Top staff at RI Convention Center again get five-figure bonuses. Here's how much they got.

PROVIDENCE – For the third year in a row, the private company that manages operations for the heavily taxpayer-subsidized Rhode Island Convention Center Authority has awarded bonuses of up to $36,000 to top staff.

Putting the bonuses in context, taxpayers were required to pay $24.7 million to the convention center in the budget year that ended on June 30, plus $24.5 million this year to cover debt and operating costs, according to a House Fiscal Office summary.

Who received a bonus, and how much?

The largest end-of-year bonus – totaling $36,334 – went once again to general manager Larry Lepore.

His employer, state contractor ASM Global, awarded him the bonus on top of his $191,231 salary.

The next-largest bonus, $10,870, went to the director of food and beverage, Kathy Masino, the wife of Vincent R. Masino, a longtime Laborers' International Union of North America vice president, on top of her $102,066 salary in 2023.

Five other top-tier ASM Global employees under contract to work for the authority – including directors of sales, security, ticketing and operations – got bonuses ranging from $8,304 to $10,838, according to ASM Global spokesman Les Crooks.

They include: the $101,761a year senior director of sales, Cheryl Cohen, ($10,838); the $91,451 a year director of security, Robert Lauro ($9,740); the  $90,000 a year director of operations, Chris Spolidoro ($9,585); the $100,000  a year director of sales, Becca Ponder ($8,875); and the $77,976 a year director of ticketing, Susan Catanzaro ($8,304).

ASM Global would not, initially, provide their salaries The Journal requested on Nov. 28, despite the attorney general's 2021 ruling, in response to a Journal records fight, that the salaries are public.

On Thursday, Crooks provided the salaries in an email that began: "Thank you for informing me about the Attorney General's ruling and the original [Access-to-Public-Records] complaint. Below are the salaries/incentives earned by each individual for the 2023 fiscal year."

It was not immediately clear why the salary of one of the bonus recipients was missing.

What was the reason for the bonuses?

The Convention Center Authority and its management companies oversee operations for the convention center, the Amica Mutual Pavilion next door and the Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

Under an agreement that goes back to Nov. 1, 1991, the state is responsible for making "lease payments in an amount sufficient to pay the operating expenses and debt service of the Authority that are not met by revenue generated by the Authority."

Here are last year's bonuses: Five-figure bonuses given to top staff at RI Convention Center Authority venues

In November, the board of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority – chaired by Ernest Almonte – was "briefed for informational purposes only on ASM Global’s Facility Annual Incentive Plan for FY23," the authority's executive director, Daniel P. McConaghy, told The Journal after that closed-door meeting in late November.

"No votes were taken, as it was not required," he said.

Asked the justification for the bonuses, Crooks told The Journal that, under a company-wide incentive plan, "certain ASM Global executives at the venues are eligible for bonuses based on achievement of quantitative and qualitative performance objectives, in support of our municipal client’s goals, in this case the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority."

He did not elaborate on the performance benchmarks required for a bonus.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Convention Center top staff get five-figure bonuses