Mobile
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Boomer with Attitude / News Something's rotten at the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 3:59 PM
Haven’t we seen this movie before? First scene: Someone notices that something fishy is going on at the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. Second scene: Members of City Council don’t like whatever has been found and say so publicly, threatening to make an even bigger noise next time. So here we go again. The CRVA’s CEO, Tim Newman, he of the taxpayer-funded $300K+ salary, admits that he OK’d and delivered $100K in bonus money over four years to Ereka Crawford-Brim, the CRVA official who handles logistics for the annual CIAA tournament. The big problem here is that the bonus money came from the CIAA, as was revealed by the Observer.
The other part of the problem is that CRVA has an ethics policy that says employees cannot accept cash or gifts from outside the CRVA. Not to worry, though. Newman — who, as CEO, could reasonably be expected to value and enforce his organization’s ethics policy — instead, figured out a way to weasel the money to Crawford-Brim despite the policy: He asked the CIAA to pay the bonus money to CRVA, which then turned around and cut a check for Crawford-Brim. That makes it OK, says Newman, because at that point the payments were “salary” and not gifts. If that sounds to you like the kind of excuse a kid would make up to justify having done something wrong, you’re not the only one. Newman’s “reasoning” in this case is just flagrant weasel-ism, the type of “let it slide,” wink-and-a-nudge justification for ethical misconduct that is way too common among Uptown’s suits.
Newman has been a source of problems and embarrassment for CRVA before — not telling the board he was sleeping with a CRVA employee until he was confronted with it, and admitting to lying about potential revenue in order to land the Hall of Fame, for starters — so the revelation that he found a roundabout way for one of his own employees to violate CRVA policy is, sadly, no big surprise.
The real question, as we have asked before, is this: How does this guy keep his job? The answer to that is as complicated as it is puzzling. Part of the answer is that no one around Newman seems to have very good ethical judgment, either. Take City Councilman (and former CRVA board member) Warren Cooksey who, in a breathtaking display of weasel logic, told the daily paper, "If the CEO knows about it, and the board knows about it, it's OK. The whole point of the ethics policy is for employees not to be doing deals in secret."
No, Warren, the whole point of the ethics policy is that everyone in CRVA is expected to abide by it. Cooksey’s argument is like someone who’s been ticketed for running a stop sign saying, “It’s OK — I didn’t hit anyone, and since the whole point of stop signs is to avoid wrecks, it doesn’t matter that I ran the sign.”
The way the Uptown boosters operate, including having a councilman defending their unethical acts, is oily and repulsive. Are these guys for real? Are they so used to being treated like bigshots that they think these lame-ass excuses are convincing? Or are they just cynical opportunists who don’t give a flying damn what anybody else thinks? You tell me, 'cause I’d like to know.
I’d also like to know why City Council is so timid about cleaning up the CRVA’s act. I know Newman is a favorite of Uptown businesses, but if he continues to be an embarrassment, that support could dry up. In any case, the CRVA board needs to do the cleaning itself, but if they won’t, then the city needs to step in and replace the board. It’s long past time for Newman to go, but at this point it’s hard to find someone in charge at city hall who will clearly condemn his weasel actions, much less call for his head. HEY, CITY COUNCIL! How about lighting a fire under the asses of CRVA’s board to take care of Newman? Believe it or not, there are people, i.e. voters, who are watching.
And here’s one more question to take away today: If the CIAA’s coffers are so flush that they can hand out $100K in bonuses, why in hell do they need $400K from the city and county each year?
Speaking of...
Comments (5)
Showing 1-5 of 5
Latest in The CLog
More by John Grooms
-
Question the Queen City: Charlottetown Mall and its nearly forgotten time capsule
A child's coffin contained relics of the past that stood neither the test of time nor the elements
-
Today's Top 5: Wednesday
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today.
-
Question the Queen City: The unsolved death of Delette Nycum 2
The trial that followed was nothing short of a Charlotte version of the O.J. Simpson spectacle.
