Whistleblowers Say Kennedy Center Leaders Put Off Fixing the Same Problems They Now Blame for Closing the Building

Former employees claim that officials at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, opted not to undertake repairs of leaks in the building’s roof overhangs months ago. Now, officials are saying the center must close temporarily due to risks associated with those same leaks.

The anonymous former employees shared internal documents with Congress on Thursday, reports the New York Times. In a letter to Congress, the former employees say this betrays that the infrastructure problems are being exaggerated.

The Kennedy Center rejected this claim in a Friday statement quoted by the Times, saying that the severity of the problems has only recently come to light.

“The Kennedy Center has known for years that the roof overhang leaked,” said executive director Matt Floca. “What we did not know until this summer was how far the damage had spread inside it.”

Congress set aside $257 million for repairs to the building. President Donald Trump, who has assumed the position of chairman of the board of trustees and who appointed Floca, has called for a two-year closure of the building, calling it dangerously dilapidated. A federal court has blocked that plan, but the management announced last week that it would temporarily close anyway to address “acute risks to public safety.”

David Seide, an attorney for the whistleblowers, said in the letter that for years, the leaks “were not treated as priorities nor as acute risks to public safety.” He maintains that six months ago, Floca canceled a $295,000 project to design a replacement for the roof overhangs. Floca tells the Times that the project was canceled when the contractor’s bid came in too high and that the work has been moved to a more comprehensive plan that also addresses climate control systems, problematic elevators, an outdated electrical system, and infrastructure in the facility’s theater.

Trump recently said that if he could not be credited for renovations on the building, the center would be demolished. A photographer then captured an image of him on Air Force One looking at a placard that seems to read “Kennedy Center demolished.” Ohio Representative Joyce Beatty filed an appeal to a district court judge to make it “crystal clear” that Trump cannot demolish the building. Her fears seem not unfounded; Trump razed the East Building of the White House without warning, saying he was making way for another cherished project, a ballroom-cum-security complex.

The whistleblowers’ letter to Congress also says that management at the center diverted $1.4 million that had been allocated for waterproofing repairs to a $4.4 million project to repaint exterior columns whose color Trump disliked.

Trump and the management at the center have blamed past leadership for financial problems, but ticket sales plummeted after Trump took over, and dropped yet further after Trump affixed his own name to the building, according to documents sent to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, reports the Times.