Spending without rules

Tourism bureau played loose with cash, audit finds

Broward’s tourism bureau has been spending money like a business traveler with an unrestricted expense account, dispensing hundreds of thousands of tourist tax dollars while ig noring proper county procedures, a county audit says.

The audit of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau was requested in June by the bureau’s new president, former County Commissioner Stacy Ritter, who replaced the retiring Nicki Grossman. Among the audit’s findings: The bureau paid nearly $179,000 to 14 employees in sales commissions over a twoyear period for exceeding goals when it came to booking hotel room nights, but auditors could not match the figures in the bureau’s database with the ones Grossman used to calculate the commissions.

Grossman approved sponsorships and incentives to various organizations but did not have county authorization to do so.

The bureau relied on vendors registered on its Sunny.org site when seeking bids instead of using the county’s qualified list for services, which could have led to vendors not being in compliance with the county’s living wage and other requirements.

The bureau paid personal cell phone bills for five office administrators without proper justification, in violation of a county police that required distinguishing between personal and business use of employeeowned cell phones.

County auditors said the Visitors Bureau “had a fundamental lack of controls” over how it did business.

The audit said the Tourist Development Council, the board charged with oversight of the bureau’s spending, did not review how tourist tax dollars were being spent as required by state law, in part because the reports submitted by the bureau to the council “did not contain sufficient and relevant information” to make a determination.

“We had always wanted to have more transparency in terms of the money and the spending,” said Broward Mayor Barbara Sharief, who was a member of the tourist council in 2014 and again this year.

Sharief said, in some areas, Grossman was allowed to use her discretion because there weren’t policies in place. Other times, Sharief said, Grossman interpreted “very loosely” policies that were in place or she relied on “the way things were always done.”

“I think you’re going to see a much better outcome in future audits,” Sharief said.

Grossman attributed much of the concern to growing pains with a successful tourism operation and the difficulty of getting government auditors to “embrace the concept of competitive marketing.” She said a 2014 audit had similar findings.

“I can tell you that we did work with the auditor and attorney offices to create standards by which we expended sponsorship and incentive money. The tourist Development Council approved the purpose — not always the exact amount — for our sponsorships and major incentives,” Grossman said.

As for employee bonuses, Grossman said the bureau was “breaking new ground” for a governmental agency to be giving commissions, but there were rules in place for the bonuses. She isn’t sure why the auditors had trouble tracking them.

County commissioners will review the audit on Tuesday. Commissioners were already aware of some of its findings last year, when they directed the county attorney to draft new policies regarding sponsorships and incentives offered by the bureau. They are expected to vote on those proposals in August.

County administrators agreed with eight of the nine recommendations made by auditors to correct the identified problems. Grossman said she supports the changes as “an evolution of how the [Visitors Bureau] expends its marketing dollars.”

Administrator Bertha Henry said the Tourist Development Council is now reviewing all bureau expenditures. The county has hired a consultant to draft a new sales commission policy and the bureau has stopped reimbursing staff for personal cellphones.

Ritter could not be reached for comment.

Grossman retired in June after 21 years leading the tourism bureau. Prior to that, she had served on the Tourist Development Council and as a county commissioner. Henry picked Ritter, who was a sitting commissioner at the time, to take over for Grossman.

Grossman saw tourist spending increase from a $3 billion economic impact when she took the position to $11.4 billion in 2014. Broward visitors increased from 6.1 million in 1996 to 14.3 million in 2014.