The Denver City Council granted initial approval Monday to a contentious contract to handle parking at Denver International Airport despite petitions from concerned parking employees and intense lobbying by other firms.
Cleveland-based Standard Parking is set to receive the lucrative contract, with a maximum value of $85 million. The contract would run for seven years with two possible one-year extensions. The council will give final consideration Monday.
The issue has generated stark divisions on the council.
Several of those who voted to move the contract forward said they feared council members were politicizing contract negotiations.
Others who wanted to block the contract from going to a new vendor said there were too many unanswered questions. Some council members also said they feared the new firm could increase health-care costs for parking employees.
The council granted initial approval on a 7-5 vote, with council President Michael Hancock, Chris Nevitt, Paul Lopez, Carol Boigon and Judy Montero dissenting. Councilwoman Marcia Johnson was absent.
Aviation Manager Kim Day had pushed for the selection of Standard.
In addition, an independent, five-member evaluation committee had recommended Standard as the most qualified to handle the contract and the lowest-priced bidder.
Councilman Charlie Brown noted that intense lobbying of behalf of competing firms had tried to derail that recommendation.
Brown, friendly with lobbyists such as David Cole, CRL Associates and David Foster, nonetheless voted against their clients.
“Frankly and candidly, it’s not easy to sit up here and vote against your friends,” said Brown, who had become the key backer on the council of Day’s recommendation. “But I tell them, I vote with you when I think you’re right and I vote against you when I think you’re wrong.”
Lopez said he feared for the parking employees who had sent petitions arguing against switching from the current vendor, Ampco Parking. He said he worried the new operator would increase their health- care costs.
The issue generated controversy when council members Lopez, Nevitt and Doug Linkhart met last month behind closed doors with representatives of the Service Employees International Union and Jack Ricchiuto, Standard’s executive vice president.
Ricchiuto said after that meeting that he feared the council members were inappropriately pressuring him on behalf of labor.
In the end, Linkhart voted to extend the contract to Standard without comment.
Hancock, whose district encompasses the airport, deplored the “innuendo and rumor” that had been associated with the contract controversy. He said he could not support giving the contract to Standard given all the questions and complaints.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher @denverpost.com
