SFO airport project criticized for `questionable' fees and expenses SAN FRANCISCO (AP) =97 Consultants who worked on the now-shelved San=20 Francisco International Airport runway expansion project were reimbursed=20 for "questionable" expenses that included an $800 dinner, a $550-a-night=20 hotel and a $4,700 monthly phone bill, according to an audit. The city's=20 budget analyst examined how the airport spent $75 million studying a=20 project that was never assured of being built =97 and that last week was=20 delayed indefinitely owing to a decline in airline passengers. Among the=20 examples of "unusually high" consultant fees and expenses the report cited= =20 were $49,940 for three Dell computer workstations and two roundtrip=20 airfares between San Francisco and Washington, D.C. costing $3,875 and=20 $4,252. The examples were pulled from a random sample of the contract files= =20 of the Airfield Development Bureau, the airport division which managed the= =20 study. Airport officials had offered an ambitious plan to overcome chronic=20 weather-related delays by building new runways into San Francisco Bay. In=20 pushing the plan they largely relied on outside contractors and consultants= =20 to perform technical and environmental studies, provide legal advice and=20 handle public relations. The project was conceived at the height of the=20 dot-com boom, but last week Airport Director John Martin said that a=20 decline in travelers has made the runway reconfiguration effort=20 unnecessary. Ken Bruce, a senior manager for the budget analyst's office,=20 said Wednesday that while the expenses some consultants racked up may have= =20 been justified, "they were excessive in light of the fact that they were=20 totally unexplained in the invoice files." Subsequent efforts to get the=20 airport to explain the charges went unanswered, he said. Airport spokeswoman Kandace Bender disagreed, saying the "project was=20 completely on the up and up." She said the $800 meal was a working dinner=20 for more than a dozen people, and the $4,700 phone bill covered conference= =20 calls between airport staff and its farflung experts. "This is a complex,=20 complicated project," Bender said Wednesday, "and it's very difficult to=20 understand in short period of time." The report also criticized the airport= =20 for prematurely spending $742,000 on land that it would have restored as=20 tidal wetlands to offset environmental damage by building into the bay. Bruce said the $75 million came from the federal government, construction=20 bonds issued by the airport and the airport's operating fund.=20 Appropriations from the latter two require approval from the San Francisco= =20 Board of Supervisors, which technically makes the funds "city money," he=20 said. "That is part of the problem with the airport," Bruce said. "They=20 consider themselves an entity of their own." Supervisor Aaron Peskin, one=20 of the project's critics, said the audit would make it harder for the=20 airport to garner support for runway expansion in the future. Bender=20 disagreed. "This project is bigger than any individual or group of=20 individuals," she said. "The need for the modernization of this airport=20 will rear its head again." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************