|
CC Consultant paid $407,000 plus vague expenses Part of the LCCCA investigation series by Jim Sneddon The hiring of Robert C. Hazard III by the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority was, at best, a footnote in a far more significant meeting. The bulk of the lengthy meeting was consumed by concern that Penn Square Partners was going to drop out of the project. They had found an $8 million shortfall in what they were able to invest in the new Convention Center project.� The word was that if the Authority couldn�t find another $8 million Penn Square Partners were going to pull out. That dire news may have been good news, however, for Hazard.� The Authority never again discussed the issue in public.� Whatever happened to solve it was done out of the public�s eye. It was at a rare Saturday meeting of the Authority in Mach
2003 when Chairman James O. Pickard told his six fellow board members about MetroVision, a �For 20 years, Hazard has been actively involved in the Asset Development Business, specifically, publicly owned or sponsored convention centers that headquarter hotel facilities,� Pickard reported. Furthermore Hazard had another asset.� He had once worked for Interstate Hotel Corp., the company the Authority had picked to operate the convention center and hotel. Interstate was hired over the recommendation of the Authority�s own selection company, again because Penn Square Partners had threatened to pull out of the project. Howard had done some work for the Authority in 2001 under
his father, Robert C. Hazard Jr., a consultant for Strategic Advantage Group of
Hazard was the second consultant hired that March
Saturday.� The other was Daniel J. Logan
of �The need for MetroVision relates back to the litigation and the pall it has had on the project,� Pickard reported.� �Because of the litigation, the Authority has been unable to attract qualified executive director candidates.� He also told the board, �It will be an open-ended contract�
for Hazard, unlike the $18,000 contract signed with For Those huge dollar amounts might have raised questions because David Hixson was hired for the elusive executive director position for $80,000 a year just three months later.� But this Authority board was not the questioning kind. As we reported earlier, in the case of This investigation took an in-depth look at his invoices, hours worked and expenses submitted.� It was a paper trail that had to be followed down a rabbit hole into its own �wonderland.� Hazard�s invoices were vague.� They generally listed one-line subjects to
justify the amount of hours he worked.�
Although there were some smaller hours submitted when he worked out of
his Those trips were lucrative and the hours allegedly worked are open to speculation.� The investigation raises questions about the hours by closely examining his expense receipts.� Unlike Logan, who was not paid for expenses, Hazard submitted expense receipts for all of his trips.� Those receipts offer insight into how lax the Authority was in checking his bills and the amount of hours Hazard worked.� The authority simply rubber-stamped the invoices paying him $1,600 a day. Hazard started slowly, but by August, he was meeting with High Industries on drafting agreements between the Authority and Penn Square Partners regarding the use of new funds.� He began billing for monthly amounts between $20,000 and $30,000.� Most of Hazard�s work was related to Penn Square Partners issues.� Examples were:
His invoices consistently list �power point preparation and presentations.�� The power point presentations at board meetings are never by Hazard, but always by someone else. At public board meetings Hazard is seldom mentioned.� For all his time spent on the project most of it is out of the public�s view.� Intensive negotiations and meetings are never discussed in public meetings.� Perhaps they were behind closed doors. Hazard lists numerous �executive sessions� on his 26-months of bills.� Some of those �executive sessions� are not reported at the monthly board meetings, a violation of the State Sunshine Law if they were being held.� If not, why was no one questioning Hazard�s bills? Examples of �mysterious� meetings abound on Hazard�s bills.� On two separate days in September 2003 he lists �Presentation to LCCCA Board and Local Stakeholders.�� No record was found of official board meetings or executive session on these dates. Hazard frequently eats on the Authority�s tab.� Sometimes those meals involve paying for others.� For example, in September 2003, Hazard is reimbursed $66 for dinner at The Pressroom.� He notes on the receipt that Logan, Thomas Beckett (consultant for Fairmount Capital Advisors) and Chris Ciccone (Stevens & Lee attorney) joined him. There is no way to determine what they discussed that day, but it may have involved the county guarantee of the bonds. But Hazard must have left still hungry, because at 10:13
p.m., on his trip back to Hazard almost always makes stops at Burger King, Roy Rogers,
McDonald�s or Starbucks on his trips to and from He often bills for Clyde�s while in There are also reimbursements for breakfasts, lunches and dinners with Hixson and/or other consultants, lawyers and board members. Those records sometimes reveal bills for meetings that did
not occur.� For example, on Sept. 30,
2003 he lists eight hours for �Presentation to Government and High.�� But records show he didn�t get off the Turnpike
at There are numerous examples where the expense receipts show days he could not have been working, or not for the hours claimed. Sometimes there are �extra� miles on his rental car
bills.� Occasionally his motel room will
be registered to Hazard is also tapped to work on issues for which he seemed to have no expertise such as �Parking.�� Hazard becomes the Authority�s point man on the new Parking Garage.� Little is reported to the public, however, until the board finally hires another expert, Walker Parking Consultants of Wayne, Pa.� Meanwhile they paid Hazard tens of thousands of dollars for his �expertise.�. Hazard also gets involved with Senate Bill 10.� That bill, which became law in April 2004, contains a potential $10,000,000 windfall for the hotel and convention center.� All of the state sales taxes generated at the complex will be returned to the Authority, as will all of the state income taxes paid by the employees.� The figure is crucial to closing a $22 million gap.� How it is calculated is never explained in public, nor does anyone ask. When the issue surfaces before the Authority in November 2004, it isn�t Hazard who makes the presentation, but rather Hixson and State Sen. Gib Armstrong. Several other things happened in the summer of 2004.� In retrospect, they may have heralded Hazard�s time was limited with the Authority. In late August, Hixson told the board that Penn Square Partners had approached him about hiring some outside experts.� �The thought process was to bring business advisors on board to help us to strengthen the mutual operations between the two partners and also some of the processes that we have associated with our partnership,� Hixson explained. Hazard was not at the meeting.� Neither was he present when the two �business
advisors� came to Then in March 2005, Hixson begins meeting with Herman Bulls of Bulls Advisory Group and one of the �business advisors.�� That meeting and other conversations that followed led to Bulls crafting a position for an Executive Advisor to the LCCCA.�� May 2005 becomes Hazard�s last month of work.� He submits a final bill from the Blue Pacific. Then in June the Authority hires Maurice Walker from Bulls at $300 per hour versus Hazard�s $200 rate.� The Bulls story was told earlier in this series.� But Hazard?� No one on the Authority board asks.� Not a word is said about him leaving or what he did for the Authority and Penn Square Partners. The trip though the rabbit hole is over.
|