By Joe Schoenmann

Sun, Oct 12, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Tiffany Brown

Sig Rogich and his business partner won the right to open an airport concession.

Beyond the Strip, one of the easiest places for a business owner to tap the tourist economy is at McCarran International Airport. Nearly 50 million people last year flew in and out of the airport. They eat, drink and pick up last-second souvenirs for loved ones and friends from around the world.

With the right business, a concession contract at the airport can be a license to print money.

It’s also one of the most difficult business venues to break into.

That being the case, how did one of the most powerful political operatives in the country, Sig Rogich, a fundraiser for Sen. John McCain and adviser to Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, and his partner, Kathleen Morris, daughter of the late Bob Broadbent, the former Clark County director of aviation, win the right to open a concession at the airport last week?

For starters, all bidders are supposed to have an equal shot at airport contracts, so long as they have the money and experience to back their ideas. That said, being powerful doesn’t typically work against someone getting a contract in Clark County, or anywhere else for that matter. Furthermore, Rogich and Morris have had a concession with the airport since 1998.

The concession space in the airport’s D gates went out to bid. Nine retailers submitted proposals to the airport and each was given points for concept, merchandise plan, financial proposal, experience and financial capability.

The airport provided the Sun with a numerical evaluation of the Rogich/Morris proposal and how it stacked up against other bidders. The evaluators, as listed in an April 23, 2008, Aviation Department memo, were Scott Kichline, McCarran’s business and commercial development manager, Judy Tabimina, airport concession manager, Cynthia Cicero, airport contract specialist, Jim Palmer, airport fiscal services manager, and Don Borsack, an outside consultant and owner of Bribor Inc.

PlaneFair, Rogich and Morris’ company, and Marshall Retail, known for its stores in casinos and hotels, were the top point-getters with 82.

Ayala’s Inc., another well-known concession group, received 74 points.

Both PlaneFair and Marshall Retail won concessions.

So, this was all on the up and up?

Yes. The County Commission gave the airport permission to negotiate a contract with PlaneFair last spring. The commission voted on Tuesday to approve and authorize the advertising of intent to enter the agreement with PlaneFair, a statutory requirement.

PlaneFair, doing business as Wild Gecko, will sell rodeo memorabilia, clothing, jewelry and Indian art.

If the commission gave it the go-ahead in the spring, why did Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani vote against it at Tuesday’s County Commission meeting?

Interesting question. Giunchigliani, who cast the lone vote against the contract, said that when she voted in the spring, she missed the involvement of Rogich and Morris.

“No disrespect, but sometimes I think we should spread the wealth, so to speak, on these concessions,” she said. “And this isn’t going to do that.”

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said he had “no problem” with the contract. It was a bidding process, he added, and these are the people who won.

What, then, is the source of Giunchigliani’s concern?

As has been pointed out, there’s money to be made at the airport. There has also, in years past, been a good amount of controversy.

In 1998, former Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates was accused of influencing the commission’s decision to give a contract to her campaign consultant. The state Ethics Commission found that Atkinson Gates and former Commissioner Lance Malone had violated ethics laws in voting on D Gate concessions.

A Washoe County judge later cleared Atkinson Gates of any wrongdoing.