Many Airport Partners Well-Connected

December 2, 2003
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA

Many Airport Partners Well-Connected

Two men who got business stakes under Philadelphia's rules for minorities
say they didn't use political links to win them.

The minority-business program at Philadelphia International Airport, set up
to help "disadvantaged" companies get in the concession game, is loaded with
politically influential partners - including a lawyer who once was one of
Mayor Street's closest friends, city records show.

Lawyer Carl Singley, a Street ally until the two men fell out three years
ago, has a stake in a PGA Tour store and two gift shops, the records show.

And Robert Bogle, president of the Philadelphia Tribune, owns a 40 percent
stake in the T.G.I. Friday's restaurant in the airport's shopping mall-like
concourse.

Both men obtained their airport interests in the late 1990s, when Ed Rendell
was mayor and Street was serving as Council president.

In interviews yesterday, both Singley and Bogle said they had not obtained
their businesses stake at the airport through political connections.

Both became involved in the airport under the city's rules that minorities,
women and disabled people share a "meaningful and substantial percentage" of
the airport's lucrative concessions. Their firms were officially dubbed
"disadvantaged business enterprises."

Singley, along with a partner, owns 20 percent in three shops run by airport
retailing giant Paradies Shops Inc., the city records show.

He and the partner once operated two gift shops at the Convention Center.

As for Bogle, the manager of the airport T.G.I. Friday's said that, to his
knowledge, the newspaperman is not involved in the eatery's operations or
management.

"He's more of a silent partner than anything," said Michael Kenny, who has
been running the restaurant for six months.

Airport concessions, along with the city's Minority Business Enterprise
Council, are a part of the FBI's investigation into a possible "pay-to-play"
scheme involving city contracts. The FBI has subpoenaed records from
Marketplace/Redwood, the company paid to manage the airport's concessions,
and from the Minority Business Enterprise Council.

There has been no sign that either the Singley or the Bogle contracts are
involved in the federal probe.

However, the FBI is known to have sought financial records of two companies
involved in lucrative bar and newsstand deals at the airport - both owned by
Aruby Odom-White, the wife of lawyer Ronald A. White and a central figure in
the federal probe.

White, a major fund-raiser for Street, has a reputation of having strong, if
unofficial, influence over who gets a slice of airport deals. He also has
snared millions for his own firm in city legal work and fees from bond
deals.

City records show that Odom-White's participation in the five bars and seven
newsstands/cafes was cleared by the minority business council within days in
2000 - even though she is a psychiatrist, with no concessions experience,
who at the time was paid $175,000 as a psychiatric consultant to a Newtown
medical clinic.

In two years, Odom-White's newsstand company grossed $4.7 million, records
show. The bars' gross revenue exceeded that figure.

The city has released a list showing the minority partners in the roughly
100 shops, bars and restaurants at the airport. Relatives and associates of
White's have fared exceedingly well there.

In addition to White's wife, several other people with ties to White have a
piece of the airport pie. Among them:

Janice Renee Knight owns 51 percent of an airport vending company called R &
R Joint Venture, records show. With Odom-White and others, she is a partner
in several airport bars. White helped set up Knight's printing business,
which has done $320,000 in city business in the last three years. She lives
in a Cherry Hill house she bought from White.

White's brother-in-law, Edgar Bridges, is owner of Gloria Jean's Coffee,
which sells coffee, juices, cookies and brownies in Terminal B. Bridges did
not return a call last night.

Andrew Cosenza Jr., a restaurateur from Cherry Hill, operates seven
restaurants at the airport. He gave $10,000 to a White political action
committee in 1999. Through a spokesman, he has declined to comment.

Jane Rose, another contributor to the White PAC and charity, operates
pretzel stands in the airport. In her application to the city, Odom-White
listed her as a business reference. Rose could not be reached.

William P. Cook is an owner of the Lagoon nightclub in Essington, Delaware
County, known for hosting rock-and-roll bands, boxing matches and political
fund-raisers. Through his firm KN Concessions, whose headquarters are in
White's law office, Cook, along with Odom-White, owns a part of an airport
bar/restaurant, according to airport records released last week. State
records, however, list only Odom-White as a partner in that business.

Cook once gave $5,000 to a political action committee run by Ronald White
and, through KN Concessions, is one of dozens of sponsors of a White family
charity. Cook was out of the country yesterday, according to a woman who
answered the phone at the Lagoon.

Singley has been a minority owner of the three airport shops since 1998.

In the interview, he said the Atlanta-based Paradies Shops retailing chain
asked him to participate in a joint venture.

Singley said he did not know how Paradies had learned of him, but he noted
that he and his partner, Paula Howe, had run two unprofitable gift shops at
the Convention Center.

Singley joked that Paradies' top executive "said we had some experience
losing money, so maybe we could make money."

At the time Howe and Singley began working at the airport, Singley was in
Street's political inner circle, backing him in early 1999 with $25,000 in
campaign contributions.

But more recently, Singley, once dean of Temple Law School, has been one of
Street's leading critics, serving as a key adviser to losing Republican
challenger Sam Katz in last month's election.

Of his airport role, Singley said: "I know Street knew nothing about it and
had nothing to do with it."

Bogle is the president of the Philadelphia Tribune, a paper that serves a
largely African American readership.

He served on the mayor's transition team after Street first won election in
1999. He has not contributed to Street's mayoral campaigns.

A news media ethicist said Bogle's participation in a city-related business
might present a conflict with his role as a journalist.

"It presents issues that could cause people to have questions about their
credibility if and when they write about anything that has some relationship
to that business venture," said Aly Colón, of the Poynter Institute, a
journalism training center in Florida.

Replied Bogle: "I've never had anybody challenge my editorial integrity or
my character."

Bogle said city politics had nothing to do with his share of an airport
business. He said T.G.I. Friday's officials had approached him in 1997
because they were "looking specifically for a minority investor."

He added: "I can't imagine why there's so much interest in African Americans
all of the sudden. If you fairly challenge or question the engagement of all
people in city business, fine.

"But I bet you that African Americans don't have more than 20 percent of all
city contracts... . What about the other 80 percent?"

Among other prominent investors at the airport is former Eagles receiver
Mike Quick.

In the late 1990s, Quick became a minority partner, with the Swiss-based
Weitnauer Inc, in the Tied On tie and scarf store.

Quick said another ex-football player had linked up with Weitnauer in
another city. "I heard about it in a conference back six years ago," Quick
said. "I was in the right place at the right time."

Quick said he was "not much for political contribution" and had given Street
nothing since a $250 donation in 1999.

He said he planned to quit the airport partnership soon to devote more time
to another business venture.


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