Karen Heller, DRPA, and the Barnes Foundation Pork Barrel Project

The massive DRPA slush fund for “friends and family” of Philadelphia area non-profits and others pretty much says it all: legislate the right to fund “economic development,” pull in the money with massive debt, line up the cronies to receive the funds, and forever after let the working people who pay the tolls on regional bridges pay for it all. This is the picture of corruption and the not-for-profit community, meaning those who serve on those chummy boards are up to their eyeballs in it. Let’s be blunt. This stinks to high heaven and all the fancy benefit galas in the world don’t make it stink any less.

Columnist Karen Heller describes it almost perfectly in today’s Inquirer. Almost perfectly, because Karen didn’t mention the DRPA “gift” to the most outrageous project of all: the Parkway Barnes project. The half-million bucks given by DRPA to the Parkway Barnes project might not be a large amount of money by comparison to others; but it still deserves a prominent place on the list of pork barrel projects. Why? The project is THE most controversial project in the region and the most controversial art-related project in the country. The DRPA had no business appropriating money to it anyway because neither that agency (or anyone else for that matter) has done the due diligence on the project’s economic feasibility or sustainability. The Barnes project does not even meet the DRPA’s own criteria for “economic development” projects. But perhaps the most damning fact is that the Parkway Barnes project would destroy an existing cultural asset in one area of the DRPA’s jurisdiction in favor of creating an inferior replica of it in a politically stronger part of the DRPA’s jurisdiction. The result: everyone loses out on the irreplaceable experience of the authentic Barnes, which is eligible for National Historic Landmark status in its historic Merion setting, a mere 4.3 miles from the Parkway. And let’s not forget that the project is making a laughingstock of Philadelphia in the eyes of the international arts community, a unique distinction among the DRPA pork barrel projects.

The DRPA meeting tonight at 6:30pm is open to the public. It will be held at the Camden County Boathouse, 7050 North Park Drive, Pennsauken.

Can Tom Corbett Read the Tea Leaves? No Tax Money to Move the Barnes Foundation.

(photo credit: PennLive)

Chris Freind -- yep, that’s the right spelling – is an independent journalist whose post-election article should be read by Governor-elect Corbett’s Transition Team. The new governor needs to show he gets the message from Pennsylvania voters.

Chris writes in Philadelphia magazine, “The GOP would be wise to understand that the election was NOT a mandate for Republicans, as much as it was a protest…a shot across the bow of both parties.

Voters have grown increasingly irritated with the Business As Usual approach in Washington and Harrisburg and are demanding their elected officials focus on what the people want, not what some leaders think they need.”

By “some leaders” Chris must be including soon-to-be ex-Governor Rendell. His way of doing things was cooking up the deal to try to move the Barnes to Philadelphia using massive amounts of taxpayer dollars and totally destroying an extraordinary, existing Pennsylvania cultural asset in the process. All behind closed doors, of course.

If Tom Corbett and his team can read the Tea Leaves, they will understand that Pennsylvanians do NOT want precious tax dollars used in that way. Thousands of them have signed petitions that say: “Not in our name and NOT with our money.”

More Common Sense Ideas from PA Auditor General Jack Wagner. And one for him, too.

Philadelphia Inquirer’s Transportation writer, Paul Nussbaum, reported on Sunday that the DRPA has more than $54 million in unspent “economic development” funds. Today Paul is writing about Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner's proposal that the money either be frozen in place or used a lot more sensibly than pet pork barrel projects.

"I view any further expenditure of these DRPA funds for economic-development projects to be contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the resolution passed by the board to prohibit such spending," Wagner said in a letter to John Estey, the Philadelphia lawyer who chairs the DRPA board. "There may be far better uses for some or all of these funds," Wagner said, "such as reducing the authority's debt burden and/or toll amounts charged to the traveling public."

We agree with Jack Wagner and reducing the DRPA's debt burden makes sense. But here's a suggestion that IS related to transportation and will save money for Pennsylvania taxpayers AND boost economic development at the same time. It will also support preservation for the Barnes Foundation, which is, after all an existing, extraordinary regional cultural asset:

NO more tax money for the Parkway Barnes project! Instead, the Delaware River Port Authority could partner with private funders using a tiny fraction of the $54 million for a shuttle bus to take tourists from the Art Museum Circle to the Barnes Foundation in Merion. Along our gorgeous river drive, through magnificent Fairmount Park, the drive is all of 12 minutes to take visitors to the authentic Barnes Foundation in Merion. It's time for common sense.

photo courtesy of pennlive.com

Gov. Ed Rendell tells that old chestnut about the Barnes Foundation on national TV

Back in June, FOX News Special Correspondent James Rosen visited the Barnes Foundation and filed this report. It includes Governor Ed Rendell telling a Big Whopper – again -- about the Barnes in Merion being unable to sustain itself financially. The Governor believes if you repeat a lie frequently enough, people will believe it. Or maybe he didn’t see the information put together by then-Deputy Solicitor General Carolyn Carluccio for Montgomery County that shows that the average deficit for the Barnes in Merion for the period 1998 – 2006 at less than $200,000 a year. And that was during a period when they spent over $2,300,000 on lawyers. . Like someone said in the movie “The Art of the Steal,” “If someone can’t manage a tiny little budget like the Barnes, they should get another job!”

