Agency spends at least $13k for hot meals at meetings Metro’s board of directors grappled one day in March with how to fill a $72 million gap in the budget: Cut back bus and train service or ask local governments to pony up more taxpayer-funded subsidies?
Then they lunched on what a caterer dubbed Plato’s Pairing: typically Athenian chicken roulade stuffed with spinach and feta paired with a mushroom wine sauce, plus red snapper in dill cream sauce over a bed of pearl couscous. Also on the menu was jasmine-scented rice, asparagus with lemon, bread, Caesar salad and assorted cookies, according to an invoice. The bill totaled $20.70 per person.
| From the Metro menus: |
| • Cherry Blossom Duet: Lemon cilantro salmon filets; grilled flank steak with cherry-port reduction; herbed basmati rice; steamed broccoli with butter; bread board; Caesar salad; assorted cookies. |
| • Moroccan Kabobs: Marinated tenderloin of beef; seasoned chicken; spice-rubbed salmon with jasmine-scented rice; steamed broccoli with butter; Caesar salad; a bread board and assorted cookies. |
| • Plato’s Pairing: Athenian chicken roulade stuffed with spinach and feta paired with a mushroom wine sauce; red snapper in dill cream sauce over a bed of pearl couscous; lemon garlic potatoes; grilled yellow squash and zucchini; bread board; Caesar salad; assorted cookies. |
| • Balsamic roasted chicken over seared spinach and red peppers; lemon penne salad; mixed greens salad; oatmeal raisin cookies; plus assorted “pick up and one-bite desserts.” |
| • A note on one order confirmation said, “NO RIBEYE!!! SEND EXTRA SALMON INSTEAD!!!” |
Over the course of 19 months, the 14-person board spent at least $13,265 of agency funds on food at meetings as it grappled with raising fares and finding enough money to rebuild a crumbling system, according to receipts from January 2010 through July 2011 provided in a public records request.
But the total is likely higher. The agency did not provide any receipts for at least one full board lunch in April. “They cannot locate receipts for that date, but lunch was served,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said.
The board meets at least twice a month to run the transit agency and typically has a hot lunch during “executive sessions” that are closed to the public. In recent months, board members also have eaten meals at additional private meetings to orient new members and plan their vision for the future.
In 2006, after a Washington Post story reported on the board’s hot lunches, the transit agency instead bought cold sandwiches for about a third of the cost. The general manager then also promised to get future sandwiches from D.C. Central Kitchen, a nonprofit caterer that gives job training to homeless people.
But that pledge apparently lasted just months. The board switched back to hot lunches that same year, Stessel said.
Metro’s board has changed dramatically since then, with eight new faces this year alone. But even as the members have changed, the food hasn’t. Metro is using one of the same caterers it did back then.
“Should there be a lunch and can we be efficient about it? We work hard to do that,” Chairwoman Cathy Hudgins said. “We end up staying well past the lunch hour.”
Former Metro board member Christopher Zimmerman, who left the board in December, said the food has never been anything fancy. “It’s cheap catered food,” he said. “If you have to work through lunch, the boss pays for lunch. It’s an efficient way to do it.”
The average cost per person for lunch and drinks is $20.43, according an analysis of the receipts. That includes delivery costs and paper plates, but doesn’t include coffee or snacks provided during the meetings, or any meals offered beyond the public meeting schedule.
On two occasions the board ate more simply with sandwich orders from Potbelly Sandwich Shop or a nearby deli. The cost per person for those lunches was as little as $6.26 per person.
Hudgins said the board would review who provides the lunches and how much they are paying. “We’re looking at managing costs everywhere,” she said.
On several occasions, receipts show, Metro staffers bought soda for board members in bulk at Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
And the agency got a deal in another respect. As a government agency, it doesn’t get charged tax on the food. For a purchase of two sandwiches at a nearby deli to accommodate dietary restrictions, a Metro employee clearly made sure the agency didn’t get overcharged. A receipt shows a credit of 93 cents on a $10.23 bill for two sandwiches after the first receipt was wrongly taxed.
