Airport officials say there was no excuse.

"I don't understand why it would have taken so long, " said Aviation Director Angela Gittens, who took over last year. "I would have thought that with their experience under the earlier management agreement, they should have been able to assume control over some of the restaurants right away."

County Commissioner Dennis Moss, who now heads the committee overseeing the airport and voted against the Host contract, said it seems the disadvantaged parters were sidelined, as they are in many airport contracts.

"The prime contractors have set the rules of the game: How can we meet the DBE requirements and still control the entire deal?" he said. "They identify minority subcontractors and march them before the commission. As soon as they get approval, the DBE's are shut out."

As investigators here look into whether that was the intention from the start, they are focusing on Korge's role in structuring the arrangement.

So far, Lewis, the airport's minority affairs director; the disadvantaged partners; and Host's Miami general manager, Edward Wilcox, have retained top criminal-defense attorneys.

A spokesman for Host - now called HMSHost Corp. - refused to comment. "There is an ongoing investigation in this matter and we are cooperating with investigators, " said the spokesman, David Milobsky.

The minority partners say the inquiry is misguided. "It is obvious for any reasonable person to see that World Wide Concessions has diligently pursued the completion of its food facilities, " they wrote.

They say they hired architects and applied for franchises in 1999, but their whole plan fell through because of the airport's waffling on their Chili's space. And they say the cuts they gave to Korge - a lawyer - and Barreto were for legitimate work.

"Mr. Korge's main responsibility was to act as WWC's top business advisor. As our business partner he advised us on virtually every aspect of the development and financing of the project."

They called Barreto their "top political advisor."

The minority partners say they offered a share of their take-home profits to Barreto and Korge because they could not afford either of the lobbyists' normal fees.

"Any suggestion that [we] should not be entitled to seek, get and retain the best advice like other large businesses is simply unfair, " they wrote.

ROLE OF LOBBYISTS
They have been criticized for their influence at airport

For years, reformers have said that lobbyists exert far too much control at the airport, the very engine that drives Miami-Dade's economy. Lobbyists raise vast amounts of money for commissioners, who make all the big decisions on contracts at the airport.

"The lobbyists exert undue influence on the process, " said J. Ed Bell, vice-chair of the Blue Ribbon Aviation Committee, which released a report on MIA two years ago. "As a result, it's more of a political operation than a business operation. You don't get even-handed decisions.

"And everything we said then applies today."

Korge is the unofficial czar of airport lobbyists, controlling most of the major contracts; Barreto, a force of his own, regularly works with him. Both have grown exceedingly wealthy and influential since Penelas first took office in 1990.

Barreto, a former police officer, is now a key fundraiser for Gov. Jeb Bush and owns a coastal inn in Maine, an $880,000 vacation home on Key Largo and a half-million-dollar 54-foot yacht. Korge is now a major fundraiser for the national Democratic Party and has hosted former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore at his $1.4 million Pinecrest home, which boasts such furnishings as a $63,000 Persian rug.

Barreto and Korge helped put together the partnership overseeing MIA's $5 billion expansion. They also represent the joint venture running the airport's duty-free stores. The county inspector general reported early this year that the minority partners in that venture did little but collect money.

In the case of the minority food team, it is still unclear what services some of the individual partners have provided - even now.

They say, as a whole, that they are putting in a solid work week. Perry is there every day. Knight works three days a week. Carbajal works six days a week, and Alberni works "full time, " as does the general manager they hired, Pedro Amaro, who is a business partner of the Bencomos.

But for some of them, airport parking records suggest otherwise. The records document when one enters or exits any airport parking lot using a pass.

Perry - who has major parts of two million-dollar airport contracts - parks there for less than five hours a week.

He explained to The Herald that his parking pass did not work on a few occasions, and that at other times he forgot to bring it and had to pay to park.

"I am a hands-on working partner/owner that spends both quantity and quality time in the daily development of the facilities, " he wrote. Alberni is the only original partner who is parked there for close to a full week, while Carbajal parks for about 11 hours a week, the records show.

The Bencomos don't have a parking card - or even the airport identifications required to visit the majority of their restaurants, which sit behind security checkpoints, airport officials said.

Knight and the Muņozes don't have parking cards either. They are trying to get their parking permits, and are just paying for parking now along with the general public.

So is Paula Gomez, who is considered a minority partner, though she has a different agreement than the rest. Host said she would be "responsible for the full scope of all activities associated with the day-to-day decisions and operations of all Burger King Restaurants."

But a reporter who visited the two Burger Kings ostensibly run by her found otherwise.

"Paula Gomez, I don't know who that is, " said Charles Hemme, the assistant manager of the Burger King in the airport's central Concourse E. Tito Gomez, speaking for his wife, said Host decided to make her duties more general. "She actually meets Mr. Wilcox [Host's Miami general manager] on a regular basis, and with others out there. She sits in on meetings with airport officials. She is well aware of the entire operation."

As for responsibilities: Paula Gomez has to pay off her share of a loan that Host took out. She does not have any restaurants, departments, tasks or staff people she directly oversees.

"They have people who are experts at that, " her husband said.