Steve Hill, new president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority who also chairs the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, visits with the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Editorial Board.
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Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Rossi Ralenkotter… has been under fire for using taxpayer-funded gift cards for personal trips. The Las Vegas Review-Journal found during some of those trips… Ralenkotter didn’t take vacation time as authority policy requires. Board Member John Lee called for an audit of the missing time. But Ralenkotter said he isn’t planning to cash out any time he accrued.
CEO Rossi Ralenkotter is the third-highest-paid public official in the state He has a pay and benefits package valued at $863,000 annually. Ralenkotter does not have an employment contract He announced his retirement in mid June, amid a scandal over airline gift cards LVCVA bought $90,000 in Southwest Airline gift cards between 2012 and 2017. Now auditors can’t account for more than $50,000 of the cards. Ralenkotter and his family used $16,207 in gift cards on 56 trips. Brig Lawson, the senior director of business partnerships, was responsible for buying and distributing the cards. He recently resigned. Ralenkotter’s retirement settlement package could cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority member Bill Noonan discusses the agency’s external audit that will rein in gifts and travel costs.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Board approved a series of recommendations Tuesday to curb employee misuse of airline gift cards. An audit in April found that CEO Rossi Ralenkotter used $17,152 in airline cards for personal travel for himself and his family. The Las Vegas Review-Journal had requested employee gift and travel records months before the gift card disclosure in 2017, but the authority did not provide any records of the airline cards. It maintains there was no process in place at the time to track the use of the cards. Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly used $699 in airline cards for a trip with his daughter. Bill Noonan, a senior vice president at Boyd Gaming, who ordered the review of policies: “We’re not done. There could easily be more.” The recommendations approved Tuesday included storing the cards under lock and key and requiring written approval of any gift card requests and recording receipts.