According
to Saporta Report, it appears financial-backer of Kasim Reed, Mack Wilbourn,
has been “too successful” to continue to participate in government set-aside
programs.
The irony? The
program worked as it was supposed to.
Now Mack and Dan Halpern, another concessionaire in trouble
with the FAA, are putting the program at risk for other minority-owned
companies.
Wilbourn has been a concessionaire at the Atlanta airport,
and other airports, for decades. He has participated
in a program that was designed to help minority-owned companies become more established
and successful. ,
It seems that unlike HJ Russell (an airport concessionaire
who is also African-American), Wilbourn has been unwilling to get out of the public
trough. Wilbourn, like Russell, had the
ability and capacity to compete head-to-head with the big companies but he
chose not to go that route. Russell
competed and won. Now Wilbourn is poised
to lose it all. According to Sparort
Report, he’ll find out next month.
Next up to bat with the FAA:
Daniel Halpern, Kasim Reed’s campaign chairman. Daniel has to defend his contracts with the Atlanta
airport on two fronts.
First Daniel has to explain why his partners, Valerie
Jackson and Brooke Jackson, should continue to be considered “economically disadvantaged”
even though their personal wealth was too high (like Wilbourn’s) to make the
program standards.
Secondly, and more complicated for Daniel, will be his own
status. It seems Daniel has a problem
with his identity. It‘s been reported
that Daniel has fraudulently described himself as a member of a protected
minority class: Native American. Daniel
is not a Native American.
