Mayor Reed signs airport contracts after judge denies injunction

• Joeff Davis
• THE WAIT AT THE AIRPORT IS OVER The Mayor can now sign airport concession contracts with the companies that were approved by City Council at the beginning of the year.

Work to ready the new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport will move forward following a judge’s order this morning that denied efforts to delay Mayor Kasim Reed from signing concessions contracts with the companies that were approved by Council at the beginning of the year.

The decision by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Wright means that the four companies who challenged the city’s bidding process — Atlanta Airport Restaurants, Midfield Concessions, SSP America Inc. and Take-Off Concessions — will have to wait until city-sponsored administrative hearings, which likely will take place next month.

Moments after being told of the ruling while conducting a ground-breaking in Vine City, a visibly excited Reed said he was “very pleased with the decisions.”

In a creatively written order, Judge Wright seemed to express some exasperation with both sides. She noted that if the city were forced to satisfy all complaints and concerns before being allowed to execute its decisions, “the business of the City would grind to a halt.”

However, she also hinted that the city had been less than cooperative in providing documents that show how the controversial bidding process was conducted:

Although, initially, Defendant vehemently protested the production of records, and only after entry of several Court Orders, Defendant produced and continues to produce records related to scoring the proposals and other documents related to the bid process. Regardless, Plaintiffs, and Midfield in particular, argue that one important bid scoring sheet has yet to be produced by Defendant.