More videos revealed of GSA conference in Henderson

WASHINGTON -- More videos that have surfaced showing federal workers yukking it up at an $823,000 training conference in Las Vegas are adding fuel to the controversy surrounding the General Services Administration.

A five-minute excerpt from the October 2010 conference made public Monday shows property workers from the Fort Worth, Texas-based regional office joking in a music video about the agency's environmental initiatives -- a skit that one of them said was performed during work hours.

"Are you ready for a miracle? GSA's going green," the employees rhyme to the beat of a Patti LaBelle gospel song. Later, holding up a picture of President Barack Obama, they attribute the effort to "POTUS wants a press event. A project he can show."

The video was released by the House Oversight Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has scheduled a hearing for April 16 on the conference after criticizing it as wasteful spending "at the height of the recession."

It is one of three congressional inquiries that have been set for next week after the April 2 release of an inspector general's audit that detailed excessive spending to plan and carry out the event at the M Resort in Henderson, with possible violations of federal contracting rules by conference organizers.

VIDEO RELEASED

Issa released the gospel music video after the Huffington Post went online Friday night with an hourlong series of excerpts from the Western Regions Conference, a biannual affair held in past years in New Orleans, Oklahoma City and Lake Tahoe.

The edited video, which the Huffington Post said was provided by an Obama administration official, portrayed a fuller picture of the conference although not one likely to quiet the controversy.

During portions, GSA executives appeared to intersperse music and comedy skits with team-building presentations on agency performance and goals. A project management seminar, for instance, featured participants who portrayed Elvis, Cher and Tom Jones.

The video also contained segments from a "talent awards ceremony" held on the final night of the four-day meeting attended by 300 people.

GSA workers performed in music videos and sketches that had been encouraged by supervisors, and some of them lampooned the agency.

The winner was Hank Terlaje, 28, of Honolulu, who produced a music video in which he dreamed about becoming GSA commissioner with powers to spend freely, set to the rap-reggae of "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars.

Another showed workers in a field, taking a bat to a GSA computer, like in the movie "Office Space."

When he handed out a prize for the video of "Are You Ready for a Miracle," conference organizer Jeff Neely remarked, "That was amazing, was there anybody in Region 7 who wasn't in that thing?"

"If they didn't work on Friday, then chances are they weren't in the video," said the woman who accepted the award.

Among other segments in the show was a bubble-blowing contest and a pipe-beating rhythmic performance by the "Green Man Group," a takeoff on the Blue Man Group.

LEAVE LIST GROWS

The conference sparked an inspector general's audit made public last week that led to the resignation of GSA Commissioner Martha Johnson and the firing of two officials.

The Associated Press reported eight others have been placed on administrative leave during an internal investigation. On Monday, the GSA announced that David Foley, deputy commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, is the latest to be placed on leave.

Adam Elkington, a GSA spokesman, said the new videos "reinforce once again the complete lack of judgment exhibited during the 2010 Western Regions Conference. Our agency continues to be appalled by this indefensible behavior, and we are taking every step possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again."

Neely, acting administrator of the Pacific Rim region, is among the GSA officials who have been placed on leave. On the final day of the Las Vegas meeting, he thanked the attendees for participating and declared the conference a success.

The goal, he said, was to show that "it's OK to have fun and work hard and include humor in the kinds of things that go on in the workplace."

"At the beginning of this, I asked that you would be focused, I asked that you participate, I asked that you would network, and I asked that you would intentionally be involved in what we put in front of you," he said. "You delivered on that request.

Asked what he would take home from the conference, Neely said, "What I'd like for people to take home is to dispense with the notion that what's done in Vegas stays in Vegas, and to really leave with what's done in Vegas needs to be shared with everybody."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Follow him on Twitter @STetreaultDC.