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Martha Johnson, head of the government’s General Services Administration announced her resignation Monday, April 2, 2012, after an internal government investigator found that her agency had spent too much money on a 2010 conference for 300 agency workers at the M Resort in Henderson.
By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 | 12:27 a.m.
When Las Vegas officials encourage conventioners to stay and play in Sin City, it’s usually with the intention that they’ll spend a lot of money on city establishments and entertainment.
But this week, everyone is wishing one government agency hadn’t spent quite so much.
Martha Johnson, head of the government’s General Services Administration, announced to her employees Monday that she’d be stepping down from her post after an internal government investigator found that her agency had blown too much money — $820,000 — on a 2010 conference for 300 agency workers at the M Resort in Henderson.
“We are always happy when people choose to visit Las Vegas,” said Jeremy Handel, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “However, we’re even happier when people choose to visit responsibly. Taxpayers need to know that their money is being spent wisely, no matter where that is.”
The government’s frustration is not simply with how much money was spent, but also with how much investigators say could have — and should have — been saved.
A thousand sushi rolls at $7 apiece, $48.80 breakfasts and $95 dinners, $75,000 for a team-building bike-building exercise and a total of $136,504 for two pre-event scouting trips, five planning meetings and a “dry run” of the conference were among the most egregious costs listed in the government inspector’s report, submitted Tuesday.
“GSA spending on conference planning was excessive, wasteful and in some cases impermissible,” the inspector general’s report read. “GSA’s approach to the conference indicates that minimizing expenses was not a goal.”
The inspector general found the government’s conference planners had engaged in a quid-pro-quo with the M Resort: In exchange for meeting the government’s per diem rate on hotels (capped at $105 per night; the cost per room ended up being $93, $2 less than the hotel’s base rate as advertised on budget travel sites), they would foot a higher-than-usual bill for food — such as the almost $50-per head cost of breakfast, when the government normally caps that expense in Vegas to $12.
"Recognizing that [the lower hotel rate] 'would in essence cost the hotel $16,800,' GSA offered the hotel 'concessions,'" the report reads. "These included increasing the food and beverage minimum. ... As an additional concession, GSA said it would attempt to book another event at the hotel in March 2011, noting that 'GSA absolutely loves this property' and 'would gladly share any future leads with M Resort.'"
The report also found the government disclosed their maximum allotted spending cap per day of the conference — $75,000 — during the pricing negotiations. A spokeswoman for the resort did not return a message for comment Tuesday.
Lavish meals and overpriced food may be par for the course for corporate trips to Las Vegas, but for a government that's committed itself to cost-cutting, it doesn’t fly.
"President Obama made clear that the people who serve in his administration are keepers of the public trust and that public service is a privilege,” said White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew. “He was outraged by the excessive spending, questionable dealings with contractors and disregard for taxpayer dollars. He called for all those responsible to be held fully accountable given that these actions were irresponsible and entirely inconsistent with the expectations that he has set as president."
Even Las Vegas’ biggest Washington boosters agreed that the GSA convention had gone too far.
"Las Vegas is the best place in the world to hold a convention, and it's understandable why people want to have business meetings here," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. “However, this situation demonstrates a complete lack of common sense.”
While the White House’s pointed response to the overspending at the GSA conference sends a message about the administration’s position on overspending, it also contextualizes a complicated history of comments the president has made about Las Vegas.
The M Resort in Henderson.
The White House has sought to quash speculation that the president is anti-Vegas ever since 2009, when Obama told an audience in Indiana that bankers accepting bailout funds shouldn’t be heading to Vegas "on the taxpayers' dime." A year later, he told a crowd in New Hampshire that people shouldn’t “blow a bunch of cash in Vegas” when times are tight.
(The president has since made several trips to Nevada to campaign for Reid as well as three trips in the past six months to Las Vegas; First Lady Michelle Obama and her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, were also vacationing in Las Vegas just last week.)
Las Vegas brass bristled at the suggestion that the president was warning people away from Sin City — but that doesn’t appear to be the case, according to the inspector general’s report.
"The conference was to 'celebrate, share, and showcase the diverse professional and personal talents of GSA associates.' GSA considered this theme a good match for the Las Vegas location, which, as GSA stated, has long 'been a destination for talented musicians, dancers, magicians and showmen' to 'showcase their talents to the international audience Las Vegas attracts,'" the report reads, suggesting the administration had quite a Vegas-friendly conference policy.
But the GSA activities disclosed lend some support to what may have been the source of the president’s earlier quips of Vegas apprehension. It’s fine to support the performers and entertainers of Las Vegas — the administration just wishes they hadn’t spent quite so much taxpayer money doing so.
And how many millions of dollars did the first lady spend on her mega-europe trip with her entourage.. when all was said and done, and she was neither elected or a civil servant. President talking out both sides of his face again. Comp me but don't ask me to spend money, because I AM THE PRESIDENT....a joke at best....
Didn't the president say we weren't supposed to do this on the taxpayer's dime? And yet Wash DC needs more. Right.
I think this example showed up the massive Washington spending in a bad light. To use a Christian analogy she had to go so others might spend. It also lights up the vacations/political trips publicized/disguised as fact finding missions etc.
