EDITORIAL: Shameful abuse of the public trust
The PA Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau (PDCVB) is largely funded by tax payers dollars, a good portion of its budget coming from its share of the Hotel Room Sales Tax imposed in order to subsidize the development and operation of the Convention Center.
A poll was published in the Lancaster Newspapers and attributed as in part coming from this semi-public organization. The press release from the PDCVB claimed that the respondents overwhelmingly favored a street car system.
NewsLanc’s investigation has shown that the information provided to the respondents prior to or with the questions was outrageously distorted, the questions asked were few and slanted, and the interpretation of the poll was a bald face effort to mislead the public. This raised the question: Why would a semi-public institution undertake such deception?
NewsLanc therefore inquired of the PDCVB: “Who requested, who paid for the poll, and who prepared the questions?”
The response from Joel Cliff, Media Relations Manager for PDCVB, was “I need to direct you to Jack Howell [director of the Lancaster Streetcar Company] for these details.”
Shame on the Lancaster Streetcar Company for exploiting the PDCVB, shame on the PDCVB for being so duped, and shame on the Lancaster Newspapers for carelessly (if not knowingly) printing misleading information.
This sounds like another hotel/convention center fiasco about to be foisted upon the public by a few people who have a very strong vested interest in the project. And they will probably be the ones who benefit at the cost to the general public.