Isn't the TDC managed by the TDC? It's a council -- the membership of the TDC is spelled out in statute, and there is a position on the Council designated to be filled by a county commissioner. The Tourist Development Council is a committee, and they hire an Executive Director to oversee day to day operations. However, the council members are responsible for the TDC operations by statute.
It seems like there has been a witch hunt at the TDC. I know a few members of the board have been removed. The whole "scandal" about Sonny Mares using a black taxi to go from the airport to his hotel in London (one would presume he had bags and didn't know his way around London) and had a $500 dinner at Seagar's while entertaining a consultant to has brought hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding to the county. Was there a policy and procedure in place limiting entertainment expenses? It seems a bit unfair to scream "gotcha!" when there has been no policy in place.
There seems to be a huge double standard between public and private money. I recently had a discussion with a conservative friend who claimed to be scandalized by the $500 dinner at Saegar's, but untroubled by FRP Chair John Thrasher's $20,000 bill at a London hotel that was put on a junior staffer's credit card because that was "private money." Well, the Chamber is a private entity as well. Are Dawn Moliterno's expenses going to be audited as well? What policy and procedure is being used by Carr, Riggs and Ingram to determine which expenditures are suspicious? Will they be going back to look at Chris Titus' expenses to verify this was not standard procedure for the TDC to entertain out of town consultants? I think this would be particularly important if there are no specific p&p's regarding reimbursable expenses.
Back during the blue sign hubbaloo, it was easy to find a list of TDC members and their budget through a quick google search. Now, I'm not able to find numbers (or even my post from the spring of 2008 on this forum) for the budget or membership. I remember the tourist tax generating about $12 million dollars. That's a pretty substantial budget to entrust to a private, non-elected entity. And given the position on the Airport board, it might be a bit too much of a concentration of power.
It seems like there has been a witch hunt at the TDC. I know a few members of the board have been removed. The whole "scandal" about Sonny Mares using a black taxi to go from the airport to his hotel in London (one would presume he had bags and didn't know his way around London) and had a $500 dinner at Seagar's while entertaining a consultant to has brought hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding to the county. Was there a policy and procedure in place limiting entertainment expenses? It seems a bit unfair to scream "gotcha!" when there has been no policy in place.
There seems to be a huge double standard between public and private money. I recently had a discussion with a conservative friend who claimed to be scandalized by the $500 dinner at Saegar's, but untroubled by FRP Chair John Thrasher's $20,000 bill at a London hotel that was put on a junior staffer's credit card because that was "private money." Well, the Chamber is a private entity as well. Are Dawn Moliterno's expenses going to be audited as well? What policy and procedure is being used by Carr, Riggs and Ingram to determine which expenditures are suspicious? Will they be going back to look at Chris Titus' expenses to verify this was not standard procedure for the TDC to entertain out of town consultants? I think this would be particularly important if there are no specific p&p's regarding reimbursable expenses.
Back during the blue sign hubbaloo, it was easy to find a list of TDC members and their budget through a quick google search. Now, I'm not able to find numbers (or even my post from the spring of 2008 on this forum) for the budget or membership. I remember the tourist tax generating about $12 million dollars. That's a pretty substantial budget to entrust to a private, non-elected entity. And given the position on the Airport board, it might be a bit too much of a concentration of power.