Brother of Philadelphia Mayor Lands $1 Million Airport Baggage Services Contract

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The brother of Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street received a contract worth more than $1 million a year to maintain baggage equipment at Philadelphia International Airport, though he has no employees and no experience in the field.

Fourteen employees of Philadelphia Airport Services, which had done the work on the conveyors and carousels, will be transferred to T. Milton Street's company, Notlim Service Management.

Philadelphia Airport Services is a joint venture of private companies that provide airport maintenance.

Mayoral spokeswoman Barbara Grant said John Street was not involved in the decision to award the contract, and Milton Street and airport officials also said the brothers' relationship played no role in the contract.

"Somebody's always trying to say Milton had an unfair advantage," Milton Street told the Philadelphia Daily News for Friday's editions. "... Nobody gave me anything."

Airport spokesman Mark Pesce said the work was subcontracted to Notlim - "Milton" spelled backward - in part to expand minority participation in airport businesses. Street is black.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause/Pennsylvania, questioned whether Milton Street was the most qualified person for the job. "If you're trying to attract new businesses and revitalize the community, nepotism and cronyism and pay-to-play are recipes for disaster," he said.

Milton Street, a former street-food vendor, has not paid long-overdue vending and storage fees, which were reported two years ago at $85,000.

Street has also had problems with tax debts. The city Revenue Department filed a claim last year for $8,878 in unpaid business taxes and failure to file tax returns, and the Internal Revenue Service filed a $15,593 lien in 2001 for personal income taxes from 1992 through 1999, records show.

Updated report: Street's brother to quit airport contract

Posted on Fri, Jun. 06, 2003
Street's brother to quit airport contract
Associated Press
The day news broke that his brother would get a no-bid, $1 million-a-year contract, Mayor Street asked his brother to cancel a deal to oversee baggage conveyors at Philadelphia International Airport.
T. Milton Street, a former street food vendor who once served in the state senate, pulled out as a minority subcontractor on the maintenance project, the mayor's office said.
"Although everything was done by the book ... Mayor Street just felt the public would look at this as some sort of insider deal and would question it," mayoral spokeswoman Barbara Grant said today. "The mayor knew nothing about it until yesterday."
Grant, Milton Street and representatives of the airport all said his relationship to the mayor played no role in the contract going to his company, Notlim Service Management.
"Somebody's always trying to say Milton had an unfair advantage," Milton Street told the Philadelphia Daily News for today's editions. "Nobody gave me anything."
Notlim - which gets its name from "Milton" spelled backward - has no employees and no experience in the field. But the company would have gotten a ready-made staff. The work was formerly done by Philadelphia Airport Services, and 14 of that company's mechanics and supervisors were to be transferred to Notlim.
Barry Kauffman, executive director of the state chapter of Common Cause/Pennsylvania, questioned whether Milton Street would have been the most qualified person for the job.
"If you're trying to attract new businesses and revitalize the community, nepotism and cronyism and pay-to-play are recipes for disaster," Kauffman said.
Airport spokesman Mark Pesce said Philadelphia Airport Services subcontracted the work to Notlim in part to expand minority participation in airport businesses.
"You have to meet certain goals, and this would help us in meeting those goals," Pesce said. The company is required to try to give about 25 percent of its work to firms owned by minorities, women or the disabled. Street is black.
According to an April 17 memo supplied to The Philadelphia Inquirer, "administration and liability" and "financial responsibility" for the mechanical maintenance work would have been retained by Philadelphia Airport Services. Pesce confirmed the contents of the memo in an interview with the Inquirer for today's editions.
Milton Street, 62, who served in the state Senate in the early 1980s, has not paid long-overdue vending and storage fees to the Penn's Landing Corp., which were reported two years ago at $85,000.
"I don't have any money to pay him," Street told the Daily News. "I've got to build this business."
Street also has had problems with tax debts, according to court records, but the status of those debts was not immediately clear.
The city Revenue Department filed a claim against Street last year for $8,878. It alleged in court papers that Street owed the money for unpaid business taxes from 1997 through 2001, and for failing to file tax returns for 10 years.
The Internal Revenue Service filed a $15,593 lien against Street in 2001 for personal income taxes from 1992 through 1999, records show.
Mayor Street is up for re-election in November. He will have a rematch against Republican Sam Katz, whom he beat by fewer than 10,000 votes in the last election.

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