ATLANTA — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Hartsfield-Jackson regarding allegations that the city might have illegally diverted airport revenue.
The notice of investigation was signed on July 25 by the director for the Office of Airport Compliance and Management Analysis, Kevin Willis.
Federal officials outlined the following allegations that they are looking into:
- That the city may have unlawfully divert airport revenue
- That the city improperly withheld airport records and documents affecting the airport
- That the city may have failed to report amounts paid or services provided by the airport to other units of city government
The notice says that in June 2018, a media report indicated the city might have used some of the airport revenue to pay for legal work regarding a federal corruption investigation not related to the airport.
It was in July 2018 when the feds said the FAA sent a letter to the then-acting aviation general manger requesting records showing all expenditures since January 2016 of airport revenue or Airport Improvement Program grant funds for legal fees. They also wanted documents to show the recipient of each payment.
They claim they received a response though a law-firm giving them 3,000 pages and redacted invoices and fees from 27 different law firms.
They also said in December 2018, the outside legal counsel for the city told them they identified several invoices totaling more than $100,000 that were wrongly paid from airport funds and that the airport had been reimbursed for the payments.
The FAA determined the city may have made ineligible payments to law firms, but the redacted invoices is making it difficult for them to perform a thorough review. Federal officials claim the city has refused to comply with the FAA's request for unredacted legal fees invoices.
The notice said the city has 30 days to respond.
11Alive reached out to both the FAA and the City of Atlanta. While the FAA declined to comment, city officials confirmed the investigation, noting the alleged actions did not happen under the Bottoms administration. However, they said they "look forward to cooperating with the FAA" to provide them with the requested documents.
Below is a statement from a city spokesperson:
The City is surprised by the filing of and certain language contained in the Notice of Investigation which suggests that it has refused to provide documents and violated certain Grant Assurances, or that the federal investigation did not begin with inquiries related to the airport. In all of its communications, the City has been clear about its desire to cooperate and has taken steps to do so while maintaining its attorney-client privilege and work product protections.
Waiving our asserted privileges is an extraordinary and unreasonable request, and we have informed the FAA that the City can provide unredacted invoices only if the records are subject to a court order under Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) (“Rule 502(d)”).
However, once again, we look forward to working cooperatively with the FAA to produce the requested documents.
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