The value of NKOSI's contract with Sky Harbor skyrocketed after the September 11 attacks to between $40,000 and $50,000 a month because the company had to quickly dispatch more employees to the airport.
Aviation department records indicate that the security guard company may be overcharging the airport.
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Bids submitted for the 1998 and 2000 contracts stipulated that the company would give the airport a discount if paid within 20 days. The 1998 bid offered a 2.5 percent discount and the 2000 bid offered a 2 percent discount.
In both cases, the company was required to post on all its monthly invoices that the company had offered "prompt payment terms" to the city.
Invoices for the last 18 months obtained by New Times reveal the company never included the prompt-payment clause on its invoices submitted to the city worth about $520,000. If the airport had made the payments within 20 days, it would have saved about $10,000 on the contract.
Airport spokeswoman Luber did not know why the company submitted invoices without stating the prompt-payment terms as required in the company's contract.
NKOSI's $600,000-a-year contract with the city's aviation department presents a potential conflict of interest for Johnson.
The city's conflict-of-interest laws prevent a council member from voting on any matter in which the council member or his immediate family have a direct financial interest.
During one of Johnson's first council meetings on January 16, Johnson joined the rest of the council in voting to approve a financial settlement with Worldwide Security, the only other private security company under contract at the airport.
City Attorney Peter Van Haren says he wasn't aware of the Worldwide Security vote until told about it by New Times.
"Frankly, I didn't see that coming through or I would have talked to him [Johnson] about it," Van Haren says.
Van Haren says Johnson doesn't appear to have had a conflict of interest on the vote because it didn't involve his company.
It's not unusual for a council member to declare a conflict of interest.
Council member Phil Gordon bowed out of the Cardinals stadium debate because a relative has a contract with the Cardinals. Former city councilman Calvin Goode -- who once held Johnson's District 8 council seat for 21 years -- used to abstain from votes involving the city's sanitation department because his brother worked there.
Johnson will probably face a conflict of interest later this year when the contract at the airport expires on July 31.
The company can legally bid on the new contract, as long as there is competitive bidding, says assistant city attorney Larry Felix.
But Felix says the company should probably step aside because at least two of NKOSI's employees are Johnson's close relatives, including his daughter and brother.
"I would think he wouldn't want to do any more contracts at the airport," Felix says.
Johnson says he has every intention of bidding on the airport contract when it comes up for renewal.
"Why shouldn't I?" he asks.
"I have had that business and that contract long before I ran for city council," he says. "I don't see a conflict of interest in doing that."
