PhillyDeals: Convention Center still seeking leader

The

Convention Center

had hoped to name its next executive director and confirm other bosses Wednesday, but no candidate has accepted the $220,000 top job (plus benefits worth $80,000), so it's going to take a little longer, spokesman

Pete Peterson

says.

With Ahmeenah Young leaving as the center's executive director, board member Heather Steinmiller, appointed by Mayor Nutter, has sent a note to fellow directors worrying that no other women or African Americans have been announced for new leadership positions.

"I love white men as much as the next person, but I have a real concern that the look of our leaders of the [travel] industry in Philadelphia is not representative of our population or the industry in Philadelphia," Steinmiller added.

Steinmiller said the candidates she was familiar with for the executive director's job were white males, as were two top administrators hired by SMG, the West Conshohocken company that the center has hired to run the center starting Dec. 1.

"I urge us to change our ways and begin to recruit from the global marketplace by posting a position and urging all applicants - not the ones we just know - to apply," Steinmiller added.

The city is more than 40 percent African American and has large Latino and Asian minorities, though the proportion of black residents has fallen lately.

Peterson told me the board is "absolutely committed to diversity in its management staff," and noted that senior administrators, who are expected to stay after Young exits and SMG takes over, include a mix of men and women, blacks and whites. He said SMG was using the center's "diversity consultant" to find candidates.

"The hospitality community should and must reflect the strong diversity of this city that [Nutter] has been around the world selling, to show them we're a welcoming city with people who look like Philadelphia," said Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison.

Erik Dardas, who oversees contractor sales in the Philadelphia area for Home Depot, says sales to two groups of contractors are up: "house-flippers," who buy foreclosed homes to rent and improve the heating, water, and insulation systems so they are cheaper to operate; and "high-end" home buyers who have money to spend.

It's slower for middle-income and do-it-yourself homeowners, Dardas said. Home Depot sales under $50 are up just 3 percent over last year, while sales over $900 are up 10 percent, noted analyst David Strasser in a report to clients of Janney Capital Markets in Philadelphia.

Everyone in Philly, through the Free Library's yearly "One Book" program, is supposed to be reading The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers' novel about the war in Iraq.

Erik Prince, founder of for-profit military contractor Blackwater USA, also has written a book about that war. Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror explains how Prince, a Naval Academy dropout turned Navy SEAL, built Blackwater into a busy for-profit force. In his telling, Blackwater did the job it was paid to do, but got caught in Washington political storms and was alternately blamed for shooting too little - and too much - on jobs that killed Americans and Iraqis.

His publicists tell me "his only U.S. appearance" supporting the book will be at 8 a.m. Friday at the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia. More info at Freelibrary.org/authorevents.