat in with the panel of LAWA workers to get direct information from the two firms, but that the workers made the final recommendation.

However, Councilman Jose Huizar questioned whether Lindsey should have been involved at that level and whether the contract-award process had been adequately detailed.

Assistant City Attorney Kelly Martin agreed that tightening of procedural language would help protect the city from any accusations of impropriety.

Hahn said she wanted to see detailed recommendations from LAWA as well as results of a review being conducted by City Controller Laura Chick, who had made a series of recommended changes in contracts after a "pay-to-play" scandal at the airport.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

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