The county auditor's office has told County Commissioner Tim Boyd that, due to a state law, he cannot show others an "inch-thick" packet of information he was provided about spending at the Chattanooga Visitors Center.
Auditor Jenneth Randall said the law limits the release of information from the office to only official audit reports.
She said no "working papers" can be handed out to the news media or others.
Chris McCullough, audit director in the office, said, "He (Commissioner Boyd) would not be allowed to share the information. That's my understanding. We do not pass these out to the public."
Commissioner Boyd said the audit of the CVB that was handed out to commissioners last week was significantly watered down from an earlier draft that found the CVB not in compliance on certain requirements, including not making regular reports to the commission as required under the 2007 commission resolution. He said he has the early draft, but was told he also could not share it with others.
He said it was apparently felt that there were "some heavy hitters" involved with activities and programs at the CVB and that was why the final version was not stronger.
At the same time, the Visitors Bureau, whose income from the hotel/motel tax has been climbing at a steep pace, is not subject to the Tennessee Open Records Act because it is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization.
Though most of the CVB income comes from the county through the Hotel/Motel tax, news reporters cannot use the Open Records Act to look into details of the agency's spending.
In response to several requests from Chattanoogan.com, CVB President Bob Doak on Friday said the agency is preparing some information for release about its spending.
State Senator Todd Gardenhire said he is working on a way to get "very detailed information" about outgo at the CVB.
He and Rep. JoAnne Favors have filed a bill that would require the Tennessee Comptroller's Office to do audits of the agency, whose annual budget has grown to more than $8.4 million.
Senator Gardenhire said his effort "is not connected with anything Commissioner Boyd is doing."
He said he noted that the agency "was throwing lavish, very expensive parties and dinners" and he said he began to want to get some answers on its spending practices.
Senator Gardenhire said if the bill passes that the comptroller would be carrying out audits that include details of spending on travel, credit cards, office furnishings, etc. He said those would be available to the public and the news media without restriction.
Commissioner Boyd, who was provided data on CVB spending for 2013/14, said he found some examples of spending "that were incredible to me."
He said one employee ran up a travel bill of over $8,900 in one month.
Total travel spending "was about $25,000 a month on a consistent basis," he said.
Commissioner Boyd said the statute that puts strict limits on information that can come from auditor offices "is a bad law." He said, "These offices ought to be shining a light on exactly what is going on in these agencies that get money from the government."
He said, "The Visitors Bureau is spending millions of dollars with very little accountability other than a volunteer board, and their records ought to be open for anyone to inspect."
Stan Sewell, city internal auditor, said he was aware of the law cited by Ms. Randall on "working papers." However, he said it does not limit the release of much detailed spending data about various offices that his office turns up.
He said about the only time it comes into effect is to protect "a whistle blower" who comes forward on condition of remaining anonymous.
Mr. Sewell also said that it was his opinion that when the information was released by the county auditor's office to Commissioner Boyd that it was "fair game" for passing on to others.