Defenders of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority protest too much

I find the spin the bosses at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority put on the Review-Journal’s article about questionable spending quite interesting (“LVCVA executives rebut RJ story on agency spending,” Wednesday). They point to the article as attacking the mission or the organization. I certainly didn’t read that into the article. I believe the purpose was to point out flaws that can be corrected.

They also point to the success of the organization as a defense to the points the article made. Whenever vast sums of public money are spent, abuses are possible — I would argue likely. The authority is no more immune to this than any other public organization.

The authority is arguably the world’s best at what it does. No one doubts the organization’s success. However, success does not excuse abuse. Rather than try to defend the indefensible, those in authority should be trying to correct problems and make the organization better and more efficient. Isn’t that what bosses are supposed to do?