Nine years ago this month, the agency then called the Chattanooga Convention & Visitors Bureau was questioned about its lack of oversight and lavish spending habits by then-Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd.
A state audit, which grew out of that concern, reported later that year that the tourism bureau had not kept detailed receipts, hadn’t made written reports to the Hamilton County Commission and didn’t document how the gift cards it received from local businesses were used.
State comptroller Justin P. Wilson flatly said the agency needed to be transparent about how it handled the tax dollars it received.
The bureau’s then-president retired at the end of the year, a nationwide search was launched for his replacement and, in time, the bureau’s name was changed to the Chattanooga Tourism Co.
Three years ago, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, in his budget proposal, requested that hotel-motel tax funding for the tourism company be kept the same as it was the year before — $10.4 million — in the fiscal 2024 budget. Previously, the agency had received 100% of the hotel-motel funds.