James A. Bacon
It seems that “partisan Republicans” and “wild-eyed Tea Baggers” aren’t the only people who have problems with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) board of directors. The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the Obama administration expressed concerns in an interim report on its review of the board’s policies regarding travel, ethics, transparency and the awarding of contracts. Some highlights:
MWAA’s policies and practices are generally less rigorous than corresponding State and Federal rules. Notably, MWAA’s government-appointed Board members are not bound to the same State ethics and financial disclosure laws as the elected officials who appointed them.
Our ongoing review has revealed a culture that is largely unaccustomed to external audits and inquiries by the accountability community. While MWAA has freely cooperated in most areas of our review, Board and staff in some areas were reluctant to provide access to key documents and grant us private interviews with Board members. MWAA’s reluctance to provid[e] us full transparency may be attributable to the fact that it has experienced few independent audits since its creation 25 years ago.
On the positive side, the inspectors found that MWAA’s assumptions for Dulles Toll Road revenues appear reasonable. MWAA will rely heavily upon toll road revenues to finance Phase 2 of Rail-to-Dulles construction.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10, declared that he was “deeply troubled” by the findings, honing in on MWAA’s contracting practices, conflict-of-interest policies and recusal practices. Wrote Wolf:
Most egregious are the IG’s findings about MWAA’s contracting practices. … Particularly concerning are the number of sole source contracts issued. As you know, MWAA is required by law to fully compete any contract over $200,000, with limited exceptions. Yet the IG’s report states that “[d]uring the period of our review, MWAA awarded five sole source contracts that were over $200,000, but did not fall under any of MWAA’s categorical exemptions. These contract awards, which amount to $6 million, did not have Board approval.” Not only did MWAA abuse the exemptions permitted under federal law, they issued numerous contracts that failed to meet even these basic standards.
The report points out that while MWAA’s Contracting Manual says some exemptions are allowed, but “comprise only a small portion of MWAA’s contracts and their dollar value,” the IG found that the use of exemptions “has amounted to 40 percent of the Authority’s $589 million in contract awards during the period of our review.”
Wolf focused in particular upon the hiring of the Jenner & Block law firm to advise the board on how to avoid seating two new Virginia board members appointed by Governor Bob McDonnell:
The report details how “… one Board member’s recommendation led MWAA to initiate a $100,000 contract with a law firm despite the fact that an immediate family member worked for the firm.” The report goes on to say that “while this family relationship had been previously disclosed, the Board member did not refrain from participating in matters related to the firm when the issue arose (per MWAA policy), and MWAA awarded the contract to the recommended firm. ….
This particular contract was initiated to procure a legal opinion by the law firm Jenner & Block for the express purpose of advising the board on how it could avoid complying with a bipartisan law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama. Amazingly, the report shows that the contract was requested on November 18, 2011, the same day the president signed the bill into law. It also is worth noting that the report reveals that the law firm submitted its “completed legal opinion to MWAA before the noncompetitive contract [was] documented and officially signed.”
Interestingly enough, Chicago-based Jenner & Block, which maintains a Washington, D.C., office, has collected $78,000 in legal fees this year from the Democratic Party-Virginia Senate Caucus, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Senate Democrats made it a top priority to fight for state funding for the Rail-to-Dulles project and blocked Governor Bob McDonnell’s efforts to seat two newly appointed board members upon the board. The Dems also fought Republican efforts to tie state funding for Rail-to-Dulles to impartiality between union contractors and open shop contracts in the awarding of the Phase 2 contract. So far, MWAA has held fast in its policy to favor union Project Labor Agreements in evaluating bidders for the estimated $2.8 billion contract.
So, Jenner & Block collected more than $100,000 from MWAA plus $78,000 from the Senate Dems. That certainly creates the appearance that MWAA’s board was actively colluding with Democrats in the Senate to thwart the McDonnell administration’s efforts to hold the board accountable. There is no other way to describe MWAA but as a rogue entity.
