Bob Doak, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, is firing back at Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd over comments Boyd made criticizing Chattanooga's taxpayer-funded tourism agency.
Boyd has cited "out of control spending" and "carte blanche" handling of tax revenue at the city's tourism agency, and called for the visitors bureau's payroll and marketing budgets to be slashed by $2 million, according to a news release from Doak.
Doak called the accusations "false," "damaging and deeply offensive to the successful and wholly transparent business we are running."
"It is a dangerous level of misinformation that has the potential to harm the reputation of the Bureau, our city and our region as a whole," Doak wrote in a letter to supporters. "We've seen Chattanooga evolve into a travel destination with a billion-dollar impact on our local economy."