Petrelis Files

May 27, 2004

Mitchell Katz, MD
Department of Public Health
101 Grove Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Dear Dr. Katz,

With the fifteenth international HIV/AIDS conference in Bangkok fast approaching, I would like to know about your department’s involvement with the conference.

Here are the questions I feel need to be addressed before the conference begins:

How many DPH employees will be attending the meeting?
What is the total cost to the city for sending DPH employees to Bangkok?

Can you break down that cost by expense; airfares, hotel accommodations, meals, conference fees, etc.?

Let me state for the record, that I am not seeking any names of DPH employees. I only want to know the number of people from your department who are traveling to the conference.

A prompt reply is requested.

Regards,
Michael Petrelis

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June 2, 2004

Dear Mr. Petrelis:

In response to your inquiry of May 27, 2004, regarding the number of DPH staff and total cost to The City for those who are planning to attend the HIV/AIDS conference in Bangkok, please not the following:

STAFF/ AIR FARE/ HOTEL/ MEALS/ REGISTRATION

STD Office/ $900/ $490/ No reimbursement/ Privately funded
AIDS Office/ Grant, $1172/ Grant, $490/ Grant/ Scholarship
AIDS Office/ Scholarship/ Scholarship/ Scholarship/ Scholarship
AIDS Office/ Scholarship/ Scholarship/ Scholarship/ Scholarship
AIDS Office/ Grant, $1000/ Grant, $1250/ Grant, $500/ Grant, $1000
AIDS Office/ Grant, $1000/ Grant, $1250/ Grant, $500/ Grant, $1000
AIDS Office/ Grant, $1000/ Grant, $1250/ Grant, $500/ Grant, $1000

Note: All grant funded expenses were specifically awarded for travel to the International AIDS Conference. No prevention or health services funds (Ryan White or CDC/HIV Prevention) are being used.

I am pleased to note that one of our researchers will receive the prestigious "Young Investigator's Award for Epidemiology" on the closing session. The information available to date indicates the seven individuals attending will be presenting 12 papers, five abstracts, one poster and a workshop. The direct cost to The City is $1500.

Thank you for your interest in this upcoming event.

Sincerely yours,
Mitchell H. Katz, MD
Director of Health

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June 29, 2004

Dear Dr. Katz:

Thank you for your reply of June 2 about DPH costs for sending employees to the Bangkok International AIDS Conference and their participation in it.

I would like a copy of the twelve papers, five abstracts and the one poster that will be presented by your employees, before the conference begins next month.

Please mail me paper copies of the documents, and, if digitized versions are available, those versions are also requested.

By the way, I am sending a copy of a 1991 Washington Times story about the costs of sending U.S. federal employees to the Florence International AIDS Conference, which should be of historical interest to you.

I look forward to a quick response from you.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA

- - -

The Washington Times
May 15, 1991, Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: Part A; Pg. A1

Some question cost of AIDS trip

BYLINE: Joyce Price


The U.S. Public Health Service is sending 392 employees to the 7th International AIDS Conference in Florence, Italy, next month - at a cost to taxpayers of $1.55 million.

Paul Simmons, USPHS deputy assistant secretary for health communications, insists that both the number of people going to the conference and the cost are reasonable. "We're the world leaders on this thing [AIDS]," he said.

"And the 392 people we're sending - 67 percent of whom will be making formal presentations at the conference - will represent less than 5 percent of the 8,000 people who'll be attending. Dr. James Mason [assistant health secretary] says an awful lot more people go to conferences on cancer."

But some congressional critics and others questioned the size of the contingent and the expense.

"It sounds like an astonishing number," said David Keating, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union.

Mike Petrelis, spokesman for the D.C. Chapter of the militant AIDS group ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), said: "I don't think taxpayers should have to pay for people like Dr. [Robert] Gallo and the others to go to Florence. . . . That money could be better used for clinical trials for new drugs." Dr. Gallo was the first American to isolate the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

"We could see about 50 tops, plus some people at [Dr. Anthony] Fauci's level," said Mike Frank, an aide to Rep. William Dannemeyer, California Republican. Dr. Fauci is director of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"$1.5 million could go a long way to treat people with the [AIDS] virus, rather than treating the people who treat those with the virus to a nice vacation," Mr. Frank said.

But Mr. Simmons said the conference will be "no vacation." And he noted that the number of USPHS staffers going to Florence for the June 16-21 World Health Organization event "is 40 percent less than went to last year's conference in San Francisco and 30 percent less than went to Montreal the year before."

As for this year's price tag, Mr. Simmons said, "It's about the same cost as last year."

Mr. Simmons said 563 USPHS employees attended the 1989 conference in Montreal and the bill was $1 million. Last year, 730 USPHS staffers attended the conference in San Francisco. The amount of tax money spent was $1.5 million. "We were the host country for that one," he said.

Mr. Keating observed: "It sounds as if they have a certain amount of money and that they will spend it."

Mr. Dannemeyer requested information from the Department of Health and Human Services, USPHS' parent agency, several weeks ago as to the number of federal employees going to the conference and the cost of the trip.

The request followed reports of questionable taxpayer-funded travel by White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and other government officials. Last week two House committees scrapped plans to ask the Air Force to fly them, their wives and other guests to the Paris Air Show June 13-23.

Mr. Simmons noted that "the $1.5 million being spent represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the total AIDS budget."

Employees who go to Florence will be reimbursed at a rate of $234 per day: $112 for lodging and $122 for meals, he said, adding that the per diem amounts are set by the State Department. "Speaking as someone who recently vacationed in Florence," Mr. Simmons said, "that rate is not generous whatsoever."

Bill Grigg, head of the news office for USPHS, said the CDC negotiated room rates that would stay within the lodging allowance. "And NIH [National Institutes of Health] is, in effect, telling people that it's only paying half of a double room rate. So, unless people double up, they'll be paying for double rooms themselves."

Those planning to attend the conference, Mr. Simmons said, include Dr. Fauci; Dr. Antonia Novello, the U.S. surgeon general; Dr. William Roper, director of the CDC; and Dr. Gallo, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute.

"Everyone else who'll be going are scientists, researchers or [AIDS] educators," Mr. Simmons said.

AIDS activists disagree as to the benefits that will be derived from USPHS' large representation at the AIDS conference. "It sounds like a bit much, but at this point I have to trust their judgment," said Paul Sathrum, director of programs for the National Association of People With AIDS. "It's very important that we have a presence at those conferences because a lot of vital information is presented there."

Mr. Petrelis of ACT-UP said he attended the AIDS conference last year and also in 1987, when it was held in Washington. "A lot of the publicity about the conference in Washington focused on peptide T," he recalled. "But here it is 1991, and we're still waiting for larger clinical trials using that drug."

Tom Schatz, senior vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said USPHS "probably could send fewer people." Nevertheless, he said, "this is a serious academic health conference."

"At least they are not going to an air show in Paris just to party."