May 14, 2009 10:45 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Massport Spends Big On Business Trips
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Massport is under fire for taking costly business trips during hard economic times.
WBZ
As you pay your $4.50 toll coming into Boston on the Tobin Bridge, do you ever find your self day-dreaming of staying at a luxurious hotel? That is where some of your toll money is going even though you are not.
The I-Team has been investigating 2008 travel records for
Massport and found the executives who run Logan Airport and the Tobin Bridge often stay at some of the finest resorts when they travel on business.
PRICEY TRAVEL IN HARD ECONOMIC TIMES
The Fountainebleau, a magnificent resort on Miami Beach,
The Gaylord Texan resort outside Dallas and the
Fairmont's Le Chateau in Quebec were just some of the top shelf places Massport executives stayed in 2008 while traveling on airport business.
"This is what you would expect from any organization where the people running it are spending someone else's money," said David Turek, Executive Director of the conservative government watchdog group
Beacon Hill Institute.
And spend they did.
Using the
Freedom of Information Act, the I-Team obtained copies of travel receipts for 2008. Massport's travel budget for that year was $750,000.
Executives dolled out big bucks for rooms at
Ritz Carltons from Virginia to Denver to Las Vegas.
MASSPORT DEFENDS SPENDING
Massport would not allow its top executives to talk to us on camera about their travel expenses. The authority did however provide a spokesperson.
"For the most part our employees are staying at the hotel or facility where the conference is being held," Massport spokesperson Matt Brelis said.
Brelis is right, for the most part.
The I-Team found an exception in March, when Port Director Mike Leone attended a three-night conference in Miami at that city's convention center.
He could have stayed anywhere. He chose to stay at the high-end
Fontainebleau resort on Miami Beach. His stay was not three nights, but eight nights. The total cost for the conference, airfare, hotel, and some meals was $3,500.
Brelis' response to that trip: "I think he got a very reasonable rate on the room."
He paid $383 a night.
Leone took two other extended trips to conferences in Alaska and Quebec.
His seven trips in 2008 cost Massport $13,000.
MORE TRAVEL TALES…
John Pranckevicious, Massport's Director of Administration and Finance, takes business trips overseas.
One of his trips took him to London, England last May. He spent three nights at
The Grosvenor Marriott to negotiate insurance rates. The hotel bill with airfare and without dinners was $4,100.
And then there is Gail Titus, Massport's Director of Internal Auditing. She attended three professional conferences in nine months, including a three night stay in Scottsdale, Arizona in December of 2008.
Total cost for her three trips was $5,100.
Massport's Director of Communications, Danny Levy, traveled all the way to San Francisco last July just to learn more about a public art display.
Her stay at the
Hyatt Regency totaled $1,500.
Brelis pointed out that trip took place "before the economy tanked… A trip like that would be looked at very differently in this current economic climate."
As for the man in charge, Massport's
Executive Director Tom Kinton only took three short trips out of town in 2008 for a total of four nights.
While he stayed at some beautiful places, including a Ritz and a Four Season,s his total expenses were relatively low at about $4,000.
DO PRICEY TRIPS PAY OFF?
Massport officials say it is important that executives promote and market the airport around the country. The only reason the city has three new airlines and a new cargo line in the harbor is, they say, because of executive travel.
Watchdog David Tureck says independent public authorities like Massport are simply out of touch.
"They don't have stock holders to be accountable like businesses do. They don't have to worry about a bottom line like the private sector," Tureck said. "They have all the advantages of a private sector firm without any of the responsibilities."
Meanwhile Massport's customers - drivers who cross the Tobin and travelers who move through Logan Airport - see rising tolls and some of the highest parking rates in the country.
Business practices like these have been frustrating Massachusetts House Minority Leader Brad Jones for years.
"The excesses have cost toll payers, rate payers, tens of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars if you go back and take a much longer view," Jones said.
After the I-Team requested the 2008 travel records Brelis said Massport would be cutting the 2009 travel budget by 30-percent because of tough economic times.
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