(CNS) Posted Tuesday July 27, 2010 - 12:49pm
The Los Angeles City Council voted today to extend a contract with the company that operates Super Shuttle vans at LAX, maintaining the action does not violate the council's economic boycott of Arizona.
The council unanimously agreed to approve a one-year contract extension with Blue Van Joint Venture after the general manager of Los Angeles World Airports, which runs LAX, said the company's U.S. headquarters is not in Scottsdale, Ariz., but in Lombard, Ill.
LAWA General Manager Gina Marie Lindsey also said the deal will benefit the city because it requires Blue Van to pay the airport $1.3 million for the opportunity to pick up and drop off passengers there.
"Let me be clear on this contract,' she told the council.
"Not only are no tax dollars going to the state of Arizona in this, the headquarters of this company are not in the state of Arizona and this company actually pays us (LAX).'
Councilman Ed Reyes said the city is upholding the economic boycott of Arizona.
"This is not a symbolic gesture,' he said.
"We did not do this resolution (economic boycott) just to sound good. We did it because we truly believe we need to influence the environment so that not one American can be deported for the way they look.'
Under the contract extension approved today, Blue Van will pay LAWA $93,938 every month for a year.
The current contract is scheduled to lapse July 31.
Also approved today were contract extensions for the companies that operate the Prime Time and Roadrunner shuttle services.
Rick Taylor of Prime Time insisted that approving the deal with rival Blue Van violates the economic boycott.
"I'm not the one making this up. They are an Arizona-based company,' he told ABC7.
"Their corporate headquarters are there. The papers that they filed with the Secretary of State in Arizona have their corporate president, vice president -- they're all in Arizona. So you can try to claim you're something you're not, but you are what you are, and I don't understand why they're running away from it.'
But Peter Brown, a public relations officer representing Blue Van, disputed that contention.
He said Super Shuttle Los Angeles Inc. is a California corporation located in Torrance.
It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Veolia Transportation On Demand Inc., Inc., headquartered in Illinois.
Veolia Transportation On Demand, according to Brown, is owned by Veolia Transport, a publicly held French corporation.
