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Oversight Questions About Gettysburg
TO THE EDITOR:
There are serious, long overdue questions regarding the massive retail sales and visitor complex presently under construction at Gettysburg National Military Park by the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation controlled by private developer Robert Kinsley of York, Pa.
All substantive inquiries encountered a wall of secrecy and claims of business privilege, despite large amounts of public money being poured into or promised to the largest private, for profit facility ever located within a national shrine.
Even the local Congressman’s recent inquiry into project basics, such as actual costs and particulars of contractual arrangements the foundation has entered into with a major national retailer, are considered “not for public dissemination.” this quote is from a response he received from the foundation president in a September 29 letter.
This private entity is long on press releases, but short on specific data rightfully considered to be in the public domain.
The last admitted figure for total project cost was a staggering $95 million five years ago. No further estimates have been released despite inflation and other obligations assumed by the group. Since acceptance of Kinsley’s proposal by the National park Service, the budget for this project has tripled. Prior to this, the highest cost for any NPS visitor center has been $5 million.
So our first questions are:
What is the actual projected cost of the Gettysburg visitor center as of December 2006?
What is the legal basis for the Kinsley Foundation’s withholding such elementary data form the public, which has already contributed at least $12 million in Federal money to the project? This despite repeated formal testimony to Congress years ago by NPS, the park superintendent and Kinsley that no public money would ever be sought or used for this work.
They are responsible for the project and should be held accountable for safeguarding the public interest. No one is accusing anyone of anything. All that is being sought is public disclosure.
A large commercial retail footprint is an integral part of the visitor center. Under sworn testimony before Congress NPS repeatedly stated, “There will be no commercialization of the Park.” yet the chosen vendor, Event Network Inc., has as its stated purpose, “to evaluate the guest experience and achieve maximum retail potential .”
Foundation chairman Kinsley, whose company is project manager and has “loaned” $4 million already to the Foundation, testified this would be “a gift to the American people in 25 years,” after all loans were paid off.
So our next set of questions asks:
In light of a $12 million federal contribution already committed, ostensibly or restoration of the Cyclorama painting-plus many thousands of hours being contributed through work by hundreds of federal employees-and a seeming contradiction between the stated vendor goal and previous sworn testimony of NPS leadership and the contractor to Congress-how can the public make an informed evaluation of the project?
Why does this private foundation refuse to release particulars of its contract with retailer, and how can it legally justify withholding such information? What kind of for-profit retail operation is to operate for the next 25-30 years within a few hundred yards of the High Water Mark and where Lincoln spoke?
If the complex is to exceed 130,000 square feet the commercial store, at 6,000 square feet, excluding food space, will be the largest retail outlet in southern Pennsylvania.
There is a loan limit on this project of $12 million. Is it the foundation’s intent to borrow more than the allowed limit? Is the $4 million Kinsley loan part of that $12 million, or has the loan grown to $16 million? If so, has the loan limit been violated? If so, by whose permission and authority? How much of their claimed pledges have actually been paid?
If these are considered vital questions, then why are simple requests for answers repeatedly rebuffed? Is it not time for serious outside scrutiny, including a GAO audit and public hearings, with witnesses under oath, so Congress, press, and taxpayers may at last penetrate a long-standing veil of secrecy and canned press releases?
The Foundation has taken on the added responsibility and expense of operating a complicated reservation system two years before it intended to do so. This while taking on the expense of merging with another non-profit group, and demonstrating for the past four years that it takes $2 million annually to operate.
Plainly, the project is huge, has already swallowed impressive quantities of Federal money and accepted a $20 million pledge from the State of Pennsylvania, once all other money is in hand.
All this given to a for-profit private undertaking within confines of the crown jewel of American battlefield parks; a project once described in writing by proponents as a “small mall.”
Is this what NPS and the developer promised several years back? Is there real financial justification for what we now know is taking place? A long time member of the Kinsley Foundation’s board has been David Levan, former president of the CFX Railroad and Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation under Governor Rendell, who in his turn has pledged $20 million in state money to the Kinsley project.
Levan was the project’s initial enabler by selling Kinsley a large inholding within the park where the visitor center is being built. Levan also now heads the group seeking a state license to build and operate a 5,000 slot machine gambling casino a few miles from Gettysburg National Military Park and the National Cemetery.
Only publicity calling attention to this situation forced Levan’s quite recent resignation from the foundation’s board. These are facts almost totally unknown nationally until now, and they may have a bearing on the existing situation.
