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Wolf names ex-Pa. Convention Center chief to gambling board

Ameenah Young tapped for $145,000/year seat

Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf appointed Ahmeenah Young, who was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority until it replaced her with a private management firm in 2013, to a $145,000-a- year position as a member of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which oversees the state's dozen gambling casinos.

The casino board meets every four weeks. Young replaces David Woods, a Delaware County Republican who served on the Convention Center and Septa boards and was appointed to the gambling panel by previous Gov. Tom Corbett. Woods' three-year term is expiring.

"Ahmeenah's business acumen, vast experience, and commitment to serving her community make her a natural fit for the Gaming Control Board," Wolf said in a statement. He noted that Young, of Philadelphia, oversaw a $35 million budget and presided over the center during its state-funded $786 million expansion. That was the largest public construction project in the state's history.

Young was paid $267,500 a year in 2013, her last year before SMG, a West Conshohocken-based facilities management firm, was brought in to run the center. She was also given a $460,000, 18-month consulting arrangement with the center, to begin after she stepped down.

Young's departure was followed by the resolution of longstanding union/management issues at the center, with a new labor agreement allowing exhibitors more power to hire their own contracted staff to set up displays.

(Revised)