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Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009

Cashing in with credit cards

CHARGES INCLUDE CONCERT TICKETS, GOLF LESSONS

In a climate of unbridled spending, the four lieutenants to the former head of Blue Grass Airport rang up about $332,000 in charges on their airport-issued credit cards over the last three years.

Based on the range of charges to the airport, the cards served almost as all-access passes for lavish indulgences and everyday needs for the men, all of whom receive six-figure salaries.

Electronic toys, tickets to sporting events, a jaunt to a strip club and numerous cross-country trips were put on the airport's tab, according to the Herald-Leader's review of credit-card statements. Among the charges were payments for golf lessons, Christmas presents for co-workers and nearly $2,200 for six tickets to the December 2007 Hannah Montana concert at Rupp Arena.

"It is difficult to imagine how some of those expenses could be appropriate," said David Wescott, a public relations consultant hired to speak on behalf of the Blue Grass Airport board of directors.

The four officials — who reported to former Executive Director Michael Gobb — also charged tens of thousands of dollars worth of more mundane expenses, such as gasoline, meals around Lexington, dry-cleaning bills and car washes.

Those airport managers — John Coon, operations director; John Rhodes, administration and finance director; Brian Ellestad, marketing and community relations director; and John Slone, planning and development director — were among seven airport employees, including Gobb, who had airport-issued credit cards.

Last week, board Chairman Bernard Lovely moved to cancel all of the cards, a first step in what board members and city leaders say will be a reform of airport policies.

The hundreds of pages of documents, obtained through an open-records request, also show that Gobb, who signed off on the spending of his employees, rarely challenged purchases or requested reimbursements for items that seemed to have little to do with running an airport.

"Possibly in an effort to avoid board scrutiny, people may have been taking advantage of the process where the executive director reviewed expenses," Wescott said. "That is a practice that began before Bernie (Lovely) was chairman and one that has been stopped."

The Herald-Leader submitted a list of questions to the directors about specific expenses. But they routed all inquiries to Wescott, who said airport officials couldn't comment on specific charges because of an internal review and a state audit that are under way.

The $332,000 in credit-card expenses does not include charges for airline flights that the four made through travel agents.

In November, the Herald-Leader reported that Gobb had incurred more than $200,000 in travel and other expenses during a little over two years. That spending led to Gobb's suspension by the airport board, which accepted his resignation Jan. 2 after a decade as executive director.

The four directors' credit-card statements also show that they routinely lunched at the airport's expense, dining at dozens of restaurants including Azur, co-owned by Lovely, the board chairman.

The airport, run by a board appointed by Lexington's mayor, uses some taxpayer funds, such as federal dollars for construction, and received city tax money in the past. Many of the administration costs are covered by ticket and parking fees paid by anyone who travels out of the airport.

In light of the revelations of spending and the public outcry, the airport board is scrambling to quickly rework its financial and management practices.

"We would like to rip the Band-Aid off quickly, not millimeter by millimeter," said Tom Halbleib, the board's attorney.

'Supplies and equipment'

As director of planning and development since 1999, John Slone oversees construction in and around the airport.

He also gives personalized gifts to his co-workers, according to his airport credit-card statements.

For Christmas 2006, he bought a Cincinnati Bengals jacket and a Pittsburgh Steelers hooded sweatshirt for fellow directors Coon and Rhodes.