By Greg Hazley
The commission that oversees Los Angeles International Airport will renegotiate nearly $4M in PR services contracts after two city council members questioned the award of the lucrative pacts last month.
The three, three-year contracts, with the Phelps Group (PR), AdEase (media buying) and Nothing Films (video products), were for a $3.8M public education campaign covering the ongoing multibillion-dollar modernization of LAX.
The Board of Airport Commissioners on Feb. 5 passed a resolution to rework the contracts to single-year pacts with two option years.
City council members flagged the contracts last month because none of three firms are based in Los Angeles. Phelps Group, the prime contractor, is based in Santa Monica, while subcontractors AdEase is in San Diego and Nothing Films resides in Fountain Valley.
One council member also questioned whether a 2005 ban on PR contracts with the city following the Fleishman-Hillard overfilling scandal was still effective.
The city council has the power to overrule contracts from the airport commission, but declined to do that as the airport board agreed to review the pacts.
Phelps beat finalists Rogers | Finn Partners and West Coast Public Affairs in an RFP process last fall to lead the account. |