Chunky says:
According to the military it costs $181,757 per hour to fly the President around in Airforce One not to mention the support costs to local governments when he lands and is transported.
$2,733 per person if that includes travel, food, lodging, convention services, audio visual, events etc isn't all that much no matter where you have the convention. But, the government needs to take a bit of it's own medicine and maybe do the the conference in DC at a Hampton Inn or similar.
What isn't clear in this story is how many days the conference lasted so we can get to a cost per day for the trip.
Conferences require planning visits and rehearsals but $136,000 for that part sounds a bit lavish.
That's what Chunky thinks!
President Obama was outraged? Really? Ha, that's a wise tale. Wasn't outraged about the $500 million spent and lost at Solyndra. That was disregard of tax payer dollars. Sure it wasn't spending it in Vegas, that we know of, but it surely wasn't thought through. Even better, just google Solar Trust of America bankruptcy. 2.1 billion loaned to them via the same program. Disregard for taxpayer dollars? $820,000 is piddly squat compared to what the Gov gives out to businesses that take the money and waste it and go bankrupt. The irony is unbelievable.
mitzy17, sadly, the irony is too believable!
where is the M Resorts' responsibility in this? they knew they were manipulating the taxpayer dime for their profit... and didn't care.
don't think i'll be going there anytime soon.
Tip of the iceberg.
And unfortunately, our federal budget is the Titanic.
Shameful misconduct by a high official of the Obama administration. Was it an intentional attempt to embarrass the president or just extremely poor judgment?
@oldPSUguy: I'd guess extremely poor judgement.
@jt2ou: M Resort has no responsibility in this. Prices were negotiated prior to the convention. Seems to me that again our government has the wrong people in positions of budgetary decision making.
Bureaucrats living large on the working mans' back while democrats spout class warfare rhetoric. Every career gov't. employee I've ever met votes democrat, while pushing big gov't. agenda. Spiffs like this are the payoff. Obama is angry that this instance was too egregious to be ignored and or be rationalized.
Comparing the President's and his families travel is not on par with ordinary conventioneers. He is our President and the first family need better protection
However, no matter how you look at it, the GSA convention spending $2,733 per person, regardless of how many days, is just too excessive especially at a time when everyone is hurting financially.
It's just right that the head of the GSA resigned.
So the IG system works at least some of the time. Perhaps M and other resorts need to consider marketing to mid-range people and conventions rather than the higher end. GSA does much of the purchasing for various federal agencies so the IG needs to keep digging...
Makes you want to think twice when the government says they do not have any money. Doesn't matter D or R, they do not have the people's best interest in mind.
As disgusting as this is, all Presidents abuse travel rights far more.
ChunkyFlyRight already alluded to the high cost of operating Air Force One. In theory when a President travels for political purposes the party picks up the tab. But in reality Presidents try to combine these jaunts with public functions so the cost to the party is minimized.
I might be mistaken, but it feels to me that President Obama has made more trips to speak at town halls, plant openings, etc. than any other President in the past. He should look in the mirror if he is so "outraged" by this stunt by the GSA.
Obama's budget plan voted down 0-414, even in the Harry Reid lead Senate 0-95, no budget in three years. These clowns don't have a CLUE. Sarah Palin wouldn't have been relevant if it weren't for the fact she was right.
This is the fault of a woman who obviously has no budgetary or leadership skills. What was she doing running the GSA? This tells you a little bit more about how Obama is running this country. Not very well.
I understand why everyone is up in arms regarding the gross disregard for taxpayer dollars. However, to act like $48 for breakfast is exorbitant is folly. Ask almost any meeting planner in this town; $74+ is standard for 1 gallon of coffee and you can expect $6+ per piece for any given hors d'oeuvres, and the fact that demand is high allows hotels to sustain their pricing. Let's not act like the cost of catered food and beverage is the problem at hand.
Comment removed by moderator. Off Topic
If only the GSA officials had come here with Michelle Obama and the girls and wasted our tax dollars, they would be just fine. It's perfectly OK for the Obama girls to come here and do that.
BTW, why are the Obama quotes about not coming to Las Vegas mentioned anywhere in this article, or the one about the Obama girls coming here and partying?
Oh, it's because he told people not to spend THEIR money in Las Vegas. It's okay for his family to spend OUR money in Las Vegas.
If you think the GSA spends money. You should look at the DOD.
Remember 60% - 75% of federal spending is on the war machine. Trillions of unfunded dollars has been spent in Iraq and now afganistan. For what?
So haliburton and greed military contractors can make trillions.
Get some perspective.
"But this week, everyone is wishing one government agency hadn't spent quite so much."
That's because they were carelessly spending OUR money. In times when government funding is being cut back for the weakest and smallest among us, it's good to see the feds are taking excesses like this seriously.
"And how many millions of dollars did the first lady spend on her mega-europe trip with her entourage.. when all was said and done, and she was neither elected or a civil servant."
Xtlman -- excellent!
"GSA does much of the purchasing for various federal agencies so the IG needs to keep digging..."
Roslenda -- since GSA is the feds' Office Depot and real estate agent, that is one excellent suggestion.
"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically." -- Henry David Thoreau 1849 "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"