Mammoth Lakes Tourism

Mammoth Lakes Tourism appears to operate with a reasonable degree of transparency. It appears to comply with open meeting requirements under the Brown Act and responded appropriately to the Grand Jury’s Public Records Act request. It has also made appropriate efforts to disseminate information about its operations to the public by means of a public event on April 30, 2014, and VisitMammoth.com. Its leaders acknowledged that the quality of the website is not up to par, and that there are plans to launch a re-vamped website by Thanksgiving 2014. They also acknowledged that more detailed financial information about MLT and its operation is not currently available on the web, but that this will be remedied with the impending launch of MLTIndustryinsider.com. Recommendation: Ensure that a new, user-friendly VisitMammoth.com goes live by Thanksgiving 2014. In addition, ensure that MLTIndustryInsider.com contains sufficient information to allow concerned citizens to make an informed assessment of MLT’s performance, including information on operations, marketing plans, budgets, revenues, expenses, audited financials, Board agendas and minutes, relevant travel statistics and trends, and return on investment. When this website is ready to go live, it should be widely advertised within the Town.

Bookkeeping and accounting services are provided by an independent accounting firm, Porter & O’Dell. Payroll is done by direct deposit, prepared by Porter & O’Dell. For accounts payable, checks are cut every two weeks. The executive director organizes the payables and presents them to MLT’s treasurer (an office held for a one-year term by a member of the Board of Directors) for approval. The treasurer reviews and approves the payments, which are then submitted to Porter & O’Dell. Porter & O’Dell prepares the checks. The executive director is authorized for amounts up to $500. Over that amount, checks must be countersigned by a member of the Board’s Executive Committee (i.e., the chair, vice-chair, secretary or treasurer). Recommendation: None.

In general, MLT employees charge business-related travel and meal expenses to credit cards for which they are personally responsible. They then recover their costs by submitting claims for reimbursement. The only exception is the executive director, who instead uses a credit card billed directly to MLT. This credit card is also used by other MLT employees, with the executive director’s permission, for MLT’s general business expenses, such as advertising and office supplies. The executive director is responsible for turning over credit card receipts for this account, including his travel/entertainment expenses, to Porter & O’Dell, which uses them to reconcile and pay the periodic credit card statement. Recommendation: The Grand Jury reviewed the executive director’s expenses as 32 charged on the MLT credit card and found them appropriate, even fairly modest. In the interest of increased accountability, however, we recommend that the executive director be required to use the same procedure as other employees for travel and entertainment expenses — that is, charge these costs to a separate credit card for which he is personally responsible and then submit expense reimbursement claims.

In reviewing employee expense records, we found the expenses incurred to be reasonable and appropriate. We did note, however, that receipts for business meals/entertainment too frequently failed to identify the business purpose for the expense and the names of the persons who attended. Recommendation: Receipts for meals/entertainment should always identify the business purpose and names of the persons who attended.

Paragraph 3.5.5 of the Agreement requires MLT to provide each of its employees with a copy of the Town’s Fraud Policy. MLT is then required to provide the Town with a signed statement by each employee certifying that they have received and read it. As of May 2, 2013, MLT had not complied with this provision. Recommendation: MLT should immediately comply with Paragraph 3.5.5 of the Agreement. The Mono County Grand Jury closed the investigation of this matter on _________, 2014. 33