Sun-Times Exposes Choose Chicago's Cronyism: When Will Indianapolis Media Expose Visit Indy?

Choose Chicago CEO Don Welsh with Emanuel's handpicked GOP candidate for governor, Bruce Rauner

The Chicago Sun-Times Chris Fusco has a story today about how tens of millions in public tax dollars being funneled to the City's nonprofit tourism organization, Choose Chicago, is being wasted on crony consulting contracts and over-paid salaries to its top executives. This should come as no surprise since Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel helped lure away Visit Indy's former CEO, Don Welsh, to run his City's organization. Emanuel's handpicked Republican candidate for governor this year, billionaire venture capitalist Bruce Rauner who funneled $16 million into Emanuel's pockets during his very brief career as an investment banker, chaired Choose Chicago during Welsh's early tenure at Choose Chicago. Choose Chicago has a budget of $28.4 million, $8 million of which comes from the City of Chicago while state taxpayers contribute an ever larger sum. Here's a few items Fusco's story discusses:

• Don Welsh earned over $491,000 in the most recent year that information was made available from the nonprofit's tax returns. Welsh has contributed $1,500 to Rauner's campaign so far.
• Five other Choose Chicago employees earned over $200,000 a year, many of whom made large campaign contributions to various campaign committees. One is a former top aide to House Speaker Mike Madigan. 
• Nine other employees made between $125,000 and $180,000. Choose Chicago refuses to identify these employees.
• Choose Chicago doubled the number of outside lobbying firms it hires from two to four. One of those firms is owned by Cook Co. Assessor Joe Berrios, who also doubles as the Cook Co. Democratic Party Chairman. Another firm is owned by two former aides to Mayor Richard Daley. It was paid $3,000 a month to introduce Welsh to various political and civic leaders in the Chicago area. Another form owned by William Filan, a former aide to House Speaker Madigan, is paid $48,000 a year.
• A friend of Mayor Emanuel, Lynn Lockwood, has a $160,000 a year consulting contract.

Gov. Quinn is now telling the Sun-Times that he will support a change in state law to require Choose Chicago to make its records publicly-available since the majority of its funding comes from state and city taxpayers. Rauner, the former chairman who signed off on these crony contracts, made some gratuitous pledge to support "transparency" if he's elected governor.

Here in Indianapolis, city taxpayers are sending $9 million a year to Visit Indy to support its convention and tourism activities. Like Choose Chicago, its officials are grossly overpaid. Only Advance Indiana has bothered to make those figures publicly-available after researching the organization's tax records. Hoops' pay of $477,000 came in just below Welsh's salary. At least eight other employees of the nonprofit organization are earning more than a $100,000 a year.

Leonard Hoops, CEO (Salary-$422,000, Bonus-$55,000)--$477,000

Susan Townsend, Sr. VP, Visitor Experience (Salary-$153,000, Bonus-$28,600)--$181,600

Michelle Travis, Sr. VP, Sales (Salary-$263,000, Bonus-$42,000)--$305,000

James Wallis, Executive VP (Salary-$223,000, Bonus-$42,000)--$265,000

Matthew Carter, VP, Market Intelligence (Salary-$154,000, Bonus-$37,000)--$191,000

Dustin Arnheim, Director, Convention Sales (Salary-$138,000, Bonus-$34,000)--$172,000

Janet Arnold, VP, Partner Relationships (Salary-$173,000, Bonus-$33,000)--$206,000

Christopher Gahl, VP, Marketing/Communications (Salary-$117,000, Bonus-$32,000)--$149,000

Mary Huggard, VP, Tourism Development (Salary-$129,000, Bonus-$21,000--$150,000

 

After I first published those numbers, I learned from sources within Visit Indy that Hoops and his fellow executives' pay have been increased substantially over those figures. Lower level employees at the nonprofit are furious at how much their bosses are earning. The figures shown on their tax returns don't reflect the lavish perks these top Visit Indy officials also receive as part of their employment package I'm told. Many lower-level employees of the organization are also appalled at how the publicly-financed organization is able to spend our public tax dollars. Essentially, key convention planning decision-makers are bribed through lavish entertainment, travel and gifts to entice them to choose Indianapolis as the host city for their conventions according to sources within the organization. Free tickets and entertainment are also lavished on members of the Indianapolis City-County Council and other local officials so they will continue to be so generous with your tax dollars to the organization. It is time that public officials in Indianapolis demand public accountability by Visit Indy. We want full disclosure of how every penny is being spent, and we want an independent top-to-bottom audit of past expenditures to shed light on where our taxpayer dollars have been spent and to determine if the organization covered up scandals within the organization that should have been made public.