Media Alert - Summary of the Matter Pending in Front of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit: Oral Argument Scheduled for December 6, 2011

Media Alert

Who
The Constitutional Guided Walking Tours, LLC, Jonathan Bari and Leslie Bari (Plaintiffs-Appellants) vs. Independence Visitor Center Corporation, William W. Moore, National Park Service, Dennis Reidenbach, Cynthia MacLeod and Darla Sidles (Defendants-Appellees)

What
Lawsuit pending with the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Case Documents can be found here)

When
December 6, 2011 - Oral Argument scheduled (time to be determined)

Where

Federal Court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the literal and figurative backdrop of Independence National Historical Park (a unit of the NPS) featuring Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell – America’s Birthplace 

Why
This is a David v. Goliath fight between a small business - The Constitutional Walking Tour vs. the National Park Service and its agent, the Independence Visitor Center Corp. This story focuses on backroom deals, pay to play politics, crony capitalism, heavy hand of government, random and arbitrary government regulations, etc. At the nearly 400 national parks across the country where commercial visitor services occur (i.e., Yellowstone, Yosemite), the concessions award process is followed - however, that is not the case in Philadelphia.

Case Documents - In the Matter of The Constitutional Guided Walking Tours, LLC, Jonathan Bari and Leslie Bari (Plaintiffs) vs. Independence Visitor Center Corporation, William W. Moore, National Park Service, Dennis Reidenbach, Cynthia MacLeod and Darla Sidles (Defendants)

Following are the Case Documents in the Matter of The Constitutional Guided Walking Tours, LLC, Jonathan Bari and Leslie Bari (Plaintiffs) vs. Independence Visitor Center Corporation, William W. Moore, National Park Service, Dennis Reidenbach, Cynthia MacLeod and Darla Sidles (Defendants).

The Case Documents include those filed in the following Federal Courts:

• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania - Case Number: 2-09-cv-03083 Note: Oral Argument in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia is scheduled for December 6, 2011.
• United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Court- Case Number: 11-2146

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
 
I. COMPLAINT
Original Complaint - The Constitutional Walking Tour
July 10, 2009
The Constitutional Guided Walking Tours, LLC, Jonathan Bari and Leslie Bari (Plaintiffs) vs. Independence Visitor Center Corporation, William W. Moore, National Park Service, Dennis Reidenbach, Cynthia MacLeod and Darla Sidles (Defendants); United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania at No. 09-cv-03083; July 10, 2009.

National Park Service and Independence Visitor Center Corporation Obfuscated Issues and Misled Congress

Overview
In December 2006, Senator Arlen Specter reached out to Dennis Reidenbach, Superintendent, Independence National Historical Park ("INHP"), and suggested a proposal to have INHP offer walking tour companies comparable accessibility and visibility to riding tour companies for visitors at the taxpayer funded Independence Visitor Center ("IVC"). Just days after Mr. Reidenbach received Senator Specter's proposal, Mr. Reidenbach appears to have summarily dismissed the proposal, even though he represented to Senator Specter that he "carefully reviewed" his proposal. Further, the Independence Visitor Center Corporation ("IVCC") adamantly lobbied the NPS in support of Mr. Reidenbach's rejection: "If we move an inch on this issue chaos will be the result" and we must "not offer or open the door an inch." In his rejection of Senator Specter's proposal which obfuscated the issues, Mr. Reidenbach said that he was "committed to working equally with all commercial tour operators", but that he was "not willing to open more space in the IVC to solicitation and ticket sales." That statement was untrue.  Just six months after Mr. Reidenbach outrightly rejected Senator Specter's proposal to not open up any more space for ticket sales inside of the Independence Visitor Center, Philadelphia Trolley Works and Big Bus Company debuted a brand new ticket sales concessions booth inside the Independence Visitor Center. However, The Constitutional Walking Tour was not offered the same commercial opportunities and concessions contracts made available by the NPS and IVCC to The Constitutional's competitors.

