"Grand Jury Grills Philadelphia Airport Director"

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Grand Jury Grills Airport Director
Isdell Mum On What Was Asked
By Daily News reporters Bob Warner, Dave Davies, Ramona Smith and Erin
Einhorn contributed to this report. Daily News reporters Dave Davies,
Ramona Smith and Erin Einhorn contributed to this report. 
The Philadelphia (PA) Daily News


THE CITY OFFICIAL in charge of Philadelphia International Airport spent
more than two hours yesterday in front of a federal grand jury probing
municipal corruption.

Afterward, city Aviation Director Charles J. Isdell Jr. was unwilling to
say a single word to the Daily News.

The tight-lipped airport chief, wearing a dark blue suit, stepped
quickly into an elevator as another man, who declined to identify
himself, delivered a terse "no comment" and followed Isdell inside.

Contacted later by telephone, airport spokesman Mark Pesce referred all
questions to the city Law Department.

Isdell, who turned 54 this month, has spent his entire career, the last
31 years, on the city payroll. He's been running the airport - a job
that pays $150,000 a year - since the first year of the Street
administration in 2000.

Over four years, Isdell has presided over the opening of two new airport
terminals, record growth in airport passengers, major operating changes
in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the successful wooing
of low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines to Philadelphia. 

But the news media, spurred by the ongoing federal probe, have also
thrown a harsh spotlight on airport cronyism, political patronage and
government waste. Among the items:

   Isdell's brother and son both took jobs with major airport
contractors, his brother for the firm that manages airport
concessionaires, a major source of political contributions for Mayor
Street. Much of the airport fund-raising was handled by lawyer Ron
White, indicted two weeks ago on unrelated charges tied to city bond
deals. Isdell initially said he saw no conflict between his relatives'
jobs and his own, but later announced he would abstain from issues
involving his relatives' firms.

   In spite of contract language saying that airport-concession
opportunities should be spread "to as many different subtenants as
possible," the city allowed the same politically juiced bar-owner, Eric
J. Blatstein, a $36,000 contributor to Street, to control eight bars in
airport terminals. Blatstein's partners in the bars included White's
physician-wife, Aruby Odom-White, the wife and daughters of former state
Sen. Frank Salvatore, the wife of late South Philadelphia political
potentate Henry J. "Buddy" Cianfrani, and a woman identified by federal
authorities as Ron White's paramour, Janice Renee Knight. Isdell has
refused to answer questions about the situation.

   Isdell's deputy airport director, Janis L. Pierce, resigned last year
after the Daily News and Inquirer disclosed that she had falsely claimed
to have an undergraduate degree from Harvard. When the issue first
arose, Isdell's response was: "If Janis tells me she has a degree from
Harvard, then I believe she has a degree from Harvard."

   In 2001, the airport awarded a cell-phone-tower contract to a St.
Louis company in spite of a competitor's proposal that might have paid
the city $200,000 more. The edge for the St. Louis firm was apparently a
subcontract with Keystone Information and Financial Services, a Mount
Airy firm owned by Shamsud-din Ali, a politically active Muslim cleric
whose activities are a focus of the current federal investigation.

Isdell was in charge when the airport awarded a $13 million maintenance
contract to a consortium including the mayor's brother, Milton Street.
Last year, Isdell's staff found Milton's fledgling company qualified for
a $1.1 million baggage-handling contract, then reversed itself after the
mayor said publicly that the work should go elsewhere.

Federal authorities have made repeated trips to the airport to seize
documents and computer records, and they've interviewed at least seven
airport employees besides Isdell.

There's been no sign from the mayor's office of any dissatisfaction with
Isdell's performance.

Attached Photo:

Charles J. Isdell Jr., who runs operations at the airport, has a brother
and a son who have jobs with airport contractors.

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