It took only seconds for Agenda Item #30 to be tagged at Houston’s City Hall on Wednesday morning.
The highly publicized fight over a lucrative concessions contract at Hobby Airport was tagged by multiple council members who indicated they want more time to come to a decision.
It’s the second week in a row that the agenda item was tagged.
“That was a friendly tag,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
As a result of the tag, the food fight at Hobby continues for another week.
At stake is a 10-year contract for the right for either the Pappas Restaurant Group or Areas JV, out of Miami, to operate concessions.
On Wednesday, after the tag was called, the leaders of either group did not have much to say.
CEO of Pappas, Chris Pappas, did not answer any questions while walking out of chambers and Carlos Bernal, the CEO of Areas USA, said, “That’s the process, and we support the process.”
When KPRC 2 Investigates asked Bernal questions as to how his company specifically identified a revenue stream of $470,000,000 over the life of the deal, Bernal would not respond directly to the question.
The number has been highly speculated among council members and experts. “I find it questionable, and that is the reason I am tagging it, and that is why I did tag it,” said Councilmember Robert Gallegos.
One council member, who reviewed the scoring of Pappas and Areas, says it was the financials that did Pappas in.
“The four families were way ahead until it got to the financial part which was 10 points, and they rated them down to seven, and they gave the competitor 10,” said Councilmember Michael Kubosh.
The agenda item is expected to be voted on by the city council next Wednesday.
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