Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and his wife put taxpayers on the hook for nearly $17,000 in airfare on a single trade mission to Israel, part of an often lavish worldwide tour funded by a tucked-away trust the Patrick administration never revealed to the public,
new records obtained by the Herald reveal.
State records tracking the trade mission costs also showed Deval and Diane Patrick took a three-day trip to Colombia in 2013 on the taxpayer dime, ringing up a $8,342 bill for flights that far exceeded what other state officials paid.
Patrick’s airfare on other overseas junkets sometimes tripled that of his traveling contingent, such as a round-trip flight to Ireland reported in state records as costing $5,751. The former governor also racked up a $2,400 tab for a three-day stay at the five-star Merrion Hotel, which bills itself as the most “luxurious” hotel in the city, according to records.
Patrick saved the most expensive flight bill for his last trade mission — $12,356 for just a five-day trade mission to France, Denmark and England, according to records compiled by the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, which oversaw the travel trust fund.
The records also list a one-way flight from Hong Kong to Singapore under Patrick’s name costing a hefty $1,640.
One of Patrick’s traveling companions on several trips was Richard Davey, former Department of Transportation chief and current CEO of the Boston 2024 Olympic bid.
Records show Davey’s airfare totaled $6,962 on a 2013 trip to Asia, while his hotel tab in Singapore and Hong Kong came to $2,829.
The former governor’s 10 international trade missions have come under new scrutiny by government watchdogs and lawmakers since the Herald first reported that the Patrick administration funneled $27 million from state quasi-public government agencies into trust funds kept separate from budgetary constraints and hidden from public scrutiny.
The Herald first reported that one of the trusts, funded by Massport and the Mass Tech Collaborative, paid for the $1.4 million trade mission costs from 2009 to 2014.
A former Patrick administration aide, Alec Loftus, said the trips were well worth the cost, citing new international flights that the former governor pushed for in the countries he visited.
“Massachusetts greatly benefitted from the trade missions,” Loftus said, adding that one report showed the state got an “over 1,000 times return-on-investment in economic activity.”
The travel expenditures provided to the Herald under a public records request reflect a “tracking system” kept by the trust and do not show receipts or invoices for flights or hotels. Patrick aides say the governor flew business class and not
first class.
Patrick was accompanied on trade missions by advance staff and in several cases press aides, including former Department of Transportation flack Cyndi Roy Gonzalez. The records kept by the Patrick administration were not detailed for several trade missions and didn’t list what the governor or other state officials were charged. Sometimes the hotel and flight costs are bundled together.
The $21,141 hotel bill for the Colombia trip was simply charged to a “state credit card,” according to records.
But it’s clear that the former governor and his aides traveled in style. In Tel Aviv, Patrick bedded down at the InterContinental and was charged $1,005, while the room for Richard Elam, the former executive director of the international trade office, cost $1,550, according to
records.
Even a quick trip across the border to Toronto and Montreal ended up with steep traveling costs, with round trip flights for some in Patrick’s traveling party costing nearly $2,500 each. Elam was charged $1,133 for a one-way trip from Montreal to Boston, according to records.
