LAX concession circus (cont'd)

For anyone who hasn't kept up with the City Hall hijinks over which concession company should get the airport business, the L.A. Weekly's Gene Maddaus,offers a summary of the action:

The city received four bids for the most lucrative food and beverage package, worth about $600 million in revenues. An LAX interview panel scored them and ranked them as follows:

1. SSP (Silverton, Splichal, etc.)
2. Delaware North (Wolfgang Puck Express, Rock'N Fish)
2 (tie). HBF
4. Host (Whopper Bar)

(HBF was tossed out because its minority-owned partners were not certified to serve food. So that left three.)

Host and Delaware North protested, arguing SSP should be thrown out. [City Attorney Carmen]Trutanich obliged, finding on Tuesday that SSP has a conflict of interest because it did work with Smart Design, which also helped design the bid package for LAX.

Host was also considered to have a conflict of interest, Trutanich concluded. That's probably just fine with the Host people because they were the big losers in the initial bidding anyway. Their hope, of course, is that all the bids get thrown out, which is looking more and more likely. As for the conflict of interest stuff, check this out from the Daily Breeze:

Chad Molnar, the LAX field deputy for Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose area includes the airport, pointed out that the global airport community is so tiny it's virtually impossible to find people who haven't worked in or have connections with both the public and private sectors within the industry. For example, the LAX website notes that Stephen Martin, chief operating officer for Los Angeles World Airports, also worked for a decade as a consultant to LeighFisher, one of the consulting companies Host complained about.

But let's also not forget the conflicts involving several members of the City Council board who are supposed to make a decision on all this. Truly a mess.