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Swain chamber, TDA finances called into question Board appoints Mary Anne Baker as director BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR wain County commissioners are going to be giving more consideration to who they appoint to county boards after hearing a long list of grievances from a member of the Tourism Development Authority. Ed Ciociola, treasurer for the Swain County Tourism Development Authority, recently told county commissioners that something needs to change in the longstanding ties between the county’s chamber of commerce and the TDA. Since taking over as the TDA board treasurer last year, he said he and other board members have found a number of “grave discrepancies” while reviewing the budget and expense reports from the chamber of commerce. After becoming treasurer, Ciociola said he took part in meetings with TDA auditors who made it clear the chamber and TDA accounts were “too intertwined” and said the separate entities should keep their finances separate even though the two have shared office space and staff in the past. The TDA is a quasi-governmental agency that is tasked with spending room tax revenue to
June 17-23, 2020
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promote tourism while the Downtown Bryson City. SMN photo chamber of commerce is a private nonprofit that supports its paying business members. However, he said some of the board members have not been open to the suggestion and unwelcoming of newer board members trying to understand the processes. He added that often it’s the same people rotating back and forth from the chamber board to the TDA board who are accustomed to the arrangement and don’t appreciate it being questioned. “It seems like most people don’t know much about the TDA — what we do or how we are funded. There’s no training sessions for new He said these alleged discrepancies can (board) members and there’s a big learning be found in the monthly billings and discurve. Questions from new members have bursement requests the TDA receives from been met with condescending replies,” the chamber each month, and the more he Ciociola said. “I would ask, ‘Why is the looked into the reports, the more problems chamber paying our bills and getting reimhe found. As a volunteer board member, bursed? Why can’t we just pay our bills Ciociola said it became clear it was too much directly? Responses typically fall into a simito correct on his own and sought assistance lar theme, ‘that’s the way we have always from TDA staff and the county’s finance done it.’”
director. “There’s so many different ways the TDA is being incorrectly billed through the chamber,” he said. “The chamber bills the TDA for chamber expenses and since it’s lumped into a large request, it’s so hard to spot.” Ciociola claimed the chamber payroll account, which is entirely funded by the TDA, had a $22,000 surplus
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