National Park Service ("NPS") and the Independence Visitor Center Corp. ("IVCC") Enforced Censorship At Independence Park - The IVCC and NPS Retaliated Against The Constitutional Walking Tour & Damaged Relationship with "Where Philadelphia" Magazine

Overview
Through policies that changed so frequently, randomly and arbitrarily as to preclude the existence of any true standard policy, the National Park Service ("NPS") and Independence Visitor Center Corporation ("IVCC") enforced censorship at Independence National Historical Park ("INHP"), a unit of the NPS in Philadelphia. Furthermore, the IVCC, with the complicit oversight of NPS, retaliated against The Constitutional Walking Tour ("The Constitutional") for challenging these random and arbitrary acts of censorship. Such retaliation by the IVCC, with the approval of NPS, irreparably damaged a critical business relationship between The Constitutional and Where Magazine.

Censorship at America's Birthplace
On May 25, 2007, Bill Moore, former President and CEO of the IVCC, gave his staff instructions at the Independence Visitor Center's ("IVC") Main Information & Sales Desk to inform The Constitutional that it would no longer be allowed to distribute its new 2007 marketing brochure, The Independent, inside of the Federally owned Independence Visitor Center, despite the fact that the same content had previously been deemed acceptable in The Constitutional’s prior brochures and in turn distributed at the IVC. Copies of The Independent at the Independence Visitor Center were confiscated and removed by the IVCC's management from all display racks at the Independence Visitor Center, including at the IVC's Main Information & Sales Desk.

On information and belief, Mr. Moore did not like The Independent since he viewed it as competitive with the "Historic Philadelphia Gazette" (also just referred to as "The Gazette"), another news pamphlet/brochure distributed by the Independence Visitor Center. NPS and Historic Philadelphia, Inc. ("HPI"), have officially collaborated for many years on publishing The Gazette which is taxpayer funded and which serves as the official news pamphlet/brochure of INHP; "the Gazette is a joint venture of HPI and the National Park Service."  Additionally, according to Mr. Moore, the IVCC has “regular discussions with the staff that publishes the Historic Philadelphia Gazette regarding content and information.”

Independence National Historical Park & Independence Visitor Center Corporation - Congressional Oversight Needed

Overview
In an April 3, 2008 editorial entitled "Mall Madness", The Philadelphia Daily News said that, "For nine years, the [Independence] visitor center and [National] Park Service have failed to come up with an agreement to run the center that might make the rules governing tour companies more consistent and less arbitrary... This is a shameful state of affairs." http://www.theconstitutional.com/news/inhp/mall.madness.pdf

Commentary (written by The Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia)
Why is it that it took less time for America to land a man on the moon than it has for the National Park Service and the Independence Visitor Center Corporation ("IVCC") in Philadelphia to enter into an Operating Agreement? President Kennedy announced in May 1961 that he wanted to land a man on the moon and achieved that goal in July 1969. In contrast, on December 7, 1999, President Clinton signed the Gateway [Independence] Visitor Center Authorization Act (Public Law 106-131) which required that the IVCC enter into an Operating Agreement with Independence National Historical Park ("INHP"), a unit of the National Park Service. As we mark the law's ninth anniversary, no Operating Agreement has been signed, in spite of being statutorily-mandated.

The lack of an Operating Agreement is counter-productive and detrimental to the mission and effective transparent implementation thereof for both the IVCC and INHP. Without any written, detailed and publicly available Operating Agreement, then specific management activities and services are impossible to objectively track. Additionally, the flagrant non-compliance of the INHP and IVCC to execute this Operating Agreement has been detrimental to The Constitutional Walking Tour and other vendors since that Operating Agreement would presumably set some formal ground rules for the equitable treatment and rights of vendors at the Independence Visitor Center. In the absence of any Operating Agreement, The Constitutional has been unfairly treated and has been beholden to the wide discretionary powers of the INHP and IVCC that are used randomly, arbitrarily and capriciously.

Our Founding Fathers taught us that checks and balances are required for our system of government to work. However, a closer look at the IVCC reveals that there are few, if any, checks and balances with the IVCC and the National Park Service to ensure that the taxpayers' investment in these public trusts is effective, efficient and fair such that the Independence Visitor Center works as the United States Congress intended it to work.