Sources say Dick Walsh,
general manager of the Los Angeles center,
will run its isle counterpart

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The new general manager of the Hawaii Convention Center will be Dick Walsh, general manager of the Los Angeles Convention Center since 1973, according to sources close to the selection process.

While no official announcement had been made by early today, Convention Center Authority sources said the group's board has given Spectacor Management Group, which has the contract to manage the center, approval to hire Walsh.

SMG's senior vice president-operations, Dick Schaff in San Francisco, would say only that a name had been proposed to the Hawaii CCA. "Nothing is final," Schaff said yesterday. He said no appointment is final until the CCA board approves it and some paperwork is concluded.

However several CCA sources, who asked not to be identified, said Walsh was the nominee discussed in an executive session of the CCA board Monday and that he has the board members' approval. The board will formally approve the decision at a meeting today, one source said.

Convention center employees actually work for Philadelphia-based SMG. But since SMG manages the center for a fee and has its expenses, including salaries, paid by the state, such appointments need authority approval.

The general manager's post became available when Lynn Thompson, SMG's first choice, quit at the end of July, after a year on the job, for what he said were personal and salary-related reasons. Thompson's salary reportedly was about $100,000 a year.

Details of Walsh's salary and when he will start work were not available.

Walsh did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

He handed in his resignation from the $134,000-a-year Los Angeles job in July and agreed to remain in the post until Jan. 15. Los Angeles news reports said Walsh's 24 years in the job will qualify him for a pension of $70,000 a year.

Walsh is familiar with the Hawaii center and that familiarity played a part in his quitting his Los Angeles job, according to the news reports.

He was a part-time consultant to Hawaii's Convention Center Authority from 1994 to 1996, outside work that paid him $40,000. He said he had prior approval from Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and did the work, which involved dozens of trips to Hawaii, on his own time.

In August 1996, however, Riordan ordered him to quit outside work, saying he should be devoting all his time to the Los Angeles center, which the city subsidizes with about $20 million a year.

Riordan also ordered a review of Walsh's job performance. The Los Angeles Times, citing sources who declined to be named, said that a highly critical report followed and Walsh resigned rather than get into a public fight.

Walsh's work for the Hawaii center included heading an evaluation committee which reviewed applications from two dozen management firms for the contract to run the center's operations. The committee chose SMG and the CCA board approved the choice.

The trade publication, Amusement News last month described Walsh as a respected leader in the conventions industry.

He is a past president of the International Association of Assembly Managers. Walsh oversaw a three-year $500 million expansion of the Los Angeles center that was completed late in 1993, doubling its size to some 800,000 square feet of exhibition and meeting space.

That is four times the size of the Hawaii center, which has 200,000 square feet of usable space.

The Hawaii center will be completed Oct. 8 and on Oct. 15 will be formally handed over to the state by the design-build team, Nordic/PCL Joint Venture.

The state spent about $150 million for the land and the center cost about $200 million to build.

The center has a staff of eight but expects hiring to start picking up in October and it will have as many as 100 employees after it officially opens next summer. Mike Polovcin, director of operations, has been acting as manager and coordinating with SMG while a new general manager was sought.