CRVA Contract Contortions
The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority’s two top chief executives will be performing their high-flying, tourism-attracting circus act without a safety net for the immediate future.
“We wanted to let everyone know that the CRVA Board has decided that with the expiration of their contracts at the end of June, Tim Newman and Mike Crum will continue in their current leadership roles without contracts,” CRVA board chairman Joe Hallow and vice chair Vinay Patel informed this week in a letter to Mayor Anthony Foxx and members of the City Council. “This decision was reached after considerable discussion concerning both immediate issues and longer term strategic direction for the CRVA.”
“The Executive Committee and Board are working closely with Tim and Mike to deliver on the commitments outlined in the Operational Improvement Plan that we shared with you on June 27,” the letter concludes. “Our goal is to demonstrate substantive progress before you meet again so that you can have the confidence needed to release funding for Visit Charlotte.”
The council last month voted 8-3 to withhold nearly 75 percent of the $10 million funding requested for the CRVA, until the tourism-booster group produces a promised overhaul of its operational guidelines. The CRVA, which has come under fire of late for excessive spending and handing out questionable bonus payments to a staff member, says it will have a plan for moving forward crafted by later this month, when the council is slated to revisit the CRVA funding issue.
It borders on surreal to find myself defending Newman and his $300K-a-year pay package, but here goes: Newman is doing exactly what he was hired to do, exactly what the uptown lunch bunch wants him to do, and exactly what councilmembers and the mayor have encouraged him to do. Which is to spend exorbitant sums of taxpayer loot to lure conventions to the Queen City and sprinkle uptown with new baubles and beads at every turn. And, yes, shocker, that often entails lubing powerbrokers, business executives, and even elected officials, with lavish gifts, pricey meals and drink. By all accounts, the CRVA and its $10 million a year budget, under Newman’s leadership, has been successful in that regard.
Want juiced-up attendance projections to land a racing museum, as the city council and mayor craved; Newman’s your man. Want a study to show the positive economic impact of a multi-million-dollar log flume ride or some other slick Queen City attraction; Newman knows where to find one, or two, or three, or however damn many you need. Want to create a government-controlled monopoly of cab companies servicing the airport and spruce up their fleets in advance of DNC 2012; Newman will help drive the initiative over any bumps. Want to score a hip basketball tourney that gives freebie luxury box tickets to elected officials; Newman not only will get the job done, but also act as your personal bagman to launder the perks.
Councilmembers and mayors – past and present – know all of this. It’s beyond hypocrisy for some of them to suddenly find it all so appalling and in dire need of fix.
It is, of course, both. But threatening to withhold CRVA funding until a revamp of its operational plans is forthcoming will accomplish little, save attracting some self-congratulatory praise for elected officials who like to beat their chests for a change to the status quo while embracing its benefits and outcomes.
If the mayor and councilmembers are sincere in their wont to change the culture and operations of the CRVA, they should cut the pretense of being shocked and outraged by the means and methods Newman & Co. use to accomplish the goals those same elected officials endorse – sell Charlotte, attract pricey new trinkets for uptown, whatever the cost – and let the CRVA operate as a private business without the crutch of taxpayer funding and any incestuous ties to the government power structure that helps drive its mission.
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