"DBE: Hartsfield contract subject of hearing"

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Airport contract subject of hearing 
By KIRSTEN TAGAMI 
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution 

 
A close friend of former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson will be at the
center of a two-day hearing on a Hartsfield International Airport
contract dispute that begins today at Atlanta City Hall.

At issue is whether Barbara Fouch, godmother to one of Jackson's
children, runs a "disadvantaged business enterprise." The Los
Angeles-based businesswoman claimed that designation in her successful
bid to continue managing indoor billboards at Hartsfield along with her
majority partner, Clear Channel Airports.

A losing bidder, Atlanta-based Corey Airport Services, will try to show
that Fouch, who runs a large public relations firm in Beverly Hills,
Calif., does not qualify as disadvantaged. An administrative law judge
will hear Corey's appeal and decide the matter.

Fouch has had a 30 percent stake in the contract since 1981, with
different majority partners. When the contract expired in 1998, the city
renewed it on a monthly basis more than 40 times. Airport officials
later complained that the city had blocked their efforts to rebid the
contract.

After Mayor Shirley Franklin took office last year, Atlanta rebid it but
once again selected the Clear Channel/Fouch team. The choice isn't final
until approved by the City Council.

Federal regulations say women and minorities are presumed to be socially
and economically disadvantaged. The rules say, however, that such a
presumption can be disproved.

One of Corey's lawyers, former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers,
said he expects a "lively and interesting hearing." Corey last month
went to court to force the city to provide Fouch's income tax
information. A judge ruled in Corey's favor, but that case is on appeal.


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