http://66.225.205.104/LM20101213.mp3
Charlotte City Council will decide tonight whether to take a closer look at the operations of a handful of large groups it helps fund including the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority and Charlotte Center City Partners. The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority has been taken to task lately for missing the mark on its visitor projections for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Then, last month media reported on the compensation of chief executives at the CRVA, Charlotte Regional Partnership, and Charlotte Center City Partners. They all make more than $285,000 a year with salary and other benefits. That raises some questions for city council member Michael Barnes. "We want all these organizations to function well, but we don't want people to treat them like piggy banks," says Barnes. Barnes wants the city council to take a closer look at how these groups make projections and compensate employees. "If we work on it as a committee we'll discover what's behind those numbers to see if we're getting what we believe we are supposed to get," says Barnes. The city funds those groups with a combination of money from the general fund, hotel-motel taxes, and special property tax levied on businesses and residents around uptown.