Orlando Sentinel by Gray Rohrer
October 11, 2017
House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s quest for transparency at Visit Orlando and other local tourism marketing groups throughout the state will continue, despite a letter from Visit Orlando on Tuesday disclosing details about a marketing contract that he requested.
“I’ll be satisfied when I feel like they have been completely and utterly transparent with us,” Corcoran said Wednesday. “I do not feel that right now.”
Corcoran has threatened to issue subpoenas to groups that refused to comply with his requests, but he was cryptic when asked how he would get more transparency for Visit Orlando.
“I think there’s a way to get there,” Corcoran said. “They won’t like it, but there’s a way to get there.”
Visit Orlando’s letter said it paid $76,500 to WOFL-Channel 35 to advertise on a traffic and weather camera.
“We are a private membership organization that is not required to research and accommodate every detail requested by media, although we do share more than any other similarly structured destination organization in the state,” reads the letter from Larry Henrichs, chief financial officer of Visit Orlando.
The letter also stated that the deal with Fox was not a conflict of interest, even though an employee of Fox 35 sits on Visit Orlando’s board.
Corcoran disagrees and has said before that any entity receiving “one penny” of taxpayer money should be subject to transparency and disclosure laws. Visit Orlando gets $50 million from bed taxes on hotels. [READ MORE]