Party Development Authority
The Pike Place Market is a more fruitful place to be than we thought, says the state auditor. According to two new reports, the Market's governing arm, the Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), generally followed spending laws but was a bit too bountiful with employee parties, perks and refreshments last year. For example, says State Auditor Brian Sonntag, the PDA improperly spent $3,800 on a barbeque and holiday party for employees and families, spent $2,992 in reimbursement to employees who held their own parties which included booze and a bartender, and laid out $1,749 in five instances of staff meetings where food exceeded the "light refreshment" threshold (you know, typically cookies and coffee, a stripper maybe). Additionally, six Market employees whose names were drawn from a hat won airline tickets valued at $1,200, while another $3,486 in gift certificates was given to vendors and employees. Sonntag says the payments were casually doled out rather than disbursed under pre-existing policies that define perks and how to earn them. He did not say whether this included any bonuses to PDA employees who evict marginally profitable businesses (see: Rainier Hardware).
6 comment(s)
Chris Van Dyk says:
Hmmm, that works out to about $1000 per month. Lay off one of those party-hearty employees, and you\'d definitely be able to hang on to that marginally profitable hardware store, simply by lowering the rent....since you clearly don\'t need the rental income...
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 4 2006 @ 6:13PM
Chris Van Dyk says:
Hmmm, that works out to about $1000 per month. Lay off one of those party-hearty employees, and you\'d definitely be able to hang on to that marginally profitable hardware store, simply by lowering the rent....since you clearly don\'t need the rental income...
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 4 2006 @ 6:14PM
Reporterward says:
Holy cow!
One of those Washington state Auditor reports that was actually newsworthy and has relevent information.
I\'ve always said Brian Sonntag is doing a good job down in Olympia and he\'s worth the effort to split your ticket to vote for.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 5 2006 @ 1:52PM
Carey says:
They are covering their butts because the exec director is mistreating employees, cooking the books adn generally a terrible manager. the director adn teh hr manager gossip about employees personal information and everyone is quitting. someone please look into this.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 10 2006 @ 6:57AM
Jo says:
Lets all please be aware that Brian Sonntag does not get out of his office and come up to Seattle to casually do an audit. He did not find this stuff. One of their staff auditors found this stuff. Kudos to the auditor\'s staff in Seattle for finding this abuse of public funds!
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 19 2006 @ 7:04PM
kirsten anderberg says:
Does it not irk anyone but me that the f*cking PDA EXTORTS $30 FREE SPEECH PERMIT FEES from the buskers or street perofmers every year, against their will, upon threat and realities of TRESPASS arrests, literally, if we do not pay the PDA Mafio to NOT HARASS US AS STREET PERFORMERS. We already OWN our Free Speech Rights, why are we BUYING them from the PDA again? And they supposedly need to Nickel And Dime the buskers when they are spending all of this money on private parties? THIS MAKES ME SICK.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 17 2007 @ 4:28AM