The recently departed head of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority blew through his travel and entertainment budget during his first year on the job, before running into trouble with the MCCA board.
Marcel Vernon spent around $42,000 on his MCCA credit card for these expenses in the first 10 months of 2025, or more than double what was allotted to him for the full year, according to a trove of emails and other documents obtained by the Globe through a public records request. Vernon jetted to Frankfurt, London, Austin, Denver, and Las Vegas, among other locales, and spent thousands while visiting Martha’s Vineyard to attend SALA, a leadership conference, last summer.
Excessive spending, or reasonable? Vernon’s lawyer says these were all legitimate business trips, with expenses in line for an executive who is responsible for drawing conferences and other big events to Boston and Springfield.
Vernon resigned in December after roughly a year on the job amid a clash with the MCCA board, and received a $500,000 severance payment. Neither side publicly offered a clear reason at the time for his departure, which came just a few months after he received a full yearly bonus.
However, one newly disclosed email shows that board chair Emme Handy reminded Vernon that he was notified in November that he was being investigated for “repeated personal misconduct and misuse of your position,” though specifics weren’t mentioned in the email.
On the expense front, the MCCA maintains Vernon’s travel-and-entertainment spending in the first 10 months of 2025 was nearly double the nearly $25,000 budgeted for its executive director, a sum that is 17 percent of the total travel and entertainment budget for all staff. That’s also a big increase from the executive director’s travel and entertainment budget in the two prior years, when it was nearly $12,000.
Vernon’s attorney Jeff Robbins says his client operated within an approved budget, with expenditures linked to official work activities.
Robbins noted in an email to the Globe that the MCCA board had no problem with Vernon’s performance when it voted to give him his maximum bonus in August. He said Vernon’s contract included a clause that allowed the board to fire him “with cause” but the MCCA gave him “a whole lot of money” instead.
The MCCA’s investigation, Robbins said, is “a feverish attempt to throw smoke in peoples’ eyes and attempt, if possible, to deflect attention from the rather serious issues that exist about the questionable conduct of its Board chair and those whom she controls.”
Robbins already outlined some of these concerns in a letter last month to Handy, stating Vernon was being directed to improperly ignore state procurement rules and make decisions that would waste taxpayer funds.
Robbins now essentially says the investigation was payback for Vernon raising these concerns, and he claims that previous MCCA leaders traveled more frequently and extensively.
Handy declined to comment on Wednesday when asked about the nature of the investigation and also the concerns that Robbins raised in the letter about procurement. MCCA spokesperson Dave Silk also declined to provide details about why the board had been investigating Vernon, saying that it’s a matter that has been handled by the authority’s board.
Robbins said Vernon is unsure what the investigation was about, and that Handy didn’t provide an explanation after Vernon asked for one. However, he said an outside law firm did reach out on Handy’s behalf to inquire about three things: Vernon’s MCCA credit card charges, tickets to a Nov. 15 event at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, and a specific $100 donation to Governor Maura Healey that was charged to the MCCA in February.
Vernon said the donation to Healey via the MCCA credit card instead of Vernon’s personal card was an accident made by Vernon’s personal assistant, and was promptly fixed. Vernon received four tickets for the Hall of Fame event for free, but Robbins said Vernon made a charitable donation to the Hall rather than seek MCCA reimbursement even though he was in business discussions with the Hall.
The records also detailed travel expenses including $3,400 for roundtrip Delta tickets to and from London and nearly $1,800 for roundtrip tickets on Condor to visit Germany, along with a $3,000 charge for a stay at the Franklin Hotel in Edgartown and $2,100 for the Waldorf Hilton hotel in London (though the receipts show he received a $722 credit for that stay, in July). Other 2025 trips included visits to Colorado in April, San Francisco and Atlanta in August, and Las Vegas in September.
“Every expenditure fell within standard parameters, and was connected to an official business activity,” Robbins said. “Marcel never exceeded the budget, and no one ever suggested otherwise.”
In the end, Robbins said, nothing became of the law firm’s inquiries as far as he can tell. The proof, he said, was that the MCCA didn’t outright fire Vernon but instead gave him a severance payment if he agreed not to sue over his departure. Robbins also said he has not received a response to his December letter itemizing governance issues that Vernon was raising.
Vernon’s departure is happening at a time when the state Legislature’s racial equity and inclusion committee is planning for a public hearing to discuss diversity efforts at the MCCA. The hearing, rescheduled at least once before, had been slated to take place on Jan. 20, though a legislative aide says it has been postponed yet again.
The board last week picked John Barros, former economic development chief during Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration, to take over the $330,000-a-year job as interim executive director. The board’s regular monthly meeting on Thursday was his first board meeting in the new role.
Sign in to read the full article.
Sign in with Google