Certainly if Levan originally sold the property to Kinsley for in excess of $2 million, served for sometime on the Foundation’s board, now leads the effort to create a large gambling casino within a few short miles of the battlefield, cemetery and visitor center, isn't the role he has played a subject worthy of public knowledge and examination?
Again, secrecy practiced over the years inevitably raises questions. No one is accused of a thing. What is being sought is information taxpayers have a right to know.
No Congressional intervention has seemed possible until now. Why? One major reason may have been because recently defeated U.S. Senator Rick Santorum allegedly made it widely known on Capitol Hill that he would oppose any such inquiry, effectively stifling oversight and inhibiting formal inquiry.
In such a an environment foundation and NPS have been able to freely maintain their curtain of secrecy regarding vital statistics on overall cost and size of the entire project and projected income of the retail operation.
November’s election has at last made possible substantive Congressional oversight and thorough examination of all internal records. The Foundation will huff and puff, its associates will blossom out in indignant letters, and motives of those seeking accountability will be questioned.
None of this will wash. All particulars comprising this project will ultimately be publicly examined, whether its principals and operators like it or not.
My advance response is simple. The public has an undeniable right to know. It involves federal property and large public monies. When the people involved took Federal money and placed the facility within the boundaries of Federal property, they automatically became subject oversight.
This writer has no financial motives, past or present. NPS and the Foundation should welcome scrutiny. Afterwards, if they pass scrutiny, they can laugh their critics off.
After the disgusting spectacles of governmental corruption characterizing recent years, the American public, to whom this noble shrine rightfully belongs, has an undisputed right to know, and it will not be denied. Sunlight still remains the best disinfectant.
Franklin Sibley
Washington, D.C.
Franklin R. Sibley received his B.A. from the University of Buffalo in History and Political Science and served in the United States Army. He has 17 years of specialized House and Senate staff experience, joining the offices of Congressman John E. Moss in 1972 in the newly created position of congressional investigator where he remained until Mr. Moss’ retirement in 1978. In 1979, he was appointed Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, and in 1981, as Chief of Investigations, Senate Labor Committee.
Mr. Sibley now heads up two companies, Franklin R. Sibley Associates of Potomac, Maryland and Washington D.C. and Sibley Associates, headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida. The companies specialize in congressional investigations, federal investigations generally, corporate takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, corporate due diligence, international corporate inquiries and international research. In addition, Mr. Sibley deals with the investigative press, electronic and print, here and abroad.
__________________
Shaun C. Grenan
Price of G’burg visitor center to rise
By Meg Bernhardt
Evening Sun Reporter
The price of building a new museum and visitors center in Gettysburg has more than doubled since it was proposed more than 10 years ago, and current $95-million price tag is going to get even higher.
The Gettysburg Foundation is expected to make a public announcement soon increasing both the cost and the scope of its project to build the new center at the Gettysburg National Military Park. But a spokeswoman said today exact figures will only be released once the number is “more firm.”
“As with any project of this scale, there have been some adjustments,” said foundation spokeswoman Dru Anne Neil. “When we have a more firm number, we will let the public know.”
The Foundation-a private entity created to raise money for the new center-originally estimated the project would cost $39 million. Then it was $42 million, then $52 million, and then $70 million. In 2002, the $95 million figure was unveiled along with the site plans.
In a letter sent this week to a foundation critic, Park Superintendent John Latschar said the foundation has since proposed raising and spending even more than the $95 million. Those changes include doubling the acreage of the site because of environmental concerns and building two additional bridges. They also include the increased cost of the restoration of the Cyclorama painting. In addition, he said, the foundation has decided to spend more than twice the original estimated amount on exhibits in the new museum.
“In each of these cases, the NPS has approved the Foundation’s proposals, since they have increased the overall quality of the project,” Latschar wrote.
When asked about the increase and how much more money the foundation will need to raise, Neil said no announcement is currently needed.
“I wouldn’t say anything huge to report right now but certainly as we need to let people know we will do so,” Neil said.
But she acknowledged all the changes Latschar listed in his letter, saying they were “conscious decisions.”
In the past, the foundation has said the $95-million price tag coves more than the cost of the new visitor center. It includes a $10 million endowment to maintain the center; $10 million to run the foundation; $7 million for exhibit costs ad $6.5 million for design fees.
Rather than relying on the federal government to fund the project, the Park Service decided to enter into a private-public partnership, whereby a private entity would guide the project, raise the money to finance it, and operate the visitors center for a number of years before turning it over to the government.
The foundation has raised close to $90 million to pay for the center at the 97-acre site located south of Gettysburg near Hunt Avenue and Baltimore Pike, including $12 million in federal funds which are being set aside for the conservation of the massive Cyclorama painting, Neil said.
