Congress to Investigate Statue of Liberty Group

By Elizabeth Schwinn

The heads of the Senate Finance Committee are seeking information on the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, a mark of the lawmakers’ continued interest in the way charities govern themselves.

Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Finance Committee, and Sen. Max Baucus, the committee’s senior Democrat, have written to the chairman of the foundation to request information on salaries, grants, and contracts awarded over five years. They also seek information from the Interior Department and its inspector general regarding the department’s relationship with the foundation, which is raising $7-million to pay for improvements it said were necessary to protect visitors and the monument from potential terrorist attacks.

The investigation comes as critics raised questions about whether the improvements could have been paid for with money from the foundation’s endowment, which is worth $30-million, instead of new donations. In addition, Mr. Grassley and others said they were upset that the head of the foundation was paid $345,000, more than the top officials at other fund-raising groups that support national parks. Aside from the spending decisions, some on Capitol Hill and elsewhere were annoyed that the fund-raising effort held up work to open the monument, which has been closed to the public since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said the foundation’s delay mirrors problems his committee has found in other charities.

“We’ve seen a pattern of these groups sitting on huge endowments, paying executives six-figure salaries, and spending relative pennies on their stated missions. Some of these foundations seem to exist only to perpetuate themselves. Unfortunately, it looks like the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation might be in that category,” he said.

Peg Zitko, the foundation’s director of public affairs, said the foundation signed an agreement with the National Park Service last summer to make the improvements and had raised enough money to begin them by last September. But work has been delayed by the need for approval from both the federal government and historic-preservation groups in the state. “The foundation is very eager to clarify the many misconceptions that are out there right now concerning the foundation’s role in reopening the Statue of Liberty, as well as the role that fund raising has played in the timing of the reopening,” she said.

As for the president’s salary, Ms. Zitko said a compensation committee set the pay based on a comparison with organizations of similar size and type, and believes it is fair.