"Atlanta mayor wants airport chief to stay"

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Atlanta mayor wants airport chief to stay
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution


Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin says she wants to keep airport General
Manager Ben DeCosta, whose contract expires March 6.

"I'd like to continue working with him," Franklin said. "I think he's doing
a great job."

When asked whether she will recommend that his contract be renewed, Franklin
nodded.

DeCosta, 59, is one of the highest-paid city officials at about $208,000 a
year, plus a car and benefits. He plans to ask for a substantial raise,
although he won't say how much. DeCosta said he hasn't discussed the terms
of his contract in detail with the mayor yet. But he noted that some of his
counterparts at smaller U.S. airports are paid more.

Hartsfield-Jackson International handled about 83 million passengers last
year, more than any other airport in the world.

At least half a dozen managers at smaller airports make more than DeCosta.
Miami International, which was the 20th-busiest airport in 2003, is looking
for a new director at $230,000 a year.

DeCosta was brought in by former Mayor Bill Campbell in 1998 and had a bit
of a rocky start. He promoted a $360 million contract for fill dirt for the
airport's fifth runway, a deal that later turned out to be tainted. He
wasn't implicated in any wrongdoing, but Atlanta City Council members
criticized his handling of the matter.

More recently, he has had to defend his actions in contracts that were given
to politically connected bidders, including one for a duty-free shop that
went to a firm run by Franklin's ex-husband and son.

But DeCosta also has won praise from the mayor and others for his handling
of day-to-day operations at the airport and for many aspects of its $5.4
billion expansion. Last year he helped reduce long security lines -- one of
travelers' biggest gripes -- by expanding the main checkpoint and keeping
pressure on the Transportation Security Administration to increase staffing.

DeCosta's rehiring and any raise would have to be approved by the City
Council, which hasn't been asked to take any action yet.

The looming deadline -- and the lack of a request before the council -- has
led to speculation that DeCosta's contract wouldn't be renewed.

"It is leaving it to the last minute," said council member Clair Muller,
head of the Transportation Committee, which oversees the airport. Muller
said she hasn't been told of any contract negotiations, but she plans to
meet with DeCosta next week.

DeCosta said he first spoke with the mayor about his contract last summer
but that he has been too focused on airport operations in recent months to
hash out the details with her.

Meanwhile, DeCosta has stepped up publicity about airport projects.

In the past month, he has held three news conferences with the mayor to
trumpet minor milestones, from the completion of an embankment for a fifth
runway to the redecoration of the North and South terminals.

In his more than six years on the job, DeCosta has not only had to manage
the world's busiest airport but also be a skilled politician, answering to
the mayor and often-skeptical council members. Given all the demands, his
ability to stay in the job so long "is masterful in some ways," said council
member H. Lamar Willis.

Willis said that although DeCosta's pay is high compared with other Atlanta
city officials, it's too low for the job.

"We get a much better general manager than what we pay for," he said.

DeCosta also could use the example of John Boatright, a former Delta
executive who now oversees the airport's expansion, in his salary
negotiations, Willis said. Boatright technically is a consultant rather than
an employee, but he reports to DeCosta and makes about $230,000 a year.


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