Former employees say repairs at Kennedy Center were halted — The Hill
In the United States, former employees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts told Congress that the institution’s management halted planned waterproofing work earlier this year. The Hill reports that these allegations came after the Kennedy Center board decided to temporarily close the main building to assess repair needs.
The board, chaired by President Donald Trump, cited water leaks in deciding on the temporary closure and said the structure was unsafe for continued operation. Attorney David Seide, who represents the whistleblowers, provided lawmakers with internal documents. According to him, they call into question the board’s assertion that water leaks justified the building’s immediate closure.
Claims regarding repair funds
Seide claims that Kennedy Center Executive Director Matt Floca had known about the leaking problems for several years and canceled the planned repairs, although Congress had allocated $9.3 million for the work. The attorney also said that funds appropriated by Congress for repairs were allegedly directed to unplanned cosmetic changes, including repainting the main building’s columns white at Trump’s request.
In a letter to Congress, Seide called for a further investigation. The document was sent to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
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Position of the Center’s management
Floca rejected the accusations, saying that management had long known about leaks in the roof canopy but only learned this summer how far the damage had spread inside it. He also explained the delay in the previous repair plans by saying that a contractor’s proposal exceeded the project’s estimated cost by more than $500,000. According to Floca, the work has now been incorporated into a broader development plan for the Center.
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, separately contacted Floca. He called the executive director’s and the board’s decisions unsuccessful and demanded answers by October 8 regarding the findings of the new whistleblower report. Whitehouse also said that his previous review concerned allegations of nepotism, corruption, and excessive spending during Trump’s chairmanship of the board.
These allegations came amid a legal challenge to changes at the Kennedy Center initiated by Representative Joyce Beatty. Earlier this year, a federal judge blocked Trump’s announced plan to close the Center for two years for reconstruction.
