Marsha Wienert, who has been Gov. Linda Lingle's cabinet-level tourism czar since July 1, stepped into the job to work as a "consensus builder" between departments affecting tourism.

"Little did I know that I was going to be thrown into the fire immediately," Wienert said at a luncheon of the Travel and Tourism Research Association yesterday.

One of her original objectives was to work closely with the tourism authority, but "we didn't anticipate the concerns and the issues that would be brought out in the audit."

It was on Wienert's first day on the job that state auditor Marion Higa officially released her report on the tourism authority's contract with HVCB, saying "inadequate oversight by the authority provided HVCB with a blank check to spend state funds for self-serving purposes."

Several days later, Wienert went to Japan on the governor's mission and has been swept up in the controversy over the HVCB's use of state funds to pay for travel expenses of television station KITV, which later decided to pay for the Japan trip on its own.

Wienert, who was executive director of the Maui Visitors Bureau until this month, told legislators at a joint tourism committee briefing that in discussions about KITV's trip, she had said i "with my previous hat on from MVB" i that HVCB could help KITV with its expenses.

In her first month as tourism liaison, Wienert said her priorities have evolved very quickly.

Now, one of her top issues is to "identify legitimate concerns raised in the audit" and work with tourism authority executive director Rex Johnson to improve oversight.

Wienert called HVCB "the marketing arm that implements the plans for the state of Hawai'i."

But HVCB's role as Hawai'i's primary tourism marketer has been threatened by competition for the state marketing contract awarded by the tourism authority.

Lingle has said it is likely HVCB will not get the entire contract, which takes effect Jan. 1.

Wienert sits on the tourism authority's board as the representative from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and has said she plans to ask the attorney general's office for an opinion on her role.

She said she is not sure whether she will vote to select the new contract winner or winners because of her former role with the Maui Visitors Bureau, an arm of the HVCB.

Wienert is also charged with overseeing reforms in the state's tourism efforts aimed at correcting problems that came to light in Lingle's tourism summits.

In the first closed-door summit session, "the discussions that happened in that room were open, honest and sometimes brutal," and could not have happened if they were open to the public, Wienert said.

She said out of the discussions came one of the administration's goals, which is to remove the caps and conditions placed on the tourism funds that go to the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.