{"id":56296,"date":"2017-08-09T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=56296"},"modified":"2017-08-09T11:18:05","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T18:18:05","slug":"las-vegas-convention-and-visitors-authority-ceo-gets-208000-bonus-six-percent-raise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-convention-and-visitors-authority-ceo-gets-208000-bonus-six-percent-raise\/","title":{"rendered":"LVCVA Boss Gets Hefty Bonus Plus Salary Hike, As Las Vegas Tourism Agency Brings in Auditing Firm to Justify Expenses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) CEO Rossi Ralenkotter has received a six percent salary increase and one-time 50 percent salary bonus of $208,000, after the governmental agency’s board unanimously approved the performance-based rewards.<\/p>\n

\"Lawrence
LVCVA Chairman Lawrence Weekly (seen here in 2016 flanked by some the showgirls the organization shelled out $85K for over three years) has defended his group’s extravagant spending practices. (Image: news3lv.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But not everyone is happy about the payments, and some legal experts are questioning whether the compensation process violated the state’s open-meeting law.<\/p>\n

LVCVA Compensation Committee Chairman Chuck Bowling, whose day job is being president and COO of Mandalay Bay, announced the benefits in an emailed statement. However, there was little-to-no explanation regarding how the board arrived at such its determinations.<\/p>\n

Nevada Press Association Barry Smith told the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/i>, “There’s no reason not to have that discussion in the open meeting. That’s the whole purpose behind the [open meeting] statute.”<\/p>\n

\n

The LVCVA\u00a0<\/i>is at the center of recent public criticism after the Review-<\/em>Journal<\/i>\u00a0published a series of stories<\/a> on the agency’s extravagant wining and dining practices, which included $700,000 on alcohol and $85,000 on showgirls over the past three years. Do the math:\u00a0it comes out to about 15,555 shots per year at $15 a shot, and unless they commissioned some private performances of “Jubilee,” we’re a bit lost on what $85K worth of 5’10” leggy beauties would get them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The LVCVA is funded through a hotel room tax on all stays in Clark County.<\/p>\n

Guaranteed Perks<\/b><\/h2>\n

It seems the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority<\/a> knew that Ralenkotter’s bonus and salary bump might cause some media pushback. In a statement, Bowling said the CEO “deserves every penny,” and that his performance record “speaks for itself.”<\/p>\n

Ralenkotter’s new base salary will be roughly $440,000 per year, but the “one-time” 50 percent salary bonuses are certainly not out of the norm. In fact, the LVCVA boss can pretty much count on them, historically speaking. From 2016 back to 2014, he’s collected a bonus each year, from $166,200 last year to $127,862 in 2015. In 2014, he earned an extra $147,992, and each time, they were referred to as “one-time” extras.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Transparent Nevada<\/i>, Ralenkotter’s new salary will make him the third-highest paid state employee in Nevada, behind only two surgery professors at UNLV Reno, both of whom make $1 million annually. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval makes less than $150,000 for his services, and state legislators collect just $150 per session day, along with $142 in per diem.<\/p>\n

LVCVA on the Defensive<\/b><\/h2>\n

For those skeptical of the LVCVA’s apparent opulent spending and compensation packages, fear not: the agency is investigating. The authority announced this week that it’s hired accounting firm Piercy Bowler Taylor & Kern to perform a financial review of its own books.<\/p>\n

\n

“Allegations were brought forth, and I want to make sure we’re doing the public’s work and protecting the taxpayers,” North Las Vegas Mayor and LVCVA Policy Committee Chairman John Lee explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Agency Chairman Lawrence Weekly responded in April to the wooing of potential convention leaders with food, entertainment, top-shelf booze, and showgirls, by saying, “You’ve got to give something to get something.”<\/p>\n

“Vegas means business. LVCVA are doing just that. Working to keep us in that #1 spot,” Weekly later tweeted.<\/p>\n

We just want to get on their holiday gift list. Macallan’s “Fine and Rare 1937” looks nice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) CEO Rossi Ralenkotter has received a six percent salary increase and one-time 50 percent salary bonus of $208,000, after the governmental agency’s board unanimously approved the performance-based rewards. But not everyone is happy about the payments, and some legal experts are questioning whether the compensation process violated the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":56326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,10,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLas Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Gets Raise and Bonus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) CEO Rossi Ralenkotter is $208,000 richer this week after receiving his annual bonus from public board.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-convention-and-visitors-authority-ceo-gets-208000-bonus-six-percent-raise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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