The Governor’s solution for that miniscule financial challenge: Rip the Barnes art collection out of its historic setting in Merion, dismissing the fact that the site, left intact, is already eligible for National Historic Landmark status. Build a new museum on the Ben Franklin Parkway that is almost 8 times as big on a plot of land that is one-third the size of the 12-acre Merion site. The price tag: at least $200,000,000.

And so far there is no evidence that this scheme cooked up by Ed Rendell and his cronies is going to be successful.

This can’t go on.

The Barnes Foundation under Ed Rendell: Dirty Backroom Deals that Led to a Massive Pork Barrel Project

Lifelong Democrats are as appalled as anyone by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s use of The Barnes as a political feeding trough. The Governor’s actions have made The Barnes – one of America’s truly extraordinary art experiences – into a poster child for truly sickening pork barrel politics. What are we talking about? This, for example:

Although every other person involved in the Barnes move claims they didn’t know a thing and the judge deciding about the move didn’t know, Ed Rendell knew exactly where to find $107 million in taxpayer money to support the Barnes move from Merion to Philadelphia. It was buried inside a 325 page 2001-2002 Capital Spending bill, placed there more than two years before the Court gave permission for the move. By whom? Nobody’s saying, but it’s worth noting that former Senator Vincent Fumo (D-Philadelphia) was on the Senate Appropriations Committee at the time. Mr. Fumo is currently serving time in federal prison on 137 counts of fraud, despite the letter Governor Rendell sent to the judge in support of Vince Fumo.

Ed Rendell has bragged that he and Raymond Perelman cooked up the Barnes move as to Philadelphia as early as 1993, when he was Mayor. The rest of us were told that the Barnes’ financial problems came to a head in 2001.


Ed Rendell cut a deal with Lincoln University that motivated Lincoln to drop their opposition to the Barnes move with a promise of $80 million in state money for starters. The Governor and Lincoln have since worked hard to deny that the deal was a quid pro quo, but there is ample documentation to show otherwise. The one person who needed to understand the relationship was Judge Stanley Ott. He was told only that Lincoln was dropping its petition objecting to the move, not why they were dropping it. Meanwhile, Lincoln University President Ivory Nelson found a special way to show his gratitude to the Governor with an honorary degree at the next commencement ceremony, where Rendell told graduates to “Reach for the stars.” How original.

Ed Rendell was head of the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) in January 2003, when the agency that is supposed to use its funds for running the region’s bridges appropriated half a million dollars to the Parkway Barnes project – almost two years before the Court gave permission for the move. Vince Fumo was on the Board at the time, too. Although the Philadelphia Inquirer barely mentioned the DRPA gift to the Barnes move, Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight took note.

These are some of the shenanigans that are known. What about the stuff we don’t know yet? It's safe to say that more will come to light in time. People in power didn't go to this much trouble without plans for The Barnes to become a significant gravy train. That must not be allowed to happen.

With Rendell out, a new administration needs to open its eyes to the possibilities for a much better outcome for The Barnes. Governor Corbett can start by total rejection of the dirty backroom deals that fostered the dismantling of an American cultural treasure and find solutions that honor and support the Barnes in Merion with transparency, honesty, and integrity.

Will Tom Corbett Save The Barnes in Merion?

(photo credit: Gene J. Puskar - AP Photo)


Talk about a historic opportunity! At a time when Pennsylvania is facing a $5 BILLION budget shortfall, Tom Corbett might just be able to do as Pennsylvania’s new governor what he couldn’t do as state Attorney General: prevent the wasting of $107 million in Pennsylvania taxpayer funds for the outrageous Parkway Barnes pork barrel project. Corbett, who ran as the candidate that will practice fiscal responsibility, should begin by making clear that Pennsylvania taxpayers are NOT going to be the single largest donors to the most controversial arts project in the country.

But the opportunity doesn’t begin and end with tax dollars alone. The Barnes Foundation in Merion is one of Pennsylvania’s most extraordinary cultural sites, already eligible for National Historic Landmark status and a strong contender for the UNESCO World Heritage site list.

If not for the lies and spin of politically and commercially-motivated people to move the art collection to a far inferior site less than 12 minutes away, the importance of preserving it is obvious. The Barnes in Merion is much more than an art collection to be shuffled from its historic setting to become a replica of itself at huge expense. It is a purposeful installation, designed for a specific educational purpose, housed in its own gallery building that was designed by one of the 20th Century’s most important architects – Paul Philippe Cret – surrounded by a twelve acre arboretum that dates back to the 1880s. It is accessible, it is sustainable, it is authentic -- and it deserves the protection of Pennsylvania’s new governor.

Let Tom Corbett know that you want him to save the Barnes Foundation and sign the petition telling him so today.