Anaheim city council members are stepping up scrutiny of the city’s tourism bureau, Visit Anaheim, after a scathing state audit report found lax regulations on tourist tax spending.
California Comptroller Grant Parks found in a report earlier this year that Visit Anaheim had passed on tourism funds, a voluntary hotel tax intended to fund the tourism bureau, to the Chamber of Commerce, which in turn engaged in improper lobbying of politicians.
[Read: CA Auditors Lambast Anaheim’s Tourism Bureau, Find Improper Tax Dollar Spending]
“The Chamber then used tourism district assessment funds for improper services, including advocating for or against proposed federal, state and local legislation, meeting with elected officials and policymakers, and supporting resort-friendly candidates through the Chamber’s political action committee,” the audit report states.
“The city had no meaningful process for oversight of the contracts, allowing the Anaheim Convention and Visitors Bureau to make payments to the Chamber of Commerce for improper services involving political advocacy and influence,” the auditors wrote. “We also found that the city had no substantial oversight or oversight of these or other contracts.”
City officials say the tourist tax will be used to promote the city and attract bookings for the convention center.
What kind of monitoring will be done?
City council members, most of whom campaigned with the backing of the resort industry, are creating an advisory committee to get a better handle on how to spend tourism tax money.
“Every year, Visit Anaheim is our contracting agency and they put together a report to discuss how the funds are being spent and how they were spent the previous year,” said Vice Mayor Greg Garcia during Tuesday’s meeting. “This committee is just another layer of oversight to review those plans and make recommendations.”
Some council members expressed concern about current Visit Anaheim board members serving on the newly created advisory committee.
“Right now it’s very loosely structured and it seems like it’s just mirroring the current board, and that’s problematic, especially at a time when the state audit is directing us to increase oversight,” City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcaba said during Tuesday’s meeting.
No City Council member raised issues with Visit Anaheim improperly spending tourism funds detailed in a state audit that auditors rejected last year.
[Read: Anaheim Officials Refuse To Audit Tourism Bureau’s Alleged Illegal Diversion of COVID Funds ]
And no one addressed the independent investigators’ allegations that the tourism board diverted $1.5 million of the city’s $6.5 million bailout money to a Chamber of Commerce-controlled nonprofit.
The move to increase oversight has sparked a rare public divide among City Council members who support the resort.
“This has worked very well for years, and all of a sudden the state has made this recommendation that I don’t agree with. The government is trying to take away something that has worked very well for years,” said City Councilman Jose Diaz. “It’s very unpleasant. It feels very bureaucratic.”
City Council Member Natalie Meeks, who ultimately voted in favor of the measure, echoed some of those concerns.
“I agree with Rep. Diaz that this is another layer of government that we probably don’t need,” Meeks said. “I’m not even sure there are a lot of hoteliers who would want to be on the committee because we wouldn’t be able to make any fun decisions.”
Diaz, Meeks and Rubalcaba all received significant funding for their city council elections from interests in the Disneyland Resort area.
[Read: Will Mickey Mouse Continue to Cast a Big Shadow Over Anaheim’s Election Campaigns?]
City council members voted 6-1 Tuesday night to create the new advisory committee.
Diaz unsuccessfully sought an extension to allow staff to further consult with hoteliers, and voted against.
The seven-person advisory committee will be made up of two hoteliers, a representative from the Anaheim Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mayor Jim Vanderpool and three other city officials.
Rubalcaba also expressed concern over allowing the Anaheim Convention and Visitors Bureau to recommend members for the advisory committee.
“From a transparency standpoint, it doesn’t seem to me that this is working,” Rubalcaba said, adding: “For this board to be a true board, we should be the ones recommending who serves on it.”
Her proposal to have city officials recommend hoteliers to serve on the advisory committee received no support, but a majority of her colleagues agreed to bar hoteliers currently serving on the Anaheim Convention and Visitors Bureau board from serving on the city’s new advisory committee.
“I think Councilman Rubalcaba makes a good point,” Mayor Ashley Aitken said. “If you’re a member of the contracting body’s board (Anaheim Convention and Visitors Bureau) and you’re also a member of this board, it seems to me that you’re asking for oversight of the actions that you take.”
City Councilman Carlos Leon successfully lobbied his fellow council members to ensure that advisory committees, which must meet in public under state transparency laws, submit meeting minutes and reports to the City Council.
“I think just having more transparency and more information would be helpful,” Leon said.
Editor’s note: Ashley Aitken’s father, Wiley Aitken, serves as chairman of the board of directors for Voice of OC.
Spencer Custodio is Citizen Editor. Contact him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter. Spencer Custodio.
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