The special City Council board authorized a revamp of gift shops, beverage joints and eating outlets at Los Angeles according to the information received last week. Three retail contracts were given to a joint venture which features the ex-Lakers idol Magic Johnson and the widow of notary Johnnie Cochran.
As the Board of Referred Power involving five associates voted 4 to 1, the deal was passed to a business enterprise consisting of the Hudson Group, Magic Johnson Enterprises and Concourse Ventures and headed by Dale Mason Cochran.
The board members in one of the contracts preferred this partnership over a Miami-based organization called Areas USA which was proposed by LAX officers.
Except the board chairperson Tony Cardenas, all other board members namely Bernard C. Parks, Ed Reyes, Janice Hahn and Bill Rosendalh voted for the contracts. The chairperson later said that the members were too fast in presenting a decision.
During the 2008 campaign for county supervisor, Parks was backed by Johnson and it is rumored that it was Parks who initiated the act to substitute Areas USA with this partnership firm.
Parks said that he supported the partnership only because it involved two local companies Magic Johnson Enterprises and Concourse Ventures as equity partners. “I prefer locals over foreign groups in this project of revamping the city” he said after the vote.
He said that this partnership designated a minority female as equity partner and not just brought them ahead to apply for their 10% share of the bid package.
The officers of Areas USA were offended that the Board of Referred Powers preferred to ignore the suggestions from airport officials after such an extensive and detailed process, the vice president of Areas USA said.
He also said that they look forward to being conferred the food and beverage packages for which they were also proposed in a fair contest.
For the final approval, the three retail contracts (hopefully going to sell our travel cup holder) must go to the City Council. On Sept 20th, the Board of Referred Powers will consider five additional food and beverage contracts too.
The conclusions presented on Monday, Sept 13th were received well by the executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, Gina Marie Lindsey. “I am delighted to have made this much progress,” she said. This group operates LAX, Ontario International Airport and Van Nuys Airport.
On the Sept 13th meeting, Cardenas showed dismay on finding out that either few of the airport’s evaluators did not write remarks on bid forms about their evaluation for grading a company in the way they did or they discarded their comments.
He questioned the airport authorities about the lack of backup notes and described the loss of these comments as “extremely terrible and odd”.
Furthermore, Cardenas said he was anxious that airport assessors did not validate bidders’ references until after grading a company. Lindsey informed the panel that references were inspected at last and that evaluators concluded that what was found would not concern any organizations score.
For more information on retail goods such as wheelchair accessories or our drink holder, feel free to browse this blog.
