"Lambert has millions in consulting contracts"

Monday, March 31, 2003

Lambert has millions in consulting contracts
By Ken Leiser
The St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch


Lambert Field officials will pay consultants up to $26.5 million under
contracts approved during the bleak 18 months that followed the attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, but critics question whether much of the work being farmed
out to the private sector is necessary.

Many consultant agreements are related to the new parallel runway being
built west of the existing airfield and to other airfield renovation
projects.

The airport also has turned to private firms for help in shoring up airport
security, managing Lambert's noise-management program - even improving the
appearance of its annual reports and glossy brochures.

But airport critics question why money is still flowing to the future runway
at a time when airlines are watching their passenger counts - and ticket
revenues - dwindle because of terrorist fears that were exacerbated by the
outbreak of war in Iraq.

"I don't know why they are spending this money," said Rowan Raftery of
Bridgeton, a longtime foe of the airport's expansion effort.

Raftery said takeoffs and landings weren't living up to the studies that
were used to justify the expansion. With American Airlines reportedly on the
verge of bankruptcy, he added, "How are they going to pay for this when (the
runway) opens?"

Records show that in the past 18 months, the city has hired consultants to
appraise homes and provide real estate title services for properties bought
in the runway buyout area. The cost to hire seven contractors could exceed
$2 million over three years, records show.

Last May, the city hired design consultants to draw up plans for the new
runway complex and modifications to the airfield electrical system. The
contract cost was listed at $6.2 million.

While other airports began to rethink expansion projects in the wake of
Sept. 11, St. Louis airport officials have decided to move forward with the
construction of a new 9,000-foot runway aimed at preventing air-traffic
gridlock during bad weather.

"Lambert has the money in the bank and we are proceeding," airport spokesman
Mike Donatt said last week.

Donatt expects traffic volumes to return to normal as the economy bounces
back. Airport officials insist that financing for expansion projects -
totaling $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion - was based on conservative
projections.

Financial forecasts even weighed the possibility that Trans World Airlines -
most of whose assets were bought by American last year - would go bankrupt
and that the airport would lose up to 40 percent of its flights. So far, the
losses haven't been that drastic.

Ongoing improvements to the airport have prompted the city to put a $2
billion bond measure on the April 8 ballot. The bonds would be paid off
through airport revenue so city officials say taxpayers would not be on the
hook for the debt.

Bill Fronick, Lambert's assistant director for planning and engineering,
said the airport went outside its own planning staff for major projects. But
the airport still maintains oversight of those consultant projects, setting
standards and reviewing the work.

"If we are doing a $10 million design project, that is an awful lot of
manpower to have in the office," Fronick said.

In other instances, Fronick said, the airport doesn't have the expertise
in-house to do a specific job.

That was the case when the city hired separate consultants, at a combined
cost of $650,000, to study how to prevent the devastating effects of a bomb
blast.

One consulting team studied how to fit explosive-detection machines into
Lambert terminals, Fronick said. Major airports throughout the country are
preparing similar studies to meet new federal security rules requiring all
checked luggage to be inspected for bombs.

Applied Research Associates Inc. of Vicksburg, Miss., sent two "blast
engineers" to analyze Lambert Field terminals and parking garages with a
special eye toward exterior walls and windows. The observations went into a
threat analysis.

"They use formulas and physics and engineers and we don't have anyone
capable of doing that," said Lambert Field Police Chief Paul Mason.

City officials point out that the airport consultants are chosen through a
competitve process.

State Sen. Chuck Gross, R-St. Charles, said that at the very least, the
airport might consider appointing people with special expertise in bond
financing or airlines to the airport commission. Gross has introduced a bill
to expand the airport commission by two members.

Airport Commissioner John Krekeler, who routinely raises questions about
airport spending, said some consultant agreements that go before the panel
each month had seemed "excessive," and in some cases, duplicative of work
already done by the airport.

For instance, he said, the airport has employees who deal with noise issues.

But the airport hired a group headed by Michael Roth & Associates of St.
Louis at $6.5 million over three years to oversee the residential
sound-insulation program offered to some homes near the airport.

A second firm, Airport Management Services of Ballwin, was hired this month
for $1 million over three years to oversee noise monitoring and citizen
complaints.

But Donatt - whose airport public relations department has hired an outside
firm to handle graphic arts jobs - said the outside services were necessary
to deal with the airport noise issue.

In his department's case, it wouldn't make sense to hire a full-time graphic
artist. Instead, they turned to Studio Montage of St. Louis.

"Most of the time, they (graphic artists) would just be sitting around," he
said. "So as I say, it is really cost efficient to contract something like
that to an outside contractor."

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