Foxx blasts CRVA over report

Mayor Anthony Foxx today said he is not pleased with a Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority report based on a consultant’s review.

In April, the CRVA board hired PricewaterhouseCoopers for $25,000 after criticism arose over Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association bonuses paid to a CRVA staff member.

CRVA spokespeople could not be immediately reached for comment this afternoon, but according to a Charlotte Observer story, the CRVA said it had no written report from PricewaterhouseCoppers. The CRVA only released a 2 1/2 page summary, which CRVA spokeswoman Molly Hedrick said was written by CRVA board member Geoff Durboraw, the Observer story says.

In a statement, Foxx blasted the CRVA’s summary:

“The mission of the CRVA is incredibly important to the city’s economy, and no one wants to see the hospitality and tourism industry succeed more than I do,” he said. “Having said that, I am disappointed in the CRVA’s report summary which raises more questions than it answers. The ‘summary’ infers challenges with CRVA staff controls and board oversight. I realize in the course of reviewing an organization’s operations there are sometimes warts, but at $12,500 a page I would have expected more detail and I think the citizens of Charlotte share that expectation.”

The Observer said that when it asked Hedrick the written copy of the Pricewaterhouse report given to the board she said there is no written report and the consultant only gave a verbal summary to the board, which Durboraw summarized.