New financial documents show that the Space Coast Office of Tourism spent more than $400,000 of tax money on a surf competition at Sebastian Inlet State Park, far more than previously cited.
Largely because of that, the office’s new executive director, Peter Cranis, said he will recommend that the agency no longer directly oversee events such as the Florida Pro Surf competition and a companion music festival.
“I don’t believe we should be in the business of producing events,” Cranis said.
Cranis said the office’s marketing director, who oversaw the events, is resigning to pursue other interests.
Cranis joined the Office of Tourism staff on March 4, and was not at the agency when the spending took place.
A newly released financial spreadsheet indicates that the Office of Tourism allocated nearly $422,000 to the account that paid for projects related to the surf competition and music festival. The money came from Brevard County’s 5 percent Tourist Development Tax on hotel rooms and other short-term rentals.
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The $422,000 far exceeds what the office previously said was spent on the surf competition:
• On Feb. 27, Office of Tourism Marketing Director Tiffany Minton told members of the advisory Tourist Development Council that the agency spent about $280,000 for event costs and marketing.
• On March 5, she sent a follow-up email to Tourist Development Council Chairman Tim Deratany, indicating that $259,557 was spent on event support and marketing for the two events, plus approximately $75,000 for production of video and other materials related to the event. That total equals $334,557.
• On Friday — a day after FLORIDA TODAY made an additional inquiry to Minton about the spending — Cranis provided a spreadsheet indicating that $421,991 was allocated to the account tied to the Florida Pro event.
Highlights from the 2019 Florida Pro surf contests at Sebastian Inlet Space Coast Office of Tourism, Florida Today
Cranis, however, said that some of the expenses on that spreadsheet may have been for multiple projects, not just the Florida Pro event, and they were “miscoded” to indicate all the money was spent on the Florida Pro event.
Additionally, Cranis said some of the Office of Tourism spending for the Florida Pro Music Fest, held Jan. 19 in Cocoa Beach, might have been entered into the county’s financial system under a different event code, meaning the total spending could have been even higher.
Also not financially accounted for in the spreadsheet, Cranis said, was the cost of the staff time for Minton and other Office of Tourism employees involved in coordinating the events — time they could have spent doing other projects.
“I think they spent a lot of time in the event production,” Cranis said. “I feel the marketing team should be focused on marketing” the Space Coast to tourists, “and not event production.”
Separately, Cranis said Minton told him on Friday that she would be resigning from her job as Office of Tourism marketing director because she was interested in pursuing other job opportunities.
Both Cranis and Tourist Development Council Chairman Tim Deratany on Monday said they were concerned about the amount the Office of Tourism spent on the event.
“It’s just unbelievable that that much was spent on something very few people attended — and it has to stop,” Deratany said. “It’s very, very frustrating to me to have something like that happening.”
Cranis said his “trying to dig a little deeper” into how the spending reached the level it did.
“Obviously, these numbers don’t add up,” compared with what originally was expected to be spent on the event, Cranis said. “Obviously, I have a lot of questions. I really don’t know what the final number is going to be” on spending for the event, until he examines the data in greater detail.
Deratany said, after discussing the issue with Cranis, he is confident that Cranis is “going to take the bull by the horns,” and more closely examine how the spending escalated.
Mitch Varnes, owner of Smooth Running, a Melbourne-based firm that promotes surfing, running and triathlon events, was the event director for the Florida Pro surfing event in 2018, but was replaced for the 2019 event.
Varnes says he also has concerns about the level of spending, and “started raising red flags” about that to some TDC members during the last several months.
“I think it goes beyond incompetence” to spend so much money, yet have crowds of spectators that did not match the crowds at surfing events held elsewhere, such as Cocoa Beach, said Varnes, who is a former member of the Tourist Development Council’s Beach Improvement Committee.
Minton said 9,051 visitors came to the north side of Sebastian Inlet State Park, located at the south end of Brevard County, from Jan. 13-18, in conjunction with the Florida Pro Surf competition. The World Surf League Qualifying Series event attracted a total of 152 male and female competitors.
In comparison, Varnes said, the seventh-annual Ron Jon Beach ‘N Boards Fest, held March 14-17 in Cocoa Beach, drew an estimate 50,000 spectators. Varnes was event director of the Beach ‘N Boards Fest.
But Tourist Development Council member and hotel owner Bob Baugher said at that TDC’s Feb. 27 meeting that sponsoring an event like the Florida Pro Surf helps reinforce the Space Coast as a center for surfing on the East Coast. Baugher also owns the Cocoa Beach Surf Co. retail complex and is the former president of the Cocoa Beach-based Ron Jon Surf Shop.
Dave Berman is government editor at FLORIDA TODAY.
Contact Berman at 321-242-3649
or dberman@floridatoday.com.
Twitter: @bydaveberman
Facebook: /dave.berman.54
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