The governor has handed a to-do list of what he has in mind to the center's 15-member governing board, detailing how the state should have a say on personnel, marketing and contracting decisions - matters that some board members believe would usurp the board's authority altogether.
In addition, a secret study done for the governor's former chief of staff, warning about the ever-competitive national convention market, suddenly found its way to reporters last week - though it was completed in March.
Both actions, coming a month after dozens of local officials gathered to watch a wrecking ball tear into a building on the expansion site, have created a quiet political fury about what Rendell really wants.
Knowing what hangs in the balance - the $700 million expansion itself - board members, tourism officials and even Rendell's advisers busied themselves doing damage control Friday.
"We respect the autonomy of the Convention Center and its board," state Budget Secretary Michael Masch said. "Nobody is dictating anything to anybody."
Convention Center Authority board chairman Buck Riley said, "I'm totally comfortable that the center is not going to be a drain on the taxpayers of the city or state."
As the feud spills over into the public sphere, it serves as a reminder that politics at the 14-year-old center remain as big as the building itself.
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) said he was "very disappointed" to learn that while the General Assembly was debating the expansion funding, Rendell had withheld a study that painted a more pessimistic picture than city, state or convention officials had previously offered of the positive economic effect of expansion.
