HVCB chief admits error
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau president and chief executive Tony Vericella has reimbursed the bureau for about $600 in personal expenses, including speeding tickets and in-room hotel movies, that he paid for with state money.
HVCB board chairman Tony Guerrero said Vericella made the repayment after a draft of a state audit revealed the inappropriate use of state money.
"That was the immediate step that was taken," said Guerrero, who is also executive vice president of First Hawaiian Bank's retail banking group. "He gave his mea culpas."
The audit said Vericella used state money to pay for $137 in parking and speeding tickets, $174 for family travel and $359 for in-room movies at hotels.
"Personal expenses — that's not called for, all right?" Guerrero said. "No excuse: He's wrong, wrong on the personal side ... this was a misjudgment."
HVCB is almost entirely financed by state dollars from the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.
Vericella would not verify yesterday that he had reimbursed the money but did not say it was inaccurate.
"Instead of addressing each piece one at a time, we'd rather address the whole thing," Vericella said, reserving comment until after the scheduled release of the final audit today.
In anticipation of the audit, Senate tourism committee chairwoman Donna Mercado Kim called yesterday for a legislative investigation into "questionable spending practices and expenditures." House and Senate tourism committees are holding a joint informational briefing July 11 on the auditor's report to determine if the Legislature should pursue an investigation. Kim said she expects the Hawai'i Tourism Authority to take the first step to rectify the situation.
In addition to inappropriate spending cited in the audit, Kim said other questionable practices include the possible use of tax money for services to the bureau's 2,110 private members and acquisitions of assets that did not show in 1999 tax returns.
Vericella said he wanted the opportunity to address issues raised in the audit at a tourism authority meeting July 16, adding that it would "be very positive if everybody actually allowed that to occur."
Guerrero said he doesn't immediately see a risk to Vericella's job because of the audit, noting that the board is still in the preliminary stages of a review of the draft audit results.
When asked if Vericella could lose his job, Rex Johnson, executive director of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, said, "I don't have any thoughts on that. That's a function of the visitors bureau." The audit blamed the tourism authority, which was created in 1998 to oversee the state's tourism marketing effort, for lax oversight of HVCB.
Guerrero said the 39-member HVCB board takes the audit allegations "very seriously." An executive committee met to discuss the audit and has started an extensive review.
"We have a fiduciary responsibility. But I want to also say that in the last year and a half since I've been chairman, we've taken steps" to bring more decisions to the executive committee of the board, Guerrero said, promising that "corrective action will be taken, and I think the result is going to be a stronger and better HVCB."
He said HVCB will respond to the audit in the next seven to 10 days, and HVCB's board will issue a list of recommendations.
Meanwhile, the tourism authority has enlisted the help of public relations firm Stryker, Weiner & Yokota to guide it through its response to the audit and possibly for development of a long-term communications plan, Johnson said. The firm, whose specialties include crisis management, was founded by Sharon Weiner, an authority board member.
The authority has been criticized for bad public relations and has blamed some of its difficulties on its lack of funding for public relations.