The painting was originally anticipated to cost only $1 million, but because a restoration of that scale is unprecedented, she said it’s increased to $11.5 million, and the Foundation is setting aside another $500,000 of federal money in case the cost increases even more.
Latschar’s letter was made public by foundation critic Eric Uberman, who said he wanted all correspondence to be public knowledge. Uberman owns the American Civil War Museum, formerly the National Civil War Wax Museum on Steinwehr Avenue across from the current visitors center. When plans for the new visitors center were originally discussed, many downtown merchants, especially those along Steinwehr Avenue, expressed concerns the move across the park would hurt their businesses.
Uberman has criticized the Foundation for years about the location of the new center’s site and said he believes the Park Service and Foundation went back on their word to not take taxpayer money. He’s been sending letters to the foundation, director of the National Park Service and the deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Interior since this summer, and this is the first reply he’s gotten, he said.
In his letter, he raised concerns about the increasing cost of the project and the use of federal and sate funds, despite promises by York developer Robert Kinsley and the National Park Service to build it without using taxpayer funds.
Uberman said he’s had concerns for some time about increased costs to the project and the increase of the foundation’s maximum allowed long-term borrowing amount-$20 million up from the original $12 million. After receiving Latschar’s letter, he said he was most concerned about the fact no one knew about this and the overall increase of the project above $95 million.
“Why are they doing it in secret?” Uberman asked. “Why doesn’t the public have any interest at all in doubling the cost of the project?”
In his letter, Latschar said the foundation plans to make a public announcement shortly, and also defended the federal funds put toward the project. He said it was the original intent of the National Park Service that the project would be completed without asking Congress for federal tax dollars and that the Park Service has not asked for any.
“However, the United states Congress made it(s) own determination that the value of the project to the Gettysburg National Military Park and the NPS warranted to the appropriation of $12 million in federal funds,” he said. “The decisions of Congress, of course, are beyond our control.”
Uberman pointed out that the land added to the project since the original plans-the former Fantasyland property along Taneytown Road-also increased the costs to taxpayers because that is federal land given to the site. Latschar’s letter did not specify if the property value of the increased land will be included in the increased cost estimates.
Latschar could not be reached for comment on the letter today.
__________________
Shaun C. Grenan
TO THE EDITOR:
There are serious, long overdue questions regarding the massive retail sales and visitor complex presently under construction at Gettysburg National Military Park by the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation controlled by private developer Robert Kinsley of York, Pa.
All substantive inquiries encountered a wall of secrecy and claims of business privilege, despite large amounts of public money being poured into or promised to the largest private, for profit facility ever located within a national shrine.
Even the local Congressman’s recent inquiry into project basics, such as actual costs and particulars of contractual arrangements the foundation has entered into with a major national retailer, are considered “not for public dissemination.” this quote is from a response he received from the foundation president in a September 29 letter.
This private entity is long on press releases, but short on specific data rightfully considered to be in the public domain.
The last admitted figure for total project cost was a staggering $95 million five years ago. No further estimates have been released despite inflation and other obligations assumed by the group. Since acceptance of Kinsley’s proposal by the National park Service, the budget for this project has tripled. Prior to this, the highest cost for any NPS visitor center has been $5 million.
So our first questions are:
What is the actual projected cost of the Gettysburg visitor center as of December 2006?
What is the legal basis for the Kinsley Foundation’s withholding such elementary data form the public, which has already contributed at least $12 million in Federal money to the project? This despite repeated formal testimony to Congress years ago by NPS, the park superintendent and Kinsley that no public money would ever be sought or used for this work.
They are responsible for the project and should be held accountable for safeguarding the public interest. No one is accusing anyone of anything. All that is being sought is public disclosure.
A large commercial retail footprint is an integral part of the visitor center. Under sworn testimony before Congress NPS repeatedly stated, “There will be no commercialization of the Park.” yet the chosen vendor, Event Network Inc., has as its stated purpose, “to evaluate the guest experience and achieve maximum retail potential .”
Foundation chairman Kinsley, whose company is project manager and has “loaned” $4 million already to the Foundation, testified this would be “a gift to the American people in 25 years,” after all loans were paid off.
So our next set of questions asks:
In light of a $12 million federal contribution already committed, ostensibly or restoration of the Cyclorama painting-plus many thousands of hours being contributed through work by hundreds of federal employees-and a seeming contradiction between the stated vendor goal and previous sworn testimony of NPS leadership and the contractor to Congress-how can the public make an informed evaluation of the project?
Why does this private foundation refuse to release particulars of its contract with retailer, and how can it legally justify withholding such information? What kind of for-profit retail operation is to operate for the next 25-30 years within a few hundred yards of the High Water Mark and where Lincoln spoke?
If the complex is to exceed 130,000 square feet the commercial store, at 6,000 square feet, excluding food space, will be the largest retail outlet in southern Pennsylvania.
There is a loan limit on this project of $12 million. Is it the foundation’s intent to borrow more than the allowed limit? Is the $4 million Kinsley loan part of that $12 million, or has the loan grown to $16 million? If so, has the loan limit been violated? If so, by whose permission and authority? How much of their claimed pledges have actually been paid?
If these are considered vital questions, then why are simple requests for answers repeatedly rebuffed? Is it not time for serious outside scrutiny, including a GAO audit and public hearings, with witnesses under oath, so Congress, press, and taxpayers may at last penetrate a long-standing veil of secrecy and canned press releases?
The Foundation has taken on the added responsibility and expense of operating a complicated reservation system two years before it intended to do so. This while taking on the expense of merging with another non-profit group, and demonstrating for the past four years that it takes $2 million annually to operate.
Plainly, the project is huge, has already swallowed impressive quantities of Federal money and accepted a $20 million pledge from the State of Pennsylvania, once all other money is in hand.
All this given to a for-profit private undertaking within confines of the crown jewel of American battlefield parks; a project once described in writing by proponents as a “small mall.”
Is this what NPS and the developer promised several years back? Is there real financial justification for what we now know is taking place? A long time member of the Kinsley Foundation’s board has been David Levan, former president of the CFX Railroad and Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation under Governor Rendell, who in his turn has pledged $20 million in state money to the Kinsley project.
Levan was the project’s initial enabler by selling Kinsley a large inholding within the park where the visitor center is being built. Levan also now heads the group seeking a state license to build and operate a 5,000 slot machine gambling casino a few miles from Gettysburg National Military Park and the National Cemetery.
Only publicity calling attention to this situation forced Levan’s quite recent resignation from the foundation’s board. These are facts almost totally unknown nationally until now, and they may have a bearing on the existing situation.
Certainly if Levan originally sold the property to Kinsley for in excess of $2 million, served for sometime on the Foundation’s board, now leads the effort to create a large gambling casino within a few short miles of the battlefield, cemetery and visitor center, isn't the role he has played a subject worthy of public knowledge and examination?
Again, secrecy practiced over the years inevitably raises questions. No one is accused of a thing. What is being sought is information taxpayers have a right to know.
No Congressional intervention has seemed possible until now. Why? One major reason may have been because recently defeated U.S. Senator Rick Santorum allegedly made it widely known on Capitol Hill that he would oppose any such inquiry, effectively stifling oversight and inhibiting formal inquiry.
In such a an environment foundation and NPS have been able to freely maintain their curtain of secrecy regarding vital statistics on overall cost and size of the entire project and projected income of the retail operation.
November’s election has at last made possible substantive Congressional oversight and thorough examination of all internal records. The Foundation will huff and puff, its associates will blossom out in indignant letters, and motives of those seeking accountability will be questioned.
None of this will wash. All particulars comprising this project will ultimately be publicly examined, whether its principals and operators like it or not.
My advance response is simple. The public has an undeniable right to know. It involves federal property and large public monies. When the people involved took Federal money and placed the facility within the boundaries of Federal property, they automatically became subject oversight.
This writer has no financial motives, past or present. NPS and the Foundation should welcome scrutiny. Afterwards, if they pass scrutiny, they can laugh their critics off.
After the disgusting spectacles of governmental corruption characterizing recent years, the American public, to whom this noble shrine rightfully belongs, has an undisputed right to know, and it will not be denied. Sunlight still remains the best disinfectant.
Franklin Sibley
Washington, D.C.
Franklin R. Sibley received his B.A. from the University of Buffalo in History and Political Science and served in the United States Army. He has 17 years of specialized House and Senate staff experience, joining the offices of Congressman John E. Moss in 1972 in the newly created position of congressional investigator where he remained until Mr. Moss’ retirement in 1978. In 1979, he was appointed Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, and in 1981, as Chief of Investigations, Senate Labor Committee.
Mr. Sibley now heads up two companies, Franklin R. Sibley Associates of Potomac, Maryland and Washington D.C. and Sibley Associates, headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida. The companies specialize in congressional investigations, federal investigations generally, corporate takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, corporate due diligence, international corporate inquiries and international research. In addition, Mr. Sibley deals with the investigative press, electronic and print, here and abroad.
__________________
Shaun C. Grenan
Price of G’burg visitor center to rise
By Meg Bernhardt
Evening Sun Reporter
The price of building a new museum and visitors center in Gettysburg has more than doubled since it was proposed more than 10 years ago, and current $95-million price tag is going to get even higher.
The Gettysburg Foundation is expected to make a public announcement soon increasing both the cost and the scope of its project to build the new center at the Gettysburg National Military Park. But a spokeswoman said today exact figures will only be released once the number is “more firm.”
“As with any project of this scale, there have been some adjustments,” said foundation spokeswoman Dru Anne Neil. “When we have a more firm number, we will let the public know.”
The Foundation-a private entity created to raise money for the new center-originally estimated the project would cost $39 million. Then it was $42 million, then $52 million, and then $70 million. In 2002, the $95 million figure was unveiled along with the site plans.
In a letter sent this week to a foundation critic, Park Superintendent John Latschar said the foundation has since proposed raising and spending even more than the $95 million. Those changes include doubling the acreage of the site because of environmental concerns and building two additional bridges. They also include the increased cost of the restoration of the Cyclorama painting. In addition, he said, the foundation has decided to spend more than twice the original estimated amount on exhibits in the new museum.
“In each of these cases, the NPS has approved the Foundation’s proposals, since they have increased the overall quality of the project,” Latschar wrote.
When asked about the increase and how much more money the foundation will need to raise, Neil said no announcement is currently needed.
“I wouldn’t say anything huge to report right now but certainly as we need to let people know we will do so,” Neil said.
But she acknowledged all the changes Latschar listed in his letter, saying they were “conscious decisions.”
In the past, the foundation has said the $95-million price tag coves more than the cost of the new visitor center. It includes a $10 million endowment to maintain the center; $10 million to run the foundation; $7 million for exhibit costs ad $6.5 million for design fees.
Rather than relying on the federal government to fund the project, the Park Service decided to enter into a private-public partnership, whereby a private entity would guide the project, raise the money to finance it, and operate the visitors center for a number of years before turning it over to the government.
The foundation has raised close to $90 million to pay for the center at the 97-acre site located south of Gettysburg near Hunt Avenue and Baltimore Pike, including $12 million in federal funds which are being set aside for the conservation of the massive Cyclorama painting, Neil said.
The painting was originally anticipated to cost only $1 million, but because a restoration of that scale is unprecedented, she said it’s increased to $11.5 million, and the Foundation is setting aside another $500,000 of federal money in case the cost increases even more.
Latschar’s letter was made public by foundation critic Eric Uberman, who said he wanted all correspondence to be public knowledge. Uberman owns the American Civil War Museum, formerly the National Civil War Wax Museum on Steinwehr Avenue across from the current visitors center. When plans for the new visitors center were originally discussed, many downtown merchants, especially those along Steinwehr Avenue, expressed concerns the move across the park would hurt their businesses.
Uberman has criticized the Foundation for years about the location of the new center’s site and said he believes the Park Service and Foundation went back on their word to not take taxpayer money. He’s been sending letters to the foundation, director of the National Park Service and the deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Interior since this summer, and this is the first reply he’s gotten, he said.
In his letter, he raised concerns about the increasing cost of the project and the use of federal and sate funds, despite promises by York developer Robert Kinsley and the National Park Service to build it without using taxpayer funds.
Uberman said he’s had concerns for some time about increased costs to the project and the increase of the foundation’s maximum allowed long-term borrowing amount-$20 million up from the original $12 million. After receiving Latschar’s letter, he said he was most concerned about the fact no one knew about this and the overall increase of the project above $95 million.
“Why are they doing it in secret?” Uberman asked. “Why doesn’t the public have any interest at all in doubling the cost of the project?”
In his letter, Latschar said the foundation plans to make a public announcement shortly, and also defended the federal funds put toward the project. He said it was the original intent of the National Park Service that the project would be completed without asking Congress for federal tax dollars and that the Park Service has not asked for any.
“However, the United states Congress made it(s) own determination that the value of the project to the Gettysburg National Military Park and the NPS warranted to the appropriation of $12 million in federal funds,” he said. “The decisions of Congress, of course, are beyond our control.”
Uberman pointed out that the land added to the project since the original plans-the former Fantasyland property along Taneytown Road-also increased the costs to taxpayers because that is federal land given to the site. Latschar’s letter did not specify if the property value of the increased land will be included in the increased cost estimates.
Latschar could not be reached for comment on the letter today.
__________________
Shaun C. Grenan
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