Las Vegas tourism executive Rossi Ralenkotter will get $166K bonus

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter will receive a $166,200 bonus for the work he did in the last fiscal year following a unanimous vote Tuesday of the organization’s board of directors.

The bonus is in addition to a $50,000 annual salary boost to $415,500 which had been approved as part of a two-year $100,000 increase to Ralenkotter’s salary a year ago.

The 40 percent bonus approved by the board is the maximum allowed by policy.

Including benefits and other expense allowances, Ralenkotter’s salary of $721,461 makes him the fifth highest-paid public official in Nevada behind three medical school professors at the University of Nevada, Reno, and former UNLV basketball coach Dave Rice, according to Transparent Nevada, a website ranking public salaries produced by the Nevada Policy Research Institute.

A five-member compensation committee made salary and bonus recommendations to the full board earlier Tuesday.

“We feel the need for Rossi to be recognized as the top CEO in the industry,” compensation committee chairman Chuck Bowling, a Mandalay Bay resort executive, told committee members.

Committee member Lawrence Weekly, a Clark County commissioner who chairs the LVCVA board of directors, said watching Ralenkotter guide the organization’s efforts was like seeing “poetry in motion.”

Ralenkotter was applauded for his work in convincing the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee to offer a positive recommendation for financing a $1.4 billion expansion and improvement program for the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“We were able to answer all of their questions through research-based information,” Ralenkotter said of his and his team’s testimony before the 11-member committee that is expected to formally deliver recommendations to Gov. Brian Sandoval and the Nevada Legislature next month.

Ralenkotter also was credited with successfully negotiating a transfer agreement of Cashman Center to the city of Las Vegas, securing a presidential debate in collaboration with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, developing a China-ready program for the future arrival of Chinese tourists to Las Vegas, and his team’s role in securing 21 new weekly international flights and 140 new weekly domestic flights to Las Vegas.

Ralenkotter is now among the best-paid destination marketing organization directors in the country. A salary survey conducted last year by Mark Olson, former senior vice president of human resources for the authority, found that the top annual salary for the head of a convention and visitors authority was $584,719. Olson did not identify the executive or where he or she worked.

Ralenkotter’s responsibilities include overseeing the city’s marketing efforts as well as management of the Las Vegas Convention Center. In most destinations, those responsibilities are split.

The LVCVA doesn’t conduct national salary surveys every year and didn’t this year.

The board also approved a 7.5 percent raise for LVCVA legal counsel Luke Puschnig, bringing his annual salary to $184,894, and granted him a 25 percent bonus.

The LVCVA board also approved more than $1.3 million in funding for special events and future marketing opportunities.

Among event sponsorships approved by the board were:

■ $100,000 for the World Series of Team Roping Dec. 9-15.

■ $250,000 for the USA Sevens International Rugby Tournament March 3-5.

■ $100,000 for a Dolly Parton concert in Laughlin.

■ $165,000 to market the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open golf tournament Oct. 31 through Nov. 6.

■ $153,600 for the Expo! Expo! Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Anaheim, California, Dec. 6-8.

■ $225,000 for a client marketing event in Washington D.C. Dec. 13.

■ $260,000 for an exhibition at the World Travel Market in London Nov. 7-9.

The board also welcomed back Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman as a director. She replaces Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross on the 14-member board.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta.