Carpenters union wants 'full-scale audit' of tourism agencies

The local Carpenters union has asked the city controller to conduct a "full-scale audit" of Philadelphia's two tourism marketing agencies, which it 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 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 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 Carpenters' interest in the matter stems from their ongoing battle with the Convention Center, which they are picketing. The union was barred from working there after it missed a Convention Center-imposed deadline to sign a new agreement on work rules.

The union is seeking contract and expense information for administrators of 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 and yearly $20 million subsidies would warrant."

The two agencies are funded by Philadelphia's hotel tax, which accounts for about $8 million of Visit Philadelphia's most recent annual budget of $11 million. That agency tries to attract leisure tourism, while the PHLCVB is charged with bringing conventions to the Convention Center.

"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."

Calls from The Inquirer to PHLCVB and Visit Philadelphia seeking comment on the audit request were met with e-mail statements that did little to clarify where either organization stood.

"We are always fully transparent on how we conduct business," wrote Jack Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of PHLCVB.

Visit Philadelphia's response also was a one-sentence e-mail message, in this case from William J. Winning, the criminal defense attorney who was hired by the agency after the discovery two years ago that Visit Philadelphia's chief financial officer had misappropriated funds for personal use.

"Since the District Attorney's Office is now conducting an investigation, we cannot comment on the details or the specifics of the matter under review, other than to advise that we are cooperating with the District Attorney's Office," Winning wrote.

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.

Citing its independent nonprofit status, Visit Philadelphia has declined a request from The Inquirer to make public some of its records, including Levitt's expense vouchers for the years in which the money was misappropriated; the agency's contract with its chief executive officer, Meryl Levitz; a list of current employees and salaries; and minutes for board meetings from Jan. 1, 2012, to the present.

The organization has also declined to identify who had approved Levitt's expenses, although it acknowledged that Levitz was her supervisor.

The Carpenters union, in its request for information, also sought Levitz's expense records as well as those of any employee who earned $90,000 or more a year.