VPA FIREWORKS
Since January 28th of this year, I have expected to see a shower of special fireworks over Hampton Roads, Virginia, as the result of an article written by Jim Spencer for the Newport News DAILY PRESS.
It was an expose, and it was well-done. I put a copy of that story aside in my files to “watch” because I was sure it would cased accommodations and that there would be a real fight.
Here it is July the June items reminder has come up and been ignored for a week or so. Nothing, it seem – absolute zilch - has happened, it seems, relative to that story which released accounts of excessive spending of public funds by members of the Virginia Ports Authority on on a trip to the Paris Air Show in 2001.
I fact the Paris Air Show has gone by again while I have waited, and thus far I find no reference to the alleged charges. The VPA Secretary stayed at at $990 per night hotel suite, in spite of the fact that arrangements had already been made for a 200-per night facility in another hotel, which was no used at all. The Secretary rode in a $65.00 per day Mercedes limo.
The Promotions Director of the VPA stayed in a “more reasonable ale” room at $647.00 per night. And the Senior Marketing Director complained that “he had his staff had to eat our own money the last few months because we've been operating under the state's regulations.”
The Commonwealth of Virginia, it seems, has a state per-day scale concerning payment for meals in Paris at that time. It called for $92.00 per-day, per- person. Under “special circumstances” that figure could go as high as $138.99 per-day, per-person. The same scale showed New York eating at $46.00 up to $79.00 per-day, per-person.
I agreed with writer Jim Spencer's summation at the time that all of this appeared to be excessive.
Six months later, I find myself wondering how it can be that such revelations can go unnoticed. The charges set forth by the DAILY PRESS
article seemed to me to merit a public outcry.
Nothing like that has happened. The United States did not participate in this year's Paris Air Show because the American aircraft industry is not exactly “flying high”. I wonder if the Virginia Port Authority attended as usual. It would seem to be something too good to pass up.
Divergent opinions come to mind in such cases. Either the accusations are considered to be untrue or unprovable, that they are considered to be so common place that they can be overlooked to achieve
goals of unanimity and to support back-scratching arrangements.
A.L.M. July 10, 2003 [c473wds]
