Thanks to the Internet and his own big mouth, New York Congressman Anthony Weiner has had a week of ups and downs. Definitely in the up position was a mysterious Twitter photo, showing an underwear-masked penis that may or may not belong to him. His increasingly bizarre explanations are definitely downers.Don't worry, I have no intention of embarking on a weenie roast. That's for greater minds than mine. Instead, I'll point to a local example of a foolish use of Twitter, this time involving LVEDC.
What is LVEDC?
It's the economic development arm of the not-so-secret Lehigh Valley Partnership. That's an unelected group of blue-blooded aristocrats who think they know what's best for us. Thanks to special legislation shepherded through the land of midnight payraises by Elmer Gates, it's funded primarily by hotel taxes generated by Northampton and Lehigh County.
Despite all its claims about transparency, it's a secretive bunch. Its 2010 Annual Report, for example, fails to mention what it pays its top people. ... With your money.
Thanks to Guidestar, I was able to look at LVEDC's 2009 and 2008 reports to the IRS. Executive Director Phil Mitman was paid $134,366 in 2009, about 14% more than his $117,788 2008 salary. In the midst of a recession, total employee expenses amounted to $1,280,937 in 2009. In addition, $80,263 was spent for conferences and conventions, and another $15,993 for travel.
Mitman and Board members are consistent attendees at IEDC - International Economic Development Council - meetings and conferences. IEDC knows how to spend money and get Economic Development agencies to spend money as well. They hold meetings all over the country, usually at resort locations - especially in the winter months here.
LVEDC attends pretty much every IEDC "conference," as well as "meetings" in Washington, DC and Philadelphia. At an annual conference sponsored by the Philadelphia Fed last year, LVEDC staff traveled individually in their own cars and stayed overnight - in Philadelphia! It was a three day conference. The same is true for meetings in Harrisburg and New York City.
These are really just taxpayer paid vacations.
They love to spend your money, but are reluctant to tell you how they do it. In 2007, when a former CEO was given a $70,000 golden parachute and somebody blabbed, Elmer Gates pushed through a broadly-drafted gag resolution barring any elected official from discussing severance agreements. Express Times publisher Martin Till resigned, the only real option for a newspaper that advocates transparency and accountability from public and quasi-public entitles. "To exclude board members from any discussion involving LVEDC is absurd," he said.
These days, LVEDC is more sophisticated. Instead of muzzling members, it has them sign pledges to keep quiet and forward all questions to public relations. But secrets still slip out. Last year, company officials were furious when word leaked that they were looking for new digs in downtown Allentown.
One way LVEDC pretends to be transparent is by using Twitter, a social networking a micro-blogging site. But it pulled a Weiner on Friday with this tweet.
"We start summer hours today. That means most of the staff leave at noon, many to hit the links. Do you observe summer hours? What do you do?"Bottom-feeding blogger that I am, I had that tweet posted here faster than a Nazareth tornado. It bothers me that a taxpayer-funded organization, whose mission is supposedly to bring jobs to the Lehigh Valley, would send "most of the staff" home at noon on Friday. During a recession.
"Do you have Summer hours?" I asked a friend.
"Yeah, they're called mandatory furloughs," she answered.
For many others, Summer hours are unemployment, which went up to 9.1% last week. Chronic unemployment is now worse than it was during the Great Depression.
Almost immediately after my blog posted, LVEDC began backtracking.
First came a tweet that "critical staff stay here all day." Secretaries. Then we have, "Call us at 5 if you'd like - we will be here!" Ferris Bueller had that figured out. A few minutes later, another tweet tells us nobody is hitting the links. "Nobody teeing off today. Too much work to do - short week with Monday." Amazingly, LVEDC went from "most of the staff" leaving at noon, "many to hit the links," to nobody.
It's pretty clear LVEDC got caught and was trying to cover it up.
But it did not stop there. Later that day, their Propaganda Minister, Steve Althouse, delivered a missive to various individuals and news outlets, although I was naturally excluded, in which he explains "Summer hours" are available only to employees who have already put in a 40-hour week. He then rattles off a bunch of bullshit justifying the company's existence, something his company fails to do in boring presentations to both counties every year. Oh yeah, I'm a sensationalist trying to drive up readership by quoting one of his company's tweets, word-for-word.
LVEDC Defends Summer Hours - It Works Really, Really Hard
This is called damage control. That's another "time-honored mechanism" used by media whores who are paid to make their company look good.
I understand Northampton County Controller Steve Barron will now claim that's why you only see him 4 hours every week.
