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A gift from South Pasadena's sister city disappeared on the trip back home months ago. The local city has not told the Greek one.
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 31, 2001
SOUTH PASADENA -- The eight city residents who paid a visit on South Pasadena's Greek sister city last year returned safely four months ago, but one important package they carried with them got lost along the way.
Now the City Commission and its Sister City Committee are trying to figure out how to replace the item -- an original Greek painting presented to the visitors by dignitaries in Karlovasi, Greece -- without offending their sister city and damaging the relationships they worked to build there.
"Our credibility is really on the line here," Commissioner Dick Holmes said.
The tale begins in Karlovasi, on the island of Samos in Greece, South Pasadena's official sister city. The small group of South Pasadena residents visited Karlovasi in the fall, the inaugural trip for the cities' relationship.
In Karlovasi, city officials presented South Pasadena with a framed oil painting by local artist Yota Spiridonis. It depicts the Karlovasi harbor at the end of the 19th century. Mayor Fred Held and his wife, Alma, checked the painting with the rest of their baggage on their return flight to Atlanta.
The painting, however, never made it back. "Let's get one thing straight," Held said. "We didn't lose the picture. The airline lost the picture."
Delta Airlines reimbursed the city $640. Alma Held also filed a personal claim through her travel insurance and collected $300, which she turned over to the city.
That's where what Commissioner Joan Runyon calls "a sticky situation" gets even stickier. South Pasadena has not yet informed its sister city that the painting is missing, and the Sister City Committee has voted to reimburse the mayor's wife $150 out of the insurance money -- money it says she is owed for the 30 or 40 long-distance phone calls and other efforts to get the reimbursement.
The decision to reimburse Mrs. Held might be overturned by the City Commission, but Mrs. Held said she didn't want the money in the first place.
"I did not pursue it. Fred didn't want it," she said. "I didn't want it, and I said it right there at the meeting. They insisted and voted that I get it."
Jack Wolff, chairman of the committee, said the group thought reimbursing Mrs. Held was the right thing to do.
"We were all aware that Alma had put in a lot of not only time, but she has put in a lot of her own money in long-distance calls on the missing picture," Wolff said. "We felt that really, since this was their personal insurance, we felt it was fair since the city hasn't compensated anybody on this committee."
Fonda and Evelyn Poole, South Pasadena residents who spend at least half their year in Greece and who acted as interpreters while the South Pasadena group was visiting Karlovasi last year, say they contacted the artist and learned that commissioning a new painting would cost about $1,000. The city is considering ordering a new one and having it shipped here and framed in the United States.
Runyon favors replacing the painting as soon as possible and also questions why the Sister City Committee voted to reimburse Mrs. Held out of the insurance money, especially when the city is not yet sure how much it will cost to replace the painting and have it framed.
"We're terribly, terribly sorry that it happened, but it wasn't our fault," Runyon said. "It was just embarrassing."
Rita Garvey, the former mayor of Clearwater and president of the Association of Sister Cities for Florida, said the city should get the painting replaced.
"It would seem to me that it would be in their best interest to let them know that it's been lost," Garvey said. "It would be obvious by its lack of presence."
Evelyn Poole, who will likely be the go-between regardless of how South Pasadena decides to handle the situation, wants to work directly with the artist, not the Karlovasi city officials, to work out the situation.
"I didn't want to have any hurt feelings about it," Mrs. Poole said. "We can get another one, either of the same scene or something similar.
"It was done in taupes and grays and browns and such. It was something very, very stunning and unfortunately, somebody must have liked it and took it for themselves."