Archive for January 30th, 2009

I saw this article recently on the Orlando Sentinel site:
We think: Orlando’s tourism bureau needs to open up on spending.

January 29, 2009
 
The folks running Orlando’s tourism bureau have an identity crisis.

They fancy themselves as a mostly private enterprise able to control public information as they would water from a spigot. Yet they don’t mind taking millions of public dollars, which demands a higher standard of accountability.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that conflicts keep surfacing. Those conflicts not only erode public trust, they ratchet up the demand for greater transparency.

Case in point: giving a former top executive an extra year of salary on top of a pre-existing retirement package. The salary perk added as much as $310,000 to an exit package that became worth nearly $750,000 to Bill Peeper, former president of Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Even if the separation package were common for the industry, CVB officials still have a lot of explaining to do.

For starters, the package was never approved by the bureau’s full board of directors. A small group of directors negotiated the deal, as required under the CVB’s bylaws.

That keeps a lot of folks out of the loop, including Orange County commissioners. They’ve entrusted the CVB with millions of public dollars from tourist-tax revenues — almost $100 million over the past two years. “It doesn’t sit well with me,” said Commissioner Bill Segal.

It shouldn’t with anyone else, either. The CVB has been way too secretive about the way it does business, despite a number of dust-ups during the past few months, starting with a business-class ticket to Dubai that cost the agency $9,271.47 — seven times more expensive than a coach ticket. It was only after that story was disclosed in the Sentinel that the CVB agreed to consider changing its travel policy so cheaper tickets could be purchased.

Regarding the deal with Mr. Peeper, a CVB official explained that Mr. Peeper was a “superstar,” and the bureau didn’t want him going to a competitor.

What big secrets did Mr. Pepper hold? Would Central Florida’s tourism industry collapse if Mr. Peeper took a job elsewhere? Why aren’t other executives who leave the bureau — people who are just as likely as Mr. Peeper to know the market’s strengths and weaknesses — rewarded with lucrative noncompete buyouts?

People leave their jobs to work for competitors all the time. The CVB’s paranoia is unjustified, doubly-so because it comes at such a high cost.

The CVB needs to change how it does business, and that means much more openness — about finances, about allowing the public access to its meetings, and about allowing greater scrutiny of executive salaries and severance packages. To wit: The agency has refused to provide details on Mr. Peeper’s retirement package, including the noncompete clause. Why so many secrets?

We hope the Orange County Commission takes steps to find those answers, whether the CVB cares to provide them or not.

People in the tourism business in Pima County can say the same about our CVB.  They love to give their members and the funding municipalities the “dog and pony show” with only the positive things.  As mentioned before, they are not compared with similar markets efforts to attract tourist dollars.  The reason they keep doing this?  Our elected sheep never question them or demand more.  They just sit there, nod and rubberstamp another $4million plus contract.  They are never shown how the money’s spent, even most of their funding comes from taxpayers!

This and many of our other problems(Rio Never, TREO, Downtown Partnership, etc)  is all about NO ACCOUNTABILITY.  Not from the voters and definitely not from our elected officials.  This will only be solved through grassroots business activisim and the deposing of the incumbents by the business community.  Fight the power!(threw that in there for effect)

PS.

While I know that Star’s editorial staff is truly drinking the Kool-Aid.  Maybe the Citizen, as they head towards that big newspaper stand in the sky, could step in and ask some tough questions of these and other overpaid fops.  But I am probably dreaming….