In her first public explanation of her role in a controversial LAX contract, Los Angeles airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey on Monday appeared to reassure airport commissioners that she did not improperly influence the hiring of a major engineering firm to manage airport modernization projects.
At issue is whether Lindsey manipulated the evaluation process to award a one-year $25-million contract to DMJM Aviation Inc., a Florida company that will oversee the capital-improvement program at Los Angeles International Airport.
The firm was selected by airport commissioners in March although Bechtel Corp. of San Francisco initially was recommended for the contract during the airport's evaluation process.
After weighing bids from competing companies, a review panel recommended 4 to 1 on Jan. 8 that Bechtel be awarded the project management contract, airport records show. A second review panel, convened Jan. 15-16, voted 5 to 0 in favor of DMJM.
Airport sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, have said that Lindsey was unhappy with the Bechtel recommendation and ordered the second review, which she attended.
But under questioning by airport commissioners at their regular board meeting Monday, Lindsey said members of the first evaluation panel wanted the second review because they were concerned they did not have enough information about either company.
She told commissioners she supported the idea so the evaluation panel could get all the facts before making a recommendation on which firm the board should hire.
Lindsey said she had no motive for attending the second hearing except "to see what was being asked and what the answers were."
Her explanation was backed up by Steve Martin, the acting chief operating officer for Los Angeles World Airports, who participated in the evaluation panels.
"After the first round, there was contention on the panel over whether we had all the facts," Martin told airport commissioners. "We thought about the option of a second review."
Martin said that during the second evaluation panel, members focused on how well the staffs of each company could work with the LAX staff as well as each firm's level of commitment to LAX.
At the board meeting, Lindsey also denied accusations that she wanted DMJM Aviation because she liked the work of its president, Loren Smith, who, as an executive of another company, had participated in the modernization of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when she was executive director there.
