Former Kennedy Center employees claim officials halted repairs months prior to closure

Former Kennedy Center employees accused the iconic performing arts venue’s leadership in a letter to Congress of halting planned waterproofing repairs earlier this year.

In the Thursday letter, David Seide, an attorney representing the whistleblowers, shared internal documents which he said challenged the Kennedy Center board’s claims that these leaks warranted the venue’s immediate closure.

The board, led by President Trump, cited these leaks in its decision last week to temporarily close the center’s main building to assess renovation needs, saying the facility was “unsafe for continued occupancy.”

The New York Times was the first to report on this letter.

Seide said the Kennedy Center’s executive director, Matt Floca, knew about these leakage issues “for years” and canceled planned repairs earlier this year despite receiving $9.3 million from Congress for this renovation.

“In sum, the evidence shows that the New Problems were in fact well known, were not considered to be high priorities and that millions in taxpayer funds were set aside more than a year ago to address them,” Seide wrote.

His letter also alleges Floca diverted congressionally appropriated funds for repairs to make “unplanned cosmetic changes” requested by Trump to repaint the main building’s columns white last year.

The board has directed several other cosmetic changes to the Kennedy Center’s campus under Trump’s leadership, including the temporary addition of the president’s name to the main building’s facade and the removal of a towering sculpture from the center’s grounds

The attorney called on Congress to investigate the matter further.

In a statement shared with The Hill, Floca pushed back on these allegations and said the center’s leadership had become aware of more severe leakage issues in recent months.

“The safety of our patrons, artists, and staff comes first,” Floca said. “The Kennedy Center has known for years that the roof overhang leaked. What we did not know until this summer was how far the damage had spread inside it.”

Floca added that the earlier roof repair plans were delayed because the contractor’s bid was over $500,000 more than the projected cost for this project. He said these fixes are now being addressed within the center’s broader development plan.

“That was a change in the approach to procuring and delivering the work, not a determination that the work was unnecessary,” Floca said.

Seide’s letter was shared with the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, as well as the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the Senate committee’s top Democrat and an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, has led an investigation into allegations of corruption within the iconic performing arts venue.

In a separate Thursday letter , addressed to Floca, the Rhode Island Democrat accused the executive director and the board of making “poor decisions,” calling for answers to the findings in this new whistleblower report by Oct. 8.

“My initial investigation into misconduct at the Center focused on cronyism and corruption, with documents demonstrating considerable excessive and self-serving spending under President Trump’s chairmanship,” Whitehouse wrote.

“The documents that I attach today seem to reveal deeper financial mismanagement,” he continued. “Your failure to respond to my previous requests for financial documents, and the unexplained sudden departure of the CFO, suggest that something is seriously wrong at the Center.”

The new whistleblower claims come amid an ongoing legal challenge to Trump’s changes at the performing arts center brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex-officio member of the center’s board.

Earlier this year, Trump announced plans to close the Kennedy Center for a total of two years for renovations, but a federal judge blocked this effort. The administration has said it could demolish the building and replace it with an open-air performance space if its planned construction is not permitted.