Carpenters Union wants 'full-scale audit' of both Philly tourism agencies

The local Carpenters Union has asked the city controller to conduct a "full-scale audit" of Philadelphia's two marketing agencies, which the union contends have "virtually no public oversight of their spending."

In seeking an audit of Visit Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB), the union noted "the recent discovery... that an employee of Visit Philadelphia had embezzled $210,000 - a fact that was kept hidden from law enforcement." The incident is now under investigation by the District Attorney's Office.

In a letter to City Controller Alan Butkovitz, Edward Coryell, business manager for the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters, said his union had previously sought "copies of receipts and expenditures of both agencies," but was denied because "neither agency was covered by Pennsylvania's Open Record law because they are private nonprofit organizations."

The agencies are funded by Philadelphia's hotel tax. The PHLCVB is charged with bringing conventions to the Pennsylvania Convention Center while Visit Philadelphia promotes leisure tourism to the region.

"It is baffling to us that these two agencies which receive $20 million annually from the City Hotel tax, and have the responsibility for generating convention and tourism revenue for the City of Philadelphia," Coryell wrote, "are virtually immune from public scrutiny and oversight . . ."

In a statement, Bill Rubin, first deputy city controller, said Monday that the office would review the request and handle it "appropriately."

The Carpenters Union is currently picketing the recently expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center, which has barred the union from working there after it missed a Convention Center-imposed deadline to sign a new work rules contract.

The union is seeking financial data from the two marketing agencies to counter what it says are attempts by "many in the city's paid hospitality and tourism circles. . . to make organized labor at the center a scapegoat for their own failure and inability to attract the number of conventions and visitors to Philadelphia that a $1.3 billion taxpayer investment -- yearly subsidies would warrant."

The city controller last week released an analysis of the two marketing agencies that concluded there is much overlap and they should be merged.

Also last week, The Inquirer reported that the District Attorney's Office was investigating the misappropriation of $210,000 over five years by Visit Philadelphia's chief financial officer. Visit Philadelphia did not notify law enforcement, but allowed the CFO, Joyce Levitt, to resign in exchange for restitution. She went on to work for another publicly-funded nonprofit.

Source:  Philly.com