Other trips seemed even more peripheral to DIA matters, promotional or otherwise. In November 1995, for example, DeLong took a $1,529 trip to Washington, D.C., solely to "interview candidates for the ACI president's position." DeLong defends the use of city funds to conduct the trade group's business, noting that ACI lobbies in Washington on behalf of Denver and other cities.
The city has used the airport revenue fund as a revolving travel budget for the Webb administration's various minority advancement efforts, as well. In 1993, under pressure from the mayor's office, the airport forked over $10,000 to fund a local minority group's "trade mission" to the West African nation of Gabon. After allegations that the expenditure violated federal rules against using aviation money for non-airport purposes, the trip was investigated by a state grand jury. That body brought no criminal charges.
Cash from the airport revenue fund also has gone to cover travel and meeting expenses of the Mayor's Office of Contract Compliance, an agency set up to encourage the use of minority contractors on city proj-ects. In 1994, for example, Webb's office billed the DIA revenue fund $393 to hold a catered luncheon and "staff retreat" for 25 MOCC employees in the VIP Room at the Denver Museum of Natural History. According to an expense form, the gathering was designed to "create a more TEAM oriented environment for downtown and DIA offices of MOCC."
In May 1995, four MOCC staffers billed the revenue fund to fly to sunny San Diego for a four-day Airport Business Diversity Conference. The quartet ran up $6,300 in charges to, among other things, "promote DIA's minority/women procurement program." Last fall MOCC staff assistant Sharon Hill spent six days in Detroit attending the National Minority Suppliers Development Council Conference. Her goal: "to increase our outreach program and help develop minority business." Other MOCC destinations last year: Nashville, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida.
Few employees, however, traveled in the style to which top officials such as DeLong and airport supervising attorney Lee Marable were accustomed. When DeLong flew to Washington, D.C., in June 1994 to give a speech at the Aero Club of Washington, his hotel bill for one night--$312 at the luxurious Capitol Hilton--could have paid the weekly salary of an airport janitor.
Marable's billing records in particular read like a traveler's guide to the nation's finest hoteliers. The attorney has billed the city $18,400 for twelve out-of-town trips in 1995 and 1996, mostly to Washington, D.C., and New York City, regarding federal investigations of alleged improprieties at DIA. There the former oil company attorney battled jet lag at three- and four-star hotels such as New York's Plaza AthŽnŽe, a bastion of luxury modeled after the Paris original that features Oriental rugs and fine antiques.
In Washington, Marable usually bunked down at the J.W. Marriott, a three-star facility with a marble lobby and 24-hour room service. But DIA's top legal eagle reached the pinnacle of gracious living on the night of May 9, when he booked a two-room suite at the four-star Renaissance Mayflower on Connecticut Avenue, billing the city $250 for the privilege of spending the night surrounded by a gilded interior and having a telephone in the bathroom. The next night, Marable transferred to the Marriott, a comparative steal at only $209 per night that, according to the 1996 Mobil Travel Guide, features only "some bathroom phones."
Foote says she "can't really answer" whether Marable and other officials are spending too much on hotels. "All I know is the direction we give folks is to ask for the government rate," she says. "Some hotels have got government rates, and some don't." As for city council travel, Foote says it's justified by the fact that, under the city charter, council members are considered "commissioners of the airport system."
DeLong, meanwhile, remains adamant that Denver's travel expenses aren't out-of-line. Other American cities spend large amounts of money promoting their airports, he says. Dallas, he claims, sent 35 people to Washington, D.C., to take part in the bilateral negotiations with England. That sort of competition, he says, is why it's important for DIA to make sure its name remains prominent in the aviation world.
To further that goal, notes DeLong, next month he heads to a meeting with a Lufthansa Airlines official in New York City, continuing DIA's desperate campaign to convince somebody--anybody--to fly nonstop to Europe from Denver. But while that trip and the numerous jaunts he expects to make around the country this year for ACI will run up a good-sized tab, DeLong says he's working to keep costs down by booking coach seats whenever possible.
Says DeLong, "I fly in the back.
