Talk about a crazy situation… After months of delay, the Washington,
D.C., City Council is scheduled October 2 to approve amendments to a
bi-state compact with Virginia that would expand the board of the
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), giving the Old
Dominion greater representation. The amendments were based upon
legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Obama at the
behest of Rep. Frank Wolf, Va-10.
Assuming the council acts as expected, it still will be behind the
curve. Frustrated by “appalling decisions” made by the MWAA board, Wolf
has submitted a new bill that would shrink the board and give
Virginia representatives an outright majority. The board, which worked
actively to block implementation of the previous changes is
“dysfunctional,” he says.
The current board lacks transparency and accountability, said Wolf in an August
press release,
pointing to a series of “appalling” decisions over the past two years,
including a $200,000 confidential settlement with an unsuccessful
candidate to run the authority and sweetheart deals for former board
members and board staff. He also cited lavish travel by board members.
“MWAA used to have a well-functioning and highly successful board,”
Wolf said. “Now it has just dissolved into bitter acrimony. Board
members are subpoenaing each other. It is internecine warfare. This
cannot stand. It is time to give Virginia control.”
Last week the MWAA board did adopt a new travel policy and hiring
policies, as the new chairman, Michael A. Curto, sought to re-establish
credibility with the authority’s stakeholders.
After the MWAA board’s session last week, Curto stated:
As I started my tenure as chairman, I laid out three
priorities for the organization: increased cooperation with our
partners, especially the Commonwealth of Virginia, greater transparency
for management and board operations, and the timely and cost-effective
completion of the rail project. While it is true that the Authority has
made its share of mistakes, and there are a number of issues that have
yet to be adequately addressed, I think our harshest critics would also
acknowledge that we have made significant progress on those key
objectives.
President and CEO Jack Potter reported last week that the Authority
was closing out all “sole source” professional services contracts that
had been exempted from competitive bidding. In effect, that meant firing
former director Mame Reiley, whom he had hired under a multi-year
contract for a $180,000-a-year job. Her contract still called for a
one-year severance.
The new travel policy would preclude any more junkets, such as one in
which then-board member Dennis Martire, a a senior executive with the
Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA) charged MWAA for a
nine-day trip to Europe with his girlfriend on the pretext of attending
a 36-hour conference on by the Airports Council International.
At least two other former board members – and a former staff member
of the board – have been beneficiaries of sweetheart deals, Wolf said,
citing exposes by the Washington Examiner. Last year the board awarded a $100,000 contract to a law firm where a board member’s wife works.
In other questionable activities, the board paid $200,000 to an
individual who was “all but promised” – but never offered – the CEO
position. The deal was struck to avoid a potential lawsuit.
One issue yet to hit the media involves the confiscation of a board
member’s papers left at his seat after a recent meeting, Wolf said. The
Congressman stated in the press release that “it was his understanding
that” a board member left the July session for a lunch meeting, fully
intending to return. The board meeting adjourned, however, before he
came back and board staff collected his things. “Instead of just putting
the documents in an envelope, the staff read through them and then
passed them onto the board secretary, who, I understand, also went
through them,” Wolf said. “Believing the documents could be pertinent to
litigation involving MWAA, the board secretary turned them over to the
authority’s general counsel. This incident has led to series of
subpoenas being issued to several board members and others, including me
and my chief of staff.”
Another incident revolves around the attempted removal of a Virginia
board member — Martire, the labor executive — for cause by Governor
McDonnell, Wolf said. The board member has challenged his removal in
court and MWAA is paying his legal fees.
“I suspect MWAA will have to start paying the legal fees of other
board members who have now been subpoenaed in the case,” Wolf said.
“Knowing how fast legal fees can accumulate, I am deeply troubled by
these latest turn of events, especially considering taxpayers are
footing the bill.”
The problems do not end here, Wolf said.
The terms of all three of the federal appointments have
expired and finding replacements continues to drag on and on. The
District left an appointee on the board for nearly two years after his
term has expired, despite being under house arrest in the Ivory Coast
and attending only one meeting between 2009 and 2011. It was going to be
that member’s proxy vote to hire the unsuccessful CEO candidate who
received a $200,000 settlement. Board members also used to meet with the
former chairman the night before meetings to plot strategy for the next
day’s meetings, Wolf said.
“All this points to a board that is totally dysfunctional, fiscally irresponsible and tone deaf,” Wolf said.
MWAA’s actions last week come too little and too late for Wolf. “The
Congressman’s new bill will “give Virginia complete control” over the
MWAA board, Daniel Scandling, Wolf’s chief of staff, told me.
Scandling acknowledged the political difficulties in persuading
Maryland and Washington to agree to an arrangement that would further
diminish their power on the board, but he noted that the bill enjoyed
bipartisan support among Virginia’s congressional delegation and has
been backed by leading business lobbies in Northern Virginia. “Never say
never.”
McDonnell spokesman Jeff Caldwell did not respond to two phone calls
and an email from Bacon’s Rebellion to address the Washington City
Council’s action, or lack of it, on the bi-state compact.
