Gina Marie Lindsey

Los Angeles officials are questioning whether the top executive overseeing Los Angeles International Airport improperly influenced the hiring of an engineering firm to manage a $5- to $8-billion capital improvement program. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said Monday that she wants to question airport executive director Gina Marie Lindsey about the awarding of a $25-million management contract in March to DMJM Aviation Inc. of Tampa, Fla., whose parent company is based in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles airports Director Gina Marie Lindsey, who is embroiled in a controversy over LAX contracting procedures, oversaw Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at a time when millions of dollars in aviation-related contracts were awarded in violation of policy and state law, according to a recent state government audit.

An audit released Thursday found no indication that Los Angeles airports director Gina Marie Lindsey improperly influenced the awarding of two major contracts related to the modernization of LAX. The Los Angeles city controller's office concluded that airport staff followed correct procedures during the selection of DMJM Aviation Inc. of Florida and Denver-based Fentress Architects. The findings were similar to those of the City Council, which reviewed the contracts earlier this month.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today will announce the appointment of a nationally recognized aviation industry insider as executive director of Los Angeles' airports agency, The Times has learned. Gina Marie Lindsey, who guided a controversial $4.1-billion expansion at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, will take the reins at a pivotal moment in the history of Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX and airports in Van Nuys, Ontario and Palmdale.

Dodging a queue of several dozen people at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX on Thursday, Gina Marie Lindsey got an up-close-and-personal look at the challenges she will face when she takes over the city's airport agency June 11. As Lindsey walked briskly past busy ticket counters, airport officials striding alongside told her about the intractable issues facing LAX, including cramped, outdated terminals and a lack of parking spaces for planes.

The City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved Gina Marie Lindsey as the executive director of the city's airports agency, which operates Los Angeles International Airport and facilities in Van Nuys, Ontario and Palmdale. Lindsey was formerly the aviation director of the Seattle-Tacoma Airport and a director at Anchorage International Airport. In Seattle, she helped guide a controversial $4.1-billion renovation of the facility.

Two City Council committees that are looking into whether a major Los Angeles International Airport contract was awarded improperly praised the city's airport director Wednesday but called for recommendations to improve contracting procedures to avoid future controversy. "We have great confidence in Gina Marie Lindsey and are delighted she was tapped to run our airport," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who chairs the Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee. "But I can see how this process might be tightened up. . . . I don't want criticism every time we do something."

The City Council on Friday backed the airport commission's approval of a $41.5-million architectural design contract related to the expansion and modernization of Los Angeles International Airport. Council members decided earlier this week to review the hiring of Fentress Architects after questions were raised over whether airports director Gina Marie Lindsey had improperly influenced the hiring of the Denver-based company as well as of DMJM Aviation Inc. of Florida. Lindsey and two high-ranking airport executives have told City Council committees there was no attempt to manipulate contracting procedures for projects at LAX. The review was one of several recent inquiries into the Fentress and DMJM